Bob,

Thanks for the reply. Some points:

First, I can use VFP to access the MySQL files directly no problem with MyODBC - that's part of the intermediate file solution I mentioned. In that situation, the Perl script writes a record to the MySQL file and waits for a semaphore field in the record to be set before resuming processing. The VFP app is waiting for the record to appear in the MySQL table and when it sees it, grabs it, processes some stuff, and writes the record back with the semaphore set. This all works fine. But it's also what I want to get rid of! Working with xBASE files in Perl is trivial with the DBD::XBASE module, but that ONLY works for LOCAL files NOT remote data sources.

As for Unix ODBC drivers, they will access an exposed datasource on a remote Windows box just fine - but I've only ever managed to do that to Oracle, MySQL under Windows, and MS-SQL for Windows - in other words database *servers*. The problem here is how does one expose a NON-database-server's database (e.g. VFP) to the Unix ODBC driver. I've looked and I've not been able to find any way to do this.

Let's take another, simpler example. Suppose *you* have a Win2K box with a VFP database on it (forget Unix for a minute). How can *I* specify a DSN using the VFP ODBC driver that gives me access to your d/b via an Internet connection? And NOT using a VPN. I can't figure out any way to do this. If your machine is on my local area net, it's easy using Windows domain/server/share notation to specify th VFP ODBC Driver's Data Source Path. But when all I have is your IP address I'm hooped (aren't I??).

BTW, I access SQL stuff via ODBC in Perl all the time - my knowledge of Perl per se ain't the problem.

Any further input greatly appreciated,

-Arne

>What you would need is a Unix, odbc driver, that was able to read a vfp dbf - dc.
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>In my opinion if anyone would have such a thing
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>Recital would
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>You might check out this.
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>http://www.recital.com/solutions_odbc.htm
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>Or there are some addins avail to perl, which do allow for reading dbf type files. (but what version) most likley fox base type files... which could work if your are going to create new ones anyway.
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>Just wondering why you dont have vfp write directly to the Mysql server, itself, and bypass the Dbc / dbf's alltogether. ?
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>one last thought is that codecharge.com has utilitys which write out web type scripts in perl, using odbc, from unix... It may not do what you want, but they do have a free demo, and you can look at the perl code generated and see how its done. they really have a handle on perl, and getting odbc type data using it.
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>Bob Lee
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>
>>
>>On an MS network I can easily connect to a VFP d/b on another machine using ODBC by setting up a System DSN using the VFP ODBC driver (of course I can also just open files 'directly' but that's not important here). Why can I not (or am I missing something) access a VFP database on another machine over IP? The SQL driver supports this fine of course, but then it's a server and designed for that. Is there a way to do something like:
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>>[in the VFP DSN driver config]
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>>set the DSN 'Path' to: //209.100.100.100/ShareName/VFPDBName
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>>Yes, I realize one could setup a VPN blah blah blah, but that's not what I'm asking. To distill it further, is there a way to access a VFP database on an NT box via an ODBC driver on a UNIX box over the Internet? I'm already using a solution where my unix box runs a Perl script that communicates with the VFP database via an intermediate MySQL file (which a VFP app communicates with in turn). What I'd like to do is get rid of the intermediate file -and associated processes - and have the script access the VFP d/b directly.
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>>Any thoughts?
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>>-Arne