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A large system has already been done in visual fox pro. They want to add more requirements to a module and make some changes to the system.At the same time they are thinking about migration to .net. Some parts like report generation has been done in .net using visual fox pro database and loaded in vfp.

Is it a good idea to start migrating database as well? I mean is it good to create database (and tables) for the module for new requirements and changes?

I think this will cause problem and difficulty to maintain the software.

How is the process of data migration initiated? Should it be done gradually (partly in visual fox pro and partly in sql) or should it be done all at a time?

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Anyone has solution for this please? – arjun Feb 27 '12 at 11:32
Your question would be a better one if we knew what your goals were. Are you after better maintainability? Higher performance? Software that's easier to use? Why are you even migrating to .NET; is it even necessary? – Robert Harvey Feb 28 '12 at 6:00

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It Depends.

If your VFP systems is written in such a way that it’s easy to swap out Backends than absolutely YES. But that fact that you are asking this question leads me to think that it’s not.

Here are some of my though on your situation:

  • If you were to change the entire back end, most likely you are going to have to modify so much of your existing VFP code base that that you may as well rewrite the whole App in .Net.

  • All new .Net Code Should be written in such a way that it’s easy to change the backend from VFP to SQL Server (Or whatever your favorite Db is)

  • Check your current File Sizes! VFP has a 2GB limit on ALL file sizes. (DBFs, CDX, FTP ext)

  • Milk your VFP systems for as long as you can, particularly if it works well. But keep in mind that the it is a retired language, there will NEVER be a VFP 10 and it will NEVER be 64bit
  • VFP connects to SQL server Nicely, It may not be a bad idea to create new tables in SQL server, or archive data to it. Look into Remote Views and SQL Pass though
  • Querying data between 2 tables One on SQL Server and One in VFP is very slow, and most likely a bad idea. (Not the contradiction between this and the bullet above :-)

There is no universal answer to your question, you know your system and it’s your call.

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Ok. what about the front end? Is it possible to run .net forms in vfp? If i create forms (for new requirement) in .net how can i use the new features for time being in vfp until the system is completely migrated to .net. Or does the concept of interoperability and migration mean using only core classes (using com object) between .net and vfp. – arjun Feb 28 '12 at 11:23
you can call .net code from vfp see devx.com/codemag/Article/22404 – Morons Feb 29 '12 at 0:53

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