[Gloucs] Is this possible?

[Gareth Bromley]

On Mon, 27 Oct 2003, Charlie Markwick wrote:
> I have the following problem I want to solve does anyone have any ideas?
> Visual FoxPro application running on a Netware 5.1 server and on the same
> LAN Linux running MySQL I need to access the data held in the FoxPro tables
> in real-time by MySQL.
I think a number of options exist, however it really depends on your
definition of 'real-time'. Is this really real-time or some variant of? Is
the database still in use and actively being updated?

Assumption - Data is still be input into FoxPro

You need some 'glue' to link MySQL and FoxPro together and display the
results. From mem Perl DBD/DBI might include DBF or IDF file interfaces
however you'll have to mount the netware server on the linux box, but at
least you can use DBD/DBI to talk to MySQL as well.
Alternatively solutions do exist (Xbase - Perl) that also does above but
maybe not in such a nice interface)

You could try looking for JDBC drivers for Foxpro, however I suspect that
might be a lost cause but if you manage it then MySQL and Foxpro could
again be linked, if you can get Linux mounting the FoxPro files from
Netware.

Either way this aint going to be pretty.

Assumption - Data static in FoxPro

This really is the best solution, write a Access/Delphi/Java/... app that
interfaces to Foxpro (best done in the windows world I guess :( ) and then
use MyODBC to talk to the MySQL server to export FoxPro data into MySQL.

Obvious downsides are going to be:
- Need to write exporter
- Need to possible rewrite/retrain userbase to use new data
tools/interfaces.

I remember doing something similar a few years back with Access to MySQL
and it was a painful process, especially as lots of users had written
Excel/Access 'apps' to the old data which needed porting to use MySQL
(back then MyODBC was a painful experience)

Best of luck

Gareth