Hi everyone,

I have really enjoyed reading all the tips all of you post. Great
information.

I have a front end/back end designed database. Information tables are on
the server, and the front end is installed on individual work stations. But
whenever I make a change in one workstations database, I have to make the
same change in the others.

Question: Can I put the front end on the mainframe and have several
different users run that database instead of putting it on individual
computers? Running Windows Vista Business and Access 2007.

Any help is appreciated.

You shouldn't make changes to an individual workstation. You should have a
development copy that only you have access to. Then, when you make changes,
you put it on the server in a location that the users wouldn't normally
browse in, and have their workstations copy it from that location. You could
either:

a) give them a shortcut on their desktops to a batch file (stored on the
server) which copies it to their desktop (assuming they all have the file in
the same location on their c drives);

b) have their computers updated via their windows logon script.

I use both of these with my client. The users have a shortcut for updating
when they need to do so. Most of the time, though, I update through the
logon sript. To keep from having to update the logon script all the time
(since the sysadmin handles that), we have the logon script always call a
particular batch file. However, in that batch file, I either have the line
to copy the database to their desktops active, or I have "rem" in front of
the line, to make it inactive. This way, when I need to do a global update,
I simply delete the "rem," and the next time the users log in, they get the
new version.

There are other approaches, as well. But you definitely don't want a shared
version. And you DEFINITELY don't want to update a user's copy and then
distribute it! Let me tell you a horror story about that.

One time I got a short job filling in for an on-site developer while he was
on vacation for a month. My job was just to keep the database running until
he got back. One time, there was a glitch. So I went to the user's terminal,
found the problem, and adjusted the code at their terminal (so I could test
it there). Since the work was already done in that copy, I just copied it
back to my development machine and used that as the new working copy.

Only later on did I realize that that user had made substantial changes to
the database, commenting out lines that were causing errors. And, so, for a
while, those commented out lines became commented out in everyone's version,
since I had made their copy the main copy.

And, so, never make a user's copy your main copy.

If you're thinking that that user was an idiot for commenting out lines that
caused errors, you're right. They wanted to get their reports to run, and
those lines were causing it to choke. Only problem is the report was used to
pay salespeople commissions, the result being that the subroutines that
ended up not running caused the salespeople to get shortchanged in their
commissions. After this person kept doing that, one salesperson ended up
suing the company! But that's another story.

The point is: never trust a user to have left your database alone.

Neil


"WEG" <wegraham (AT) verizon (DOT) net> wrote

"WEG" <wegraham (AT) verizon (DOT) net> schreef in bericht news:Z2zAj.2047$er2.1085 (AT) trnddc08 (DOT) ..
Apparently you did not read all the posts here... ;-)

DON'T let several users use the same FE
Use'Tony Toews FE Updater'
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/autofe.htm

Arno R

WEG wrote:
Tools/DatabaseUtilities and select LinkedTableManager. Is the pointer
to your C drive files in the backend or is it pointing to your network
backend?

If you have to go to each machine to add/update the same records I'd
almost bet you are pointing to the wrong file.

View
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0ItlLw47Fc

Per WEG:
Don't even *think* about it.

The solution is, as others have said, a .Bat file or utility
program that senses the version of the app on the user's PC and
downloads the latest-and-greatest if needed.

*Really* simplifies deployment.

Once you verify that MS Access is available on the user's PC, all
that's needed to "install" the application is to drag/drop an
icon from the application's LAN directory to the user's desktop.

I use .Bat files to do it all. Greater minds than mine have
come up with utilities - which are probably a lot simpler to
implement, needing only the simplest, most basic .Bat file.
--
PeteCresswell

I've actually done this in a SMALL office setup (no more than 3 or 4 users)
and it has worked just fine for me in the past. I would never consider it
with a larger group of users though.

I simply created a shared network folder, say //SERVER/DATABASE and then put
both the front-end and back-end databases in that folder. I dropped a
shortcut to the front-end MDB file on everyone's desktops, and it works like
a champ.

BEST solution? Absolutely not. But it works.


Richard Rost
www.AccessLearningZone.com