Thanks, I'll check out Mark's download and play with CA a bit.

>Think of a CA as an OOP local/remote view replacement -- one that:
>1) doesn't require a database container ;
>2) can access data equally well natively (VFP tables) or through ODBC/ADO/XML ;
>3) gives you complete control over how data is inserted/deleted/updated ;
>4) can be subclassed/enhanced with PEM's of your choosing.
>
>This would mean that you could point a CA to a free table, SELECTing your data as necessary, with the ability to insert/update/delete that (filtered) data using your own methodology, and add some special properties and/or code at your discretion. And, since a CA is a wrapper around a *VFP CURSOR*, you can bind your grid control (or whatever controls you wish) to the values in the CA's cursor in exactly the same way you bind the values from your current local views.
>
>IMHO, while CA's aren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and have some (fairly easily overcome) limitations, they remove the need for us to use local and/or remote views EVER AGAIN (hooray!).
>
>I *strongly* suggest that you download Mark McCasland's CA Builder from the Files section and look at the way this (very excellent) tool functions. It will teach you A LOT about CA's and how they work. Pay special attention to the CursorFill() method, and the length of the string that you use to actually select the data -- there's some "gotchas" in there (that Mark handles very well).
>
>
>>As matter of fact, I've just completed installing VFP8 so no, I haven't been running 8 so I'm kind of dark as to using CursorAdapters. After your reply, however, I started reading more about this new feature but I don't know enough yet to see exactly how this will help in my situation with free tables.
>>
>>It appears to be much like ADO.NET's DataAdapter. Do you have any experience accessing free tables using CursorAdapter you would like to share? Issues regarding access speed, flexibility, extensibility, etc. would be much appreciated. Thanks.
>>
>>>Assuming that you're running on VFP 8 ... have you considered using CursorAdapters?
>>>
>>>>I have a project that needs to integrate with older SBT accounting program that uses 2.X tables. It will be a totally separate program only accessing the data used by SBT. The advise I seek is what technique I should use to access the data for both read/write.
>>>>
>>>>Since VFP3 I try exclusively to use updateable views as data access on all my forms. But since I have to access the SBT data as free tables instead of adding it in the database, I can't create updateable local views (can I?). Thus, in displaying filtered data in something like a grid my only options are to:
>>>>
>>>>1. Use "SET FILTER" which is dog slow.
>>>>2. SELECT-SQL but this creates read-only access.
>>>>
>>>>Any good solution to this problem I'm missing? TIA.