>Good Afternoon,
>
>We have a large personnel database that we need other locations to be able to both read and write too. I'm pretty experienced with VFP 3.0 (i think atleast), but new to 5.0. So does 5.0 allow me to do this and if so, how? Does it have it's own "WEB Server"? I would rather have only the data on the WEB and let the applications reside locally if possible, however, I'll do what it takes. THANKS in ADVANCE!!
>
>
> Joel Schneider
> USAF
> crowley@earthlink.net

Perhaps the easiest method of using the net to update applications is to build a browser application that updates your database in a central location (accessible from your web server). This is surprising simple with data driven forms. I have done some of this and it does work very well. The difficulty is that web forms do not have the same kind of control and checks that you can provide with a 'normal' application. They are like the old mainframe applications that collected the data, sent it back to server, processed it and then sent the results back. I use Web Connection which provides an excellent VFP interface. The system works like this:

[1] User accesses a login screen that validates the login. If the login is valid, they can access a menu form (html). I save an access key as a cookie. This maps back to the user id in a special table and is valid for 30 minutes from the last form they requested. All html forms are send from VFP.

[2] User selects menu option and is presented with a record selection screen or with a data entry screen (html form)

[3] Form is sent to Web Server which passes data to VFP

[4] VFP validates, process and sends new form back to browser to start process over.