Should I give up on frameworks if I have legacy databases?

Question

Everywhere I turn it seems that frameworks (in any language) are tailored to new implementations. It also seems that using ORMs with the frameworks with legacy databases is not a normal thing to do.

I have databases, some 20 years old that I need a web front end on all of them some on separate web pages, some combining databases on one page. Others are not that old but I have no control over them Oracle, Sql Server, even FoxPro. Almost none of what I need to do has a new database - they're all existing.

Are frameworks just the wrong solution for me? Can I have MVC without the frameworks? I'm not sure what to do to avoid non-mvc implementations.

Thanks for thoughts.

edit:

I have lots of legacy databases and it seems very difficult to use an ORM with them. Is it possible to have the MVC pattern without an ORM? Can anyone recommend a framework that allows that?

I can use any language and any platform. PHP, Python, Java, C#, etc. Glue together frameworks are fine. I don't care. What I do not want are hacks. That is, making a framework not do what it was intended to do by some piece of code, aka hack. No offense. I just don't want to start out that way.

My main concern is to be somewhat modern and very conscious of not mixing layers of logic and presentation. I come from an old world of classic asp where everything is mixed together and I don't want that any more.

Answer 1

Why not writing your own provider & dialect ?

(n)Hibernate allows you to do that.

I've also seen project relying on Odbc or Jdbc for connection. Maybe your legacy databases offer Odbc/Jdbc integration ?

Why talking about MVC when you talk about databases? MVC doesn't mean that you must have a database or a new one.

Answer 2

Can you use ORMS on old datasets?

That depends. The ORMS like Linq to SQL and Entity Framework will not work on anything but some of the newer versions of SQL Server. However, an open source ORM such as hibernate (java) or nhibernate (.net) you may find will work great with these older versions of SQL Server and even Oracle. Foxpro is another beast and you may be hard pressed to find an ORM that supports it.

MVC - With or without the frameworks?

I assume you mean ORMS. Yes, you can use MVC with or with ORMS.

If you mean frameworks revolving around MVC then the answer is still yes. MVC is a design pattern. Many put frameworks around them for a specific language. I think in this case using an MVC framework with your legacy data shouldn't matter.

Answer 3

It depends on what framework / library you use. Let's assume you use Java (do you?), then you can still use iBatis because the is a JDBC driver for FoxPro. But it might not be a good idea to use Hibernate or JPA.

And, yes, of course you can have MVC without external frameworks. It might just be a bit more work.