FoxPro drivers and Linking to access question

[Salad]

OS = WinXP & Win98. Access = A97 & AXP

Q1) Where can I find the VFP ODBC driver at Microsoft.

I have been working developing an app in Access that will link to some
DOS FoxPro tables.

I have been doing my development work in A97 but the folks have AXP at
their site. As near as I can tell, the FoxPro driver has been discarded
from A97 and replaced with ODBC in A2K onward

I attempted to set up an ODBC connection on my machine. When I go into
DataSources, ODBC to create a new data source, and click the VFP driver,
it tells me I must go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/downloads. I
can't find the driver. Do you have a link where I can download the
driver? I have XP OS. The folks I will be doing work for have Win98.
Q2) Can Access (XP) link to FoxPro? Can AXP also read/write to the
tables?
Q3) If AXP has the VFP driver, do you know if it gets installed with a
normal installation or if it is installed Custom or some other setup
execution?

Thanks

[Albert D. Kallal]

Yes, there has been a lot changes since a97 (that is now 4 versons old?).

Here is a post that I save some time ago..but does give some info on using
foxpro tables:

Originally posted by Cindy Winegarden Microsoft Visual FoxPro MVP:

Start with the latest ODBC driver for FoxPro and Visual FoxPro, available
from
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/do...ddons/odbc.asp

<the above seems no longer active..try the follwing <nb: Albert K>
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/do...c/default.aspx

Download and install it.
You will need to determine whether you have FoxPro "free" tables or a
"database container" (contains metadata about the tables themselves).

To do this, navigate to your data directory and look for the presence of a
DBC
file. If it's there you have a "database" otherwise you have free tables.

Now open up the ODBC dialog. In WinXP it's Start | Administrative Tools |
Data Sources (ODBC). Choose either the User DSN or the System DSN. (The
difference lies in whether you want other people to be able to see it if
they use your machine.)

Click Add... Scroll down to the Microsoft Visual FoxPro Driver. Scroll over
to verify that it's version 6.01.8629.01. Click Finish.

Now you're at the ODBC Visual FoxPr Setup dialog. In the first box (Data
Source Name) enter a friendly name that you will use to recognise this data
source - My FoxPro Data Source. You can add more text in the description
box.

Below are two options. Choose Visual FoxPro database (.DBC) or Free Table
Directory - whichever you have determined is correct.

Browse to locate your directory, or your specific DBC file.

You can click the Options button for more choices.
The defaults should be
ok. "Exclusive" refers to whether you want to have exclusive access to the
data while you're using it. "Null" allows you to enter Null values or not.
Older FoxPro tables do not allow Nulls. "Deleted" means to hide deleted
records. This one's important if you are working with primary keys - more in

a minute. "Fetch data in background" will allow you to see the first few
lines of a large tablel while the rest is being retrieved. You can also
indicate a collating sequence if you're using a non-English alphabet.

Click OK and you're done.

Now, about deleted records. When a record is deleted in a FoxPro or Visual
FoxPro table it's merely marked as deleted and filtered out, but is still
physically present in the table. If you have a unique index and you delete
the record with a key value of 123 you can not enter another record with
this value, even though you can't see the record. To get rid of records
entirely, you must issue a PACK command. However, the best rule to follow is
to not reuse primary keys.
--

[Salad]

Albert D. Kallal wrote:

Yes, there has been a lot changes since a97 (that is now 4 versons old?).

Here is a post that I save some time ago..but does give some info on using
foxpro tables:

Originally posted by Cindy Winegarden Microsoft Visual FoxPro MVP:

Start with the latest ODBC driver for FoxPro and Visual FoxPro, available
from
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/do...ddons/odbc.asp

<the above seems no longer active..try the follwing <nb: Albert K>
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/do...c/default.aspx

Download and install it.
Thanks for the link, Albert. I doubt I'd ever have found it on my own.

You will need to determine whether you have FoxPro "free" tables or a
"database container" (contains metadata about the tables themselves).
FP Dos would be free tables.

To do this, navigate to your data directory and look for the presence of a
DBC
file. If it's there you have a "database" otherwise you have free tables.
No DBC in FPD.

Now open up the ODBC dialog. In WinXP it's Start | Administrative Tools |
Data Sources (ODBC). Choose either the User DSN or the System DSN. (The
difference lies in whether you want other people to be able to see it if
they use your machine.)

Click Add... Scroll down to the Microsoft Visual FoxPro Driver. Scroll over
to verify that it's version 6.01.8629.01. Click Finish.
Gotcha. My Admin tools told me to go to mdsn but the link was funky.

+> Now you're at the ODBC Visual FoxPr Setup dialog. In the first box (Data
Source Name) enter a friendly name that you will use to recognise this data
source - My FoxPro Data Source. You can add more text in the description
box.

Below are two options. Choose Visual FoxPro database (.DBC) or Free Table
Directory - whichever you have determined is correct.

Browse to locate your directory, or your specific DBC file.

You can click the Options button for more choices.
The defaults should be
ok. "Exclusive" refers to whether you want to have exclusive access to the
data while you're using it. "Null" allows you to enter Null values or not.
Older FoxPro tables do not allow Nulls. "Deleted" means to hide deleted
records. This one's important if you are working with primary keys - more in

a minute. "Fetch data in background" will allow you to see the first few
lines of a large tablel while the rest is being retrieved. You can also
indicate a collating sequence if you're using a non-English alphabet.

Click OK and you're done.

Now, about deleted records. When a record is deleted in a FoxPro or Visual
FoxPro table it's merely marked as deleted and filtered out, but is still
physically present in the table. If you have a unique index and you delete
the record with a key value of 123 you can not enter another record with
this value, even though you can't see the record. To get rid of records
entirely, you must issue a PACK command. However, the best rule to follow is
to not reuse primary keys.

I don't think that will be a problem. I'll find out as time goes on.
If so, I'll use your post as a "reason for" if this occurs.

Thanks much for the description of how to install. You've been very
helpful.