Access 2003 link to VFP 6.0 Free Table

[SBA]

I was able to create an ODBC link in Access 2003 to my VFP 6.0 Free Table. My
question is, know that I have the tables linked, if I make any changes to the
Access table will the changes also be made to the VFP table since they are
linked ?

For example, if I delete a record in the Access table, will that record also
be deleted in the VFP 6.0 Free Table?

I will eventually be linking to our company's live VFP file. All I'm looking
to do is simply refresh my Access table, run my queries so I can generate
reports. But I want to make sure before I go live, if I need to be aware of
any damage that I may unintentionally do to the live VFP file.

Better safe then sorry.

 

[Albert D. Kallal]

I was able to create an ODBC link in Access 2003 to my VFP 6.0 Free Table.
My
question is, know that I have the tables linked, if I make any changes to
the
Access table will the changes also be made to the VFP table since they are
linked ?

Well, I suppsoe you could test this?...but, yes, to answer your question,
the normal case for linked tables
is that you are modifying the data.

This sititiaton does not change when you have a split ms-access database
with linked tables to a mdb back end, or the back end data is Oracle, Sql
server, or in your case VFP....

The major areas of concern when you modify data directly that resides in
another application, is that you failed to update some values, or indexes,
or some other things that you need.

For example there are a good number of MS access based accounting systems in
the marketplace (in fact simply accounting uses mdb files, they just change
the extension to fool you). The problem is you'd have to pay me a big amount
of money to try and go in and actually update those simply accounting
tables. The issue isn't can you modify a table, the issue is that you don't
know which of the other 120 tables that you'll also need modify correctly to
keep the application operating correctly. The only way you're going to
know what tables to modified and update correctly is if you have intimate
knowledge of the files, code and layout of the other application.

 

[SBA]

Thank you Albert. I understand the concerns and this is the major reason that
I may abandon this option.

Is there a way to password protect my linked table in Access so no one
accidently crashes the system?

Your thoughts welcomed.