Hi Gary

That's it! That's what I'm trying to achieve. I have, thankfully, already taken a similar path to you, with the form referencing the currently focused container's data-object.

I haven't yet starting looking at pulling out the direct controlsource references yet, one step at a time eh.

Thanks
Kev

>Hi Kev,
>I do something a little like I *think* you are describing. I create data broker classes for passing data to/from the presentation layer to SQL Server. I have a defined object that I add to the container, be it a single form, pages of a page frame, etc. When a particular container instantiates or gets focus, I set the form level oDataBroker object variable to the one on the container. I do this because I use a variant of the Codebook framework and then all the Save, Edit, etc work on the active container, but the principle is the same without using Codebook. After I started seeing a common pattern for all my forms, I threw together a code generator that I use to create the class. Basically, I drag fields on to the container from a remote view, select everything and call the class generator. It creates almost everything I need to pass data back and forth to the back end, removing the controlsource from the field in the process since I’m using SPT exclusively for the moment. Also, this
>class can be compiled as a COM object and be completely separated from the presentation layer. I've done this for C++ and VB front ends as well as browser based forms.
>
>Gary
>
>
>>Hi
>>
>>I have a large, complex app, and I want to start breaking the code up a bit into a more 3-tier style.
>>
>>One of my first objectives it to extract any data-handling from the GUI into custom objects, the only thing that is getting me is where to plonk these data-objects.
>>
>>For example, most of the forms have buttons down the left hand-side that each call up a different container that contains the screen fields.
>>
>>Each container may relate to a different data-object, so where should I house these data-objects? and what would be the best way to ensure that the form is accessing the right object for the container that is currently displayed?
>>
>>Thanks
>>Kev