Conferences - GLGDW 2006

The scoop on the 2006 Great Lakes Great Database Workshop.

Best Practices for Data Access (2 sessions) - Speaker: Andy Kramek

Working with VFP means working with data and in order to be able to work with data you have to be able to get it in a form that is meaningful in the context of the application. So no matter how good, or bad, your Database or User Interface design may be, at the end of the day it all comes down to how you access and manage your data. In two sessions, Andy explores the issues.

The first session focuses on the issues surrounding the use of VFP Tables, while the second session looks at the issues of using a remote data store (using SQL Server 2000 as the example) and addresses the issues of working with a remote data store.

Topics include:

Working with Local VFP Data:

To DBC or Not To DBC? Features Advantages and Benefits of VFP Tables and the DBC

Keys and Indexes: Surrogate vs Natural keys, Index on DELETED(), Indexing tables for performance

Update strategies, for single record and block updates, SQL vs xBase Buffering and Transactions, when and how to use buffering, managing multiple table buffering (i.e. Transactions)

Using SQL with VFP Data (Correlated/Uncorrelated Queries, Derived Tables and Computed Columns)

Working with Remote Data:

Connecting to a Database (ODC vs OLEDB)

Connection management (DSN or Connection Strings or VFP Connection Objects)

Data Access Components (Remote Views, CursorAdapters or SQL PassThrough)

Querying and Updating Data

SQL Triggers and Stored Procedures

The defining characteristic of these sessions is that they will present those things that, in Andy’s experience, have proven themselves to be the “best” although, of course, this does not mean that they are the only way of handling the issues. Wherever possible Andy will cover alternatives, and explain why the given solution is the “best practice”.