Distributing Database Desktop (or other utility) with app

[Paul E. Schoen]

I would like to be able to supply a database utility for users of my
program to do basic database management functions. I am presently using
dBaseIII+ files from a D4 application. I already provide a Database form
with a TDBGrid and TDBNavigator component for one of the tables, and it
would not be difficult to have this same form use the other three tables in
my database. Since it is dBase, and there are separate files for each
table, I would need to have four different DBGrids, probably best
accomplished with a tabbed PageControl. But it may be easier to just supply
a general purpose database utility such as the Borland Database Desktop. It
is a rather old application and there are freeware apps that would also
suffice, but I am now familiar with the Borland app and it should be easy
to include it in the setup file for my app. However I do not want to run
afoul of copyright laws, and I could not find any specific information on
distributing this.

The Embarcadero website was not helpful either, but I did poke around and
found that I can upgrade my D4 Pro to D2007, D2009 or D2010 for $399. I'm
not sure why they would offer all three at the same price, unless there are
important differences that might make an earlier version preferable to the
latest (and Greatest?)

Note: I am crossposting this to two other newsgroups, but they seem to be
practically inactive. Please let me know if questions like this should be
posted to the database forums, or if the misc NG is best.

Thanks,

Paul

[BRoberts]

"Paul E. Schoen" <pa...@peschoen.com> wrote in message
news:ph2Om.47042$de6....@newsfe21.iad...

>I would like to be able to supply a database utility for users of my
>program to do basic database management functions. I am presently using
>dBaseIII+ files from a D4 application. I already provide a Database form
>with a TDBGrid and TDBNavigator component for one of the tables, and it
>would not be difficult to have this same form use the other three tables in
>my database. Since it is dBase, and there are separate files for each
>table, I would need to have four different DBGrids, probably best
>accomplished with a tabbed PageControl. But it may be easier to just supply
>a general purpose database utility such as the Borland Database Desktop. It
>is a rather old application and there are freeware apps that would also
>suffice, but I am now familiar with the Borland app and it should be easy
>to include it in the setup file for my app. However I do not want to run
>afoul of copyright laws, and I could not find any specific information on
>distributing this.

AFAIK you can not redistribute the BDD application.

Creating a general purpose utility is actually fairly simple. If you only
want to allow the user access to a single table at a time you only need one
set of controls (table, datasource, grid, navigator). Provide a combo box
for the user to select the table and in the onClick close the tTable, assign
the table name, and re-open it.