Things work best when you use relative directories for everything. For example, if you have a DATA folder under your distribution directory on both your machine and your client's machine, then VFP will be able to find the data. Once you put that DATA folder somewhere else, VFP must use absolute pathing to find the data, and that doesn't translate well when you move to another machine.

To see what I mean, USE the SCX for a form and find a record where the ObjectName is "Cursor1" or "Cursor2" or something similar. Then go to the properties field and look at the "CursorSource" property. If you use a relative directory, you'll see the path specified as a relative directory. If the path is an absolute path, then you're in trouble.


>Hi,
>
>I was just wondering about something. I've built an application, which I want to distribute to a client with VFP on his machine. In the past, I would build a new folder for the distribution, and add the data subfolder and configuration file to that distribution folder. When I built my exe, I would save it to my development folder, and then copy it into the new distribution folder. Everything works fine when I follow that procedure. When I run the exe, the application references/uses the dbc and dbf files located in the data subfolder of the distribution folder (as it should).
>
>However, when I build an executable and instruct the builder to save the exe directly into the new distribution folder, the application (exe) references the data folder located in my original development directory, rather than the data folder in the new distribution folder. If I copy the distribution folder to another location on my hard drive, the application becomes even more confused and cannot locate the dbc at all. In fact, it starts looking for the dbc in the top level distribution folder, rather than in the data subfolder.
>
>Again, I have no problems when I direct the exe builder to save the new exe to the original development directory, and then copy the exe to my distribution folder. When I do that, I can even change the location of the distribution folder, and there are no problems. The exe always knows where the correct data subfolder is located. However, I run into those above problems when I don't create the build in my original development directory. Is this normal? If so, why this behavior?
>
>Dave