Interaction with Other Applications

With Visual FoxPro you can share data with other applications such as Microsoft Excel and Word, use objects from other applications, and control other applications using Automation.

Sharing Data with Other Applications

You can take advantage of all the software tools on your desktop with Visual FoxPro.

Use Your FoxPro Data in Other Applications   Sharing data with other applications is easy – for example, you can share Visual FoxPro data with Microsoft Excel by using the PivotTable Wizard, or with Microsoft Word by using the Mail Merge Wizard.

Display or Store Objects from Other Applications   You can include objects from another application by linking or embedding them in tables or in forms. Then you can edit the objects directly, without leaving Visual FoxPro.

Editing included objects is easy in Visual FoxPro.

Importing and Exporting Data

You can import and export data between Visual FoxPro and many other applications using a variety of file formats: text, spreadsheets, and tables, to name a few. The data can be appended to or copied from existing tables easily. The Import Wizard helps you make decisions about the structure you want the data to take in Visual FoxPro.

For more information, see Importing and Exporting Data.

Integrating with Automation

With Visual FoxPro you have the power to fully integrate your application with other applications.

Control Other Applications   You can extend the power of your application by controlling other applications programmatically. For example, you can direct Microsoft Excel to perform some calculations, instruct Microsoft Graph to chart the results, and then store the chart in a General field of a Visual FoxPro table, all from Visual FoxPro code. Or, you can add ActiveX controls that you or someone else developed.

Optimize Automation Requests   You can determine how much time your system uses for requests and how long it takes for messages to appear for your user. For example, you can control how much time your system spends retrying Automation requests before displaying a "server busy" message.

You can also control the number of milliseconds that pass during user input, such as using the mouse or keyboard while an Automation request is pending, and a "busy" message appearing.

Control Visual FoxPro from Other Applications   Using Visual FoxPro as an Automation server, you can create references to Visual FoxPro objects, execute Visual FoxPro commands, and run Visual FoxPro programs from other applications.

For more information on Automation, see Sharing Information and Adding OLE.

See Also

Concepts

Client/Server Solution Development
Application Development with Several Developers

Other Resources

Overview of Visual FoxPro Features
Importing and Exporting Data