Bryan:

>Thanks for the uplifting news about Codemine. I actually ordered it Saturday, but it hasn't arrived yet.

Good choice <s>.

>I tried taking a look at VFE, downloaded it's help file and it's tutorial, and to be honest, most of it seemed to be over my head at this point. I've never worked with a server backend, and never built a business rule middle tier before.

Well, with Codemine 6.1 which I suspect is what will be shipped, you can stay fairly close to the native VFP type approach initially, if you want to. By this, I mean you can use a form's data environment and just USE tables. Obviously, you can use local and remote views too, but that adds an extra layer for you to understand. The Codemine DataManager is superb. Add tables/views to the form's DE and establish relationships in the DE if you have not done so at the DBC level (database container). The Codemine datamanager will manage all relationships and cursors. When you add the Codemine controls to a form, they sync in with the datamanager beautifully. Then, its a breeze to add, update and delete records (in related child cursors too irrespective of the complexity of the relationships at the various levels Parent/Child/GrandChild etc). You can set simple properties to establish parent/child record behaviours eg., whether child records get deleted with their parent. There is an Afternew event so, if you add a child record, the child record will/(can if you like) automatically receive the PK (primary key) value of its parent and, in the same event you can assign values like the child record's PK and other values. It amazes me how easy it is to create applications with Codemine.

>One of my concerns with Codemine right now is with support. Do you know of a newsgroup, or any other online area that can help with support for Codemine?

I have badgered Dave about an online forum and it will come someday <s>. However, the Codemine promise is free e-mail technical support. So, I would recommend you field your questions to SoftClassics. They do provide the support they promise. Don't be frightened of using it.

If I could recommend a couple of things. Read the manual at least once. Before you dive in on your own application, work through the tutorial in the manual. Type in every line yourself too. The tutorial is fairly simple but it gets the Codemine point across. If you spend time on it, it will pay big divideds. Also, the code for the sample app is provided in the package so, reference to the code behind the sample application will pay big dividends too.

>Any chance we can get a Codemine group started on UT?

Maybe, but I don't think there are too many Codemine users up here. However, with e-mail support from SoftClassics and I will gladly help you where I can, you will be up and running in no time.

Best

-Gary