Accessing VFP 6 database from Pocket PC 5

[alan232]

Hi!

I am being forced to place simple data entry forms onto a PDA. (No advertising intended here, I'm just trying to be specific). I am using a PDA running Microsoft's Mobile OS, second edition with a full VGA screen and 132Meg ram. My current setup (which has worked extremely well for years) is that of VFP 6 running on all my desktop machines (4 to 5 machines) with all the machines using a single database located on one of the machines. In reviewing the technical notes, Microsoft has clearly designated the visual studio .net development environment as the working development environment for the Mobile OS and this seems to clearly need Visual Basic .Net or C# as the programing language. Further, it appears that this frontend eventually has to go through Microsoft SQL server. It seems that if I go this route I will have to learn another language (or two) and have to re-write my Foxpro code to access SQL server instead of the simplier method I currently use. (This would be a lot of rewriting).

Visual Foxpro already has a good development environment, is it possible to directly compile code for the Mobile OS (using views ofcourse)? Cost is not an issue, time is.

If this can't be done, please tell me, or if it can, how do I do it?

A Sincere thanks for all your help!
Alan

 

[GriffMG]

I don't think anyone has claimed to be able to get VFP working directly on a PDA and Mobile OS, at least none I can find on the net!

But, the Mobile OS does support terminal services - so you could probably get it working pretty quickly that way.

Meantime, if people can get VFP 6 running on Unix/Linux - there must be someone running it on a Win-CE/Mobile OS machine somewhere!


Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

 

[StewartUK]

Alan,

If you can get hold of it, the December edition of FoxPro Advisor has an article entitled "Integrate Pocket PC and Visual FoxPro".

I haven't read it myself, as it's not part of my work, so I can't vouch for it's worth, but I imagine it would be worth reading.


Hope that helps,

Stewart
PS If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.

 

[GriffMG]

Following on from my previous comment... I have found someone who claims to be able to run Windows 95 on a PPC - so it must be out there:

http://www.pocketgamer.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3660

Worth looking for? or a waste of time?

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

 

[wgcs]

While you say that MS pushes toward SQL Server for any app on a PDA.. that's somewhat true, but not exactly.

A SQL Server-compatible DBMS (SQLCE) is already installed on every PocketPC (Windows CE v1.01+) and available to any app running on it... and to any desktop program running on a computer which has the ActiveSync software running (see faq184-3789 )

I explored this a little, and was able to access a PocketPC's database rather easily from within VFP using these APIs:
CeCreateDatabase
CeOpenDatabase
CeDeleteDatabase
CeSeekDatabase
CeReadRecordPropsEx
CeWriteRecordProps
CeDeleteRecord
CeCopyFile


See also:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...n-us/wceobjst/html/cecondatabasefunctions.asp

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnppc2k2/html/dataaccessstrategy.asp

- Bill

Get the best answers to your questions -- See FAQ481-4875.

 

[alan232]

Hi Everybody,

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! While I had thought that I could go with an html based form on the pda, terminal emulation did not occur to me. Finding the article in foxpro adviser seems to be a difficult matter. Does RAPI.DLL only stay resident with ActiveSync? Can ActiveSync be made to work wirelessly?

In any event, I still need to solve the problem of form creation on the Pocket PC...is visual basic .net my only possiblity?

As an aside, Microsoft provides an SDK for the Mobile OS for visual studio . net, it seems to reason that vfp, also being a member of the visual studio family, should be able ??? to use it???

A Very sincere thanks for everybody's input/effort!
Alan

 

[rgbean]

Alan,
While VFP was a part of Visual Studio 97 and VS 6.0 (VFP 5.0 and 6.0 respectively), it has never been a part of VS.NET.

You have a choice between VB.NET and C#.NET for developing .NET apps for Smart Devices (MS speak for Pocket PCs, Phones and CE platforms).

Rick

 

[alvechurchdata]

Finding the article in foxpro adviser seems to be a difficult matter.

It's page 16 of the December issue. Tells you how to control a Pocket PC from VFP and read records from a database on the Pocket PC.

Geoff Franklin

http://www.alvechurchdata.co.uk

 

[rgbean]

Hum, I just received my November issue yesterday - how do I get December? (Yes I'm in the US - Lansing MI!)

Rick

 

[alan232]

Unfortunately, I don't have a subscription to foxpro adviser--and in my current life, I program out of necessity (and will learn whatever it takes to get the job done), so I am unlikely to purchase a year subscription to it. But I would like to buy this one magazine/article if that is possible.

Thanks, again
Alan

 

[alan232]

Hi Everybody:

After an extensive search, I guess I am resigned to using visual basic .net or C# (which one??) on the front end. So my last question (for now) is this: Can I/How do I use visual foxpro as my data "server" for visual basic .net? (All I'm doing currently is assigning the same DBC to each foxpro machine). If I can still use my current foxpro DBC, then, at least, I would not have to rewrite my foxpro code (and I would rather not have to deal with Microsoft's SQL server--$$,time,ignorance...)

 

[alan232]

Hi again:

(I sent the last message too soon). One last thought, can visual foxpro itself be used as a Web Server? Obviously, if it can, then rather then visual basic .net, what I would really need to concentrate on is a good set of Web (i.e., HTML) forms.

Looking forward to your replies!
Sincerely,
Alan