>The backend will be a Novell server having a bunch of DBFs. I will use a
>NT to NT connection drive and the backend NT will map a drive to the
>Novell server directory where the DBFs are located. That map drive will
>then be shared by the backend NT so I can access it from here.
>
>There is no Oracle or Sybase at the end. Will I still be able to use what
>you said to access my data?

Think of views as 'interfaces' (in the Java/OCX/object-oriented sense). In this case, you can use either a local view to a .DBF or remote view to a SQL database, and your code (if written correctly) should work with either. Ergo, you can upgrade to a SQL database anytime and all you have to do is change your local views to remote views (this is what we did a couple of months ago). Great payoff.

Another nice thing about views is that they enforce a certain kind of discipline. Views can be read-only because of their nature (complex SQL SELECTs with JOINs), or because you defined them to be. Also, when working with views, you only have access to the fields that the view 'exposes'. So you're forced to make your code cleaner, and you get a certain measure of security that you don't have when working with underlying tables directly.

Again, just my 2c. :)