>Good Morning Bill,
ya ya - Greetings and Hallucinations - welcome to Wednesday.
>
>OK, you've given me hope and I hope that's a good thing! I guess where I get hung up is at the beginning of the whole ODBC concept as it relates to tables that aren't MINE...(from the VFP help file, with my notes)
>
>ConnectionName
>Specifies the name of the connection to create. (anything I want to call it, right?)
RIGHT
>
>?
>Displays the Connection Designer from which you can create and save a connection. (If you don't do this with code)
>
>DATASOURCE cDataSourceName
>Specifies the name of the ODBC data source for the connection. (name of the table I want to use?)
NOPE - not really.
if you utilize a DSN with the OS odbc manager - you will need to give it the DSN name [that you created] here. Usually a DSN will point to a database
and not just ONE table.. again - usually. in your control panel for your OS - there is an odbc manager. Find it - and dink around with , for example, creating a new System DSN for that Pervasive database. You'll need the odbc drivers properly installed, of course. You can think of a system DSN as a wrapper for a collection of odbc driver files specific to a particular database type. That collection is different for each database type [MS-SQL, mySql, Sybase, Oracle, Pervasive, etc etc] BUT? a system DSN is something you, Martha, have to create.
>ID cUserID
>Specifies your user identification for the ODBC data source. (HERE is where I get lost...where to I get this??? I've made pleas to DBA, customer and tech support. I assume they're not too interested in our problem as I've received no response.)
OK - try firstly a normal 'user' username and password - just to see if you can get in that way. There has to be some admin user name and password as well - typically chase after the one used for the tape backup system.

>PASSWORD cPassWord
>Specifies your password for the ODBC data source. (And ALSO this?)
yes - also this.
>DATABASE cDatabaseName
>Specifies a database on the server to which the connection is made. (Database the table resides in?)
ya - this will be the name of the database - but ? not sure how to *FIND* the 'name' of the database here.
>CONNSTRING cConnectionString
>Specifies a connection string for the ODBC data source. The connection string can be used instead of explicitly including the ODBC data source, the user identification, and the password. (Instead of supplying the above information, call upon an existing connection string?

this is optional - some people prefer to use connection strings VS DSN's - at this point its solely your choice - you'll need to choose which way you want to make the connection handle to the back end database.

>Because I'm using someone else's files, I don't know how I can get access to them (user id and password). Am I overthinking this or trying to make it too simple? Do you know what I mean?

Surely someone will give you SOME username and password ? It's a starting
point, and maybe not give you all the access to all of the table space you need - but it should be a start.

>Thanks for all your help. I was about to give up on this, but have since decided this is well worth learning.
>
Client/Server apps are mondo cool with VFP . If you need real time direction - give me a phone call sometime today [click my username in this message].
>Martha :)
mondo regards [Bill]