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The following is designed to help you convert an existing application to Visual dBASE 5.7, and is not a programming guide for the language. Most of what you read here concerns how to convert your screens, reports and labels to Visual dBASE 5.7. If you have other questions, please check the online help for Visual dBASE 5.7, as well as the Knowledgebase for dBASE Plus (which includes a Visual dBASE 5.7 section).

Suggested Steps

An application, the "Component Builder", is provided with Visual dBASE 5.7 which can be used to convert some of your code directly from DOS code to Windows code. Create a folder to use for the new code as well as copies of your tables. Make sure you copy all .DBF, .MDX, and .DBT files.

Start Visual dBASE 5.7. Click the “Current Directory” folder in the Navigator window and select the folder you will use to store the Windows version of your application.

Most applications are quite diverse, however the following steps assume a relatively basic application. When converting your DOS application to Windows you need to do the following:

  1. Create or Convert your Menus

  2. Convert your Screens to Visual dBASE Forms

  3. Fine tune the forms

  4. Convert your Report and/or Label files to Crystal Reports

  5. Fine tune the reports and/or labels

  6. Create any queries necessary for your reports or labels

  7. Create any code needed to communicate with your forms, reports, and labels (i.e. working with ACCEPT and IINPUT)

  8. Modify the menu so it calls the appropriate programs.

Note

It may be possible to run your code in Visual dBASE 5.7 without doing a conversion, but doing so will cause it to look like a DOS Screen, not a Windows application.