Re: Q:MCL,FoxPro,and AppleScript: can they cooperate?

[lawa@bbsrc.ac.uk (Andy Law (Big Nose))]

In article <schmitt.777849542@tartarus>, schmitt@tartarus.uchicago.edu
(Kathryn Schmitt) wrote:

> I'd like to write an application in MCL that makes use of data coming from
> a FoxPro database.  I was planning on using Applescript to allow MCL to
> send an SQL query to FoxPro, have FoxPro run the query, and then send the 
> results back to MCL.  This is proving much more difficult than I anticipated.
> For one thing, although FoxPro 2.5 claims to be AppleScriptable, this is only
> in the very weakest sense of the term (as far as I can tell).  It would be
> nice for AppleScript to be able to refer to FoxPro objects, but this is not
> possible.  It looks as if I can have MCL write a file with an SQL query in
> it, and then FoxPro can run it and print the results to another file, which
> MCL can then read.  Yuck!  Is the way it has to be done?!?
> 
> Has anyone tried anything like this?  Should I be looking into other Mac
> database products?  Any feedback appreciated!
> 

I've been developing a database that tries to do a similar thing, namely
get FoxPro to pass out some record specific information to be used by an
external app. The only solution I have found that works is to use two
scripts. The first one just returns the location of the Temporary Items
Folder. FoxPro then uses that to write a file with the information in. The
second script then communicates with the other app using the information
in the temporary file. This is the only robust way of ensuring that FoxPro
writes the information somewhere I can find it every time.

Since I am only interested in one specific piece of information per record
and only deal with one record at a time, my longer term solution is to
write an XCMD that will generate the AppleEvents for me (since Foxpro
allows you to pass information to an XCMD.

I would be interested to know what Microsoft's intentions were with regard
to Applescript support for FP3.0 (but I haven't got 2.6 yet so I guess
we'll have to wait a bit)

Andy Law

( Lawa @ bbsrc.ac.uk                     Big Nose in Edinburgh )