VB from Paradox Forms and reports?

It sounds like you are basically talking about reverse engineering a paradox database. I used several tools on data-warehousing projects to reverse engineer databases. These tools, such were made by logic works and powerbuilder and read ODBC compliant databases. I couldn’t find a tool to read paradox files. Most tools seem to focus on reading the data model for the databases. I wrote something that accomplished the same goal.

I used the paradox enum methods to create a database of all of the table structures by database name. We had over 50 paradox databases. Once you have the table and field lists you can create default forms in access.

For paradox for dos version 4.5 you can write a program to parse the table and field lists from the form and report files. These files have extensions such as .f* and .r*. Then you can use the field list from the forms and reports to create the access forms and reports. We have over 80,000 paradox files to convert using this method so I am writing a program that will process the data dictionary and parse the paradox files and then generate the databases and forms in access. The program I am writing also takes out characters such as _, -, #, @, $, ., /, to make the database ODBC compliant.

I am now working on a table of equivalents to convert the 4500 paradox queries that we have to SQL. Let me know if you need to do this.

http://www.inthisworld.com/datacentriks/exchangev2.htm

Follow the link above for a visual. I hope you can wait for the images because there are over 50. I'll try to post the code soon.

As you can see, all you have to do is use the enum commands to create a database of all of the table structures. Use some scripts to make the table structures odbc compliant. You’ll also need some scripts to create the tables and import the data from your development or production databases. You can also convert the paradox scripts by separating the scripts up between queries and pal. You can convert the queries to sql using a table of equivalents. You can also read the table name and fields lists from the forms and reports to create default forms in access. Since we have over 80,000 files to convert it seems like a worthwhile project. If you store the whole thing in an object database you can create an object model.

Tom,
 I tried the link but all the pictures where 'broken'.  I have an ADSL connection that tested at over 700KB so it is not a speed problem.  I'll check back tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to seeing the code.  It sounds like you have a solution for me.

Frank