On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 10:29 AM, Kenneth Kixmoeller <ken.kixmoel...@information-architecture.com> wrote: > << Warning! Warning!! Microsoft rant ahead! >> > << All who rail about M$ bashing delete this message NOW! >> > << You have been warned. >> > > It happened again. > > Last year, I got a nice little data conversion project which fits one > of my other specialties: publishing with InDesign. So I thunk: what > the heck, just a bunch of text manipulation, why not use the Fox? I > can knock this out fast, Fox will do it well, the client is married > to M$, so no cross-platform issues, etc. > > So I do it. Had a bit of problem with the XML, none of the native > tools seemed to like the files, and hand-parsing it would blow the > budget out of the water. No schema available. So I thought: their Web > firm is pure M$ tools, so I wonder if I can expedite the conversion > with a little two-step? > > I open the XML in Excel, and it converts absolutely flawlessly. Cool. > Quick little automation script, save the converted data as a DBF, and > on with the conversion to InDesign.... > > Worked great. Fast. My InDesign skills saved the client *lots* of > design time. Client was pleased. All was right with the world. > > Fast forward one year -- this is an annual process. (Hear the ominous > music?) The client runs my conversion utility. "It's broken." %^%* > She reports a really weird-sounding error, so I ask her to send me a > screen shot of it. She does so in a Word document, and I see the DOCX > extension. I get this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Yes, > they had been persuaded to "upgrade" to Orifice 2007. > > Fast forward: Excel 2007 no longer will create a DBF. > > Now I know I can save it as a CSV and append it into existing > structures. Or maybe I can do something better with the XML bypassing > the automation. Whatever. I can still make it work. But the point is > that M$ changed the rules again. Makes me look like an idiot, and > will cost my client unnecessary $$. ----------------------------------------------------- Why not ask those M$ guys why they didn't offer to help you with this:
I bet you could write a real quick reader of the xml to a dataset and then write that dataset's table to a VFP dbf. Maybe an hour to do it. Maybe a few hours if your doing conversion along the way. -- Stephen Russell Sr. Production Systems Programmer Web and Windows Development Independent Contractor Memphis TN 901.246-0159 _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/c4313dbe0904141128g2873688ve7f314b3ce604...@mail.gmail.com ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
