>Well, that might work, except that I'm not sure I'm going to be
>able to use a database, which might make all this really difficult.
You store the views in the database. The tables don't need to be included in the same database; you can keep them as free tables - as you must, if you want to keep the 2.x format.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)