If your forms work fine using the QBE files, why should you want to convert your QBE files to dataModules? Because you may want to update your forms to dBASE Plus OODML methods, or you may want to create reports or labels based on a dBASE Plus query. The report engine does not understand XDML methods of opening and manipulating data, and therefore does not understand the QBE file format.

To convert a Visual dBASE 5.7 QBE file to a dBASE Plus dataModule, open dBASE Plus and, using the Navigator, point to:

C:\Program Files\dBASE\Plus\Converters\RunFrom32bit

As noted elsewhere, this path may differ depending on where you installed dBASE Plus, and what language you are using.

Click the "Programs" tab and you will see the program "Qbe2dmd.prg". Double-click this file to start the converter.

In the first dialog to appear, select the folder containing your QBE files and select the file you wish to convert. Click "OK".

A new dataModule (.DMD) of the same name will be placed in the folder with the QBE file. For example, if you converted the Visual dBASE 5.7 Sample qbe "Animals.qbe", a file named "Animals.dmd" would appear in the Visualdb\Samples folder. To keep your new dBASE Plus dBL code separate from your Visual dBASE code, you should copy or move this file to the new location.

Note

If you move this file to a new location, you may need to open the .DMD file in the source editor and edit any path statements it contains. Using the Animals.dmd example mentioned above:

sql = 'select * from "C:\VISUALDB\SAMPLES\ANIMALS.DBF"'

  Will need to be changed to:

sql = 'select * from "ANIMALS.DBF"'

OR you could put the actual current path in the statement.

To edit the dataModule further, click the "Datamodule" tab in the Navigator, and then double-click it. This starts the dQuery dataModule designer.