Hi Barry,

Yes, many thanks. This makes things much clearer. I am not worried about
intellectual property, since this developer has both let us down by not
sending the annual updates the last two years, plus he was paid to do a job
which he only did partly.

But you are right, it sounds very risky to just start changing things,
whithout the proper expertice. We are considering hiring someone to
implement the necessary changes, but we need to know exactly how these
things work.

However, do you imply that the key to open the MDE-file is an unique one,
only known to the developer who paid for the Microsoft license, or is it a
more general key which follows with ODE tools?

And what level of programming do I have to think about? The kind of
wysiwyg-editing like in Frontpage, or really writing programlines in some
kind of abstract programming-language?

I understand it's impossible to say in general how long making changes in a
database would take, but let's say that in a form I want to add an extra
field in which I can show a thumbnail-picture, linking it to a larger sized
picture which opens by clicking either the thumbnail or some kind of button
underneath. We have about 6000 objects registered in our database and a
picture would greatly add to the value of the database. Right now we have to
carefully read the description to understand which of the object this is, in
most cases not being able to be sure that it is actually exactly this or
that one.

Are you able to give an estimation how difficult such a change would be and
how long it would take (minutes/hours/days)?

Again, many thanks for your help!

Greetings from a cold and snowy Norway,

Ronald Werner


(P.S. don't ask me to tell you what kind of objects, if you are curious and
want to know I'll tell you personally)

"ronwer" <ronwer (AT) tiscali (DOT) no> wrote

Well, two things.

First, there is no key to open the MDE. The developer creates the MDE from
the application he originally created. Without his original MDB file, you
will not be able to change the database.

Second, you might actually have the mdb file. Do this, take a look at the
shortcut to the database and print it out here. That way, we can see exactly
what you're dealing with.


Assuming you have the MDB, you need Microsoft Access. A lot can be done in
Access with wysiwyg-type stuff, but there is also a programming language
behind it that is pretty powerful, complex and very specialized.

It sounds simple enough. One would have to figure out how and where to add
the control. There is some code involved to store the picture on the server
(you don't want to store the picture in the database). Based on your
description, I'd say somebody should be able to get in, get the work done
and get out in a couple hours.

Sorry to hear its cold and snowy out there. I'd better not tell you how the
weather is here.

dt

P.S. I bet I can guess.

Two items:

(1) The developer's copyright of his original work and the issues you
mention are separate items -- the issues are not likely to keep him from
suing for copyright violation. But, assuming the database is in MDE form,
that alone would prevent your changing Forms, Reports, and Modules -- all
likely to be things you'll need to modify.

(2) You always own your own data, so you should be able to retrieve it from
the tables (or perhaps copy the tables). A competent Access developer should
be able to re-create a database much faster than the original was developed.
On the other hand, a database developed just for you is likely to cost you
quite a bit more than licensing a copy of a database that the developer
licenses to multiple users.

Caveat: There are international provisions for copyright that apply only to
countries who signed the international copyright agreement; other provisions
may differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.


"ronwer" <ronwer (AT) tiscali (DOT) no> wrote