Foxpro Migration To Linux Guide

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FoxPro Migration To Linux Guide

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In this article Chris Mavin talks you through migrating your FoxPro system to Linux.

Chris Mavin
June 1st, 2008

Overview

Running your Foxpro system on Linux isn't impossible, migrating your FoxPro application to Linux is extremely simple if you use the right tools. In this article I will show you exactly how easy it is, using Recital Terminal Developer 9 (RTD) and other tools which are included within this product.

The first step is to copy your existing FoxPro system to the Linux server using your preferred method be that removable media or over a network using ftp or sftp.

The second step is to convert the FoxPro binary files into Recital format and to alter the line feed character of ASCII files to the correct format for the new host platform. This is done very simply using the DBCONVERT utility included with RTD, which is run from the Operating System prompt.

RTD provides Replaceable Database Drivers (RDDs) one of which is for FoxPro. What this means is, if you wish you can continue to use and create data and index files in FoxPro format, but we recommend that you convert your data and indexes to the Recital format for increased system performance.

The DBCONVERT utility is run using the following syntax:

$ dbconvert <filetype> [<filename>]

ASCII format files can be used without conversion, but the conversion will correct the line feed format of the file to that of the new host platform.

The file types are as follows:

File Type	Description
ALL	All convertible files in the current directory
DBF	Tables and Memos
FMT	Screen Format files
FRX	FoxPro Report Format files
MEM	Memory files
PRG	Program files
TXT	Text files
FRM	Report Format files

To convert all convertible files in the current directory the following command and syntax:

$ dbconvert ALL

RTD will make a backup copy of the pre-converted files and rename them with a o_ prefixing the extension.

The renamed extensions are as follows:

File	File Extension	Renamed extension
table	dbf	o_dbf
program	prg	o_prg
format	fmt	o_fmt
memory	mem	o_mem
report	frm	o_frm
report	frx	o_frx
text	txt	o_txt

The next step is to launch Recital Terminal Developer 9, so from the prompt type the following and press enter:

$ db

The first time you fire up RTD you are greeted with a setup screen which allows you to select your xBase dialect, in this case select FoxPro for your language and Recital for your database. This will set up RTD to be compatible with FoxPro syntax and set it to use the Recital table format.

Click image to display full size.

Fig 1: Recital Terminal Developer: xBase compatibility dialog.

The FoxPro to Linux file migration is now complete, just run your FoxPro application using the DO command followed by your start source program name.

> DO <source filename>

Conclusion

As you can see the process of migrating your FoxPro system to Linux is a very rapid and painless one. Not only can you simply reuse your existing code without changes you can utilize the more powerful and extended Recital 4GL.

RTD includes features such as integrated XML support providing Microsoft ADO.NET XML data import and export, and connectivity to relational and non-relational data sources, transaction systems, and legacy applications through native drivers across all major computing platforms.

A Recital Support and Maintainance contract provides piece of mind of having excellent world wide support personel to provide phone/email support, updates and bug fixes.

If you want to know more about Recital Terminal Developer 9 Click Here.

To download a trial of RTD please Click Here and register.