i don't really get your question ?
by "files" do you mean tables in the database ?
and by "taking many days" you mean some locking problem ?
right off the bat, it seems, you have a setup that's more suitable for
a host-based or client/server module
not a distributed application
and just to be clear that is your situation
in a direct database connection there are alot of detailed messages
going back and forth from client to server
e.g. locking, another fundamental problem is that progress
only uses single-table queries
so you're not sending one query and receiving one resultset
there are alot more going on
you could easily have situation with thounsands
of messages going back and forth
it might not be a real problem in a client/server situation
but with the lag time for each roundtrip in a distributed app ( wan )
it would be insane !!!
for a distributed gui app
you would need to use an appserver
and cut down or conserve on appserver calls
you would also need to use an optimistic locking scheme
to avoid deadlocks with other users
you could use a framework designed for distributed app
e.g. dynamics and dwp
another option would be building a web application with webspeed
that would be closer in design to building a host-based app
or just taking your legacy application
running all the sessions on one server
and connecting the users through telnet
