Planning Client/Server Applications

Microsoft® Visual FoxPro® provides you with the tools to create powerful client/server applications. A Visual FoxPro client/server application combines the power, speed, graphical user interface and sophisticated querying, reporting, and processing of Visual FoxPro with the seamless multiuser access, massive data storage, built-in security, robust transaction processing, logging, and native server syntax of an ODBC data source or server. The synergy of Visual FoxPro and server strengths provides a powerful client/server solution for your users.

The most important step in building a successful client/server application is creating a good design. When you design a client/server application, you're balancing several sets of requirements. You want to build the fastest, most productive application for your users. You also want to ensure the integrity of application data, make the most of existing hardware investments, and build in scalability for the future. In addition, as a Visual FoxPro developer, you want to make the development process as streamlined and cost-efficient as possible.

In This Section

• Optimizing Client/Server Performance
  Building a fast, high-performance client/server application with Microsoft® Visual FoxPro® involves taking advantage of the tremendous speed of the Visual FoxPro engine.

• Performance Enhancement through Set-Based Data Access
  Explains how you can build a fast, efficient client/server application by minimizing the amount of data you pull down from the server.

• Data Location on the Optimal Platform
  Learn how to get maximum performance by storing data and other attributes of your database on the optimal platform.

Related Sections

• Developing Visual FoxPro Applications
  This section includes conceptual information about how to develop Visual FoxPro applications, instructions for creating databases and the user interface, and other tasks needed to create Visual FoxPro applications.

• Application Architecture
  Learn how Visual FoxPro application architecture varies with the type of application you decide to create.

• Rapid Application Development
  Describes the fundamental steps in application development, prototyping, upsizing, implementing, and optimizing.

• Application Creation with Accuracy and Data Integrity
  Learn how to use Visual FoxPro data validation rules and stored procedures with the data source's data validation rules and stored procedures to build client/server applications that protect data integrity.

• Planning Enterprise Applications
  Explains how you can use Visual FoxPro as part of a larger-scale application that involves two or more development tools, which makes is possible for you to take advantage of the unique capabilities of each product.