I have VFP 7 SP1 and both CR 8.5 and CR 9 installed on my system. I've been working since February on an app to a very patient client. Everything is ready Now nearly everything is ready for use except the reporting.

VFP's decrepit reporting is not up to presenting decent reports. Main problem is it can't handle subreports and subreports are vital to this app.

Since last spring I've spent hundreds of hours (really!) and over $1000 trying to get Crystal Reports to work with VFP 7. I'm not a novice, I've been a professional developer since the late 60's and used Fox since FoxBase+ and used R&R before buying Crystal.

UFL's work using the 8.0 version of U2LCOM.DLL, but not with any current version for either CR 8.5 or CR 9. I have to replace the current version of this DLL with the old one or neither the report designer nor the RDC see my UFL library. Crystal says it's a problem with VFP's COM libraries, but can't help me since they don't support VFP. (I don't buy this because it worked fine until I applied the August patches to CR 8.5 and still works fine if I re-install the base 8.5 DLL.)

I switched from ODBC to OLEDB when I discovered MS had announced they would no longer support ODBC and we should all be using OLEDB. Then I had flakey problems w/ OLEDB in CR 8.5 (added to the problems with UFL's), so I paid for the subscription and upgraded to 9. With 9.0, I can't convert any of my reports to CR 9. CR 9 (with the current updates or without) gets blown out of the water when I try to preview the report or open the Database Expert to fix the OLEDB connection. I either get a report sent to MS followed by an exit or the program simply closes without a word. I tried converting back to ODBC in CR 8.5, then opening the reports in CR 9, then converting to OLEDB, but that didn't work either. Crystal says it must be a problem with VFP OLEDB (which they don't support) and, judging by the KB, MS thinks there aren't any problems with the VFP OLEDB provider since SP1 was released. I'ld leave it in ODBC (there are only 5 workstations), but I don't want to find ODBC broken next year by some new OS or system patch and have their app screwed.

My first question is: Has anybody gotten UFLs working at all with a currently updated CR 8.5 or CR 9.

My second question: Has anybody upgraded a CR 8.5 report to CR 9 with OLEDB?

Third: How? (Either or both!)

Forth: Is it time to dump VFP in favor of Visual Basic or Access, which ARE truely supported by MS, Crystal and other vendors? (Perhaps that is better left to another thread in case somebody can help with my more immediate issues here.)

Any help would be appreciated. At this point I'm effectively working for about $5/hr on this project, my client is getting impatient and my blood pressure is getting a bit high.