Guide Me

[Striker]

I have been dodging the bullet by being too busy for many months now. I'm
out of excuses. I have been asked to completely revamp a database a guy did
for his own use, and make it usable for three people on a network. While I
know only a little about relational databases, I have done some coding in
VB, and VBA. My biggest issue with this personal DB is there is no Modules,
no naming standards. No error checking. He has 191 text boxes named
text1,tex191 etc. his version is not password protected, or multi user
capable.

So now you have the background, I'm thinking about using the general table
structure and scrapping all else.

Question 1. If there will be 3 users on the same subnet, is it better to
split the tables out into another database and create linked tables in
another. I assume the best thing to do is make some kind of Access EXE so
users can't directly interact with tables and such.

Question 2. What needs to be done to make this DB multi-user capable?

Question 3. I have read through this board and even posted a few question
under getting started as I was looking over the DB, and spending some time
with the main user over the last week. Is it better to post under the
"Getting Started" if you're new to Access, or should I find groups like
"Modules" for my module questions?

Question 4. Are there any known issue of developing Access 07on Windows
Vista, and implementing in XP?

Any other recommendations, ways to get started, books on Access VBA, and
Access in general.

Thanks in advance, I'm on my way to find a good book on Access2007.

 

[Albert D. Kallal]

Question 1. If there will be 3 users on the same subnet, is it better to
split the tables out into another database and create linked tables in
another.

For any muti-user application, you as a general rule want to split for
reasons of reliability. I explain how to split why you split, and some other
MS occasions of splitting in details of the following article of mine:

http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKallal/Articles/split/index.htm

I assume the best thing to do is make some kind of Access EXE so users
can't directly interact with tables and such.

You can do two things, the first step is simply to create an access "mde"
file. This will prevent users from being able to modify the code, modify the
forms and reports, the design will be locked down. In a sense a mde is
your executable (however it's not a true .exe file). You will still require
to
have MS access, or the free access runtime installed on each of the
workstations that are going to run this application.

However something stands out in the above that seems a bit strange if your
mention of a subnet?

Ae you talking about a wide area network here, or you just your typical
office LAN? if you're talking about some kind of EPA and, or wide area
network, then you must read the following article mine as explains that you
can NOT use MS access over wide area networks.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKallal//Wan/Wans.html

Question 2. What needs to be done to make this DB multi-user capable?

MS access right out of the boxe is multi user capable. For the most part you
need do nothing. Access works even when you don't split the database (you
could place the database on a file server and have all people open
it - it just works. However as mentioned for reasons of reliability and
stability, this does not work well - so it is STRONGLY recommended that you
split the database.

Question 3. I have read through this board and even posted a few question
under getting started as I was looking over the DB, and spending some time
with the main user over the last week. Is it better to post under the
"Getting Started" if you're new to Access, or should I find groups like
"Modules" for my module questions?

if you don't know where to post, best just to use

microsoft.public.access.

However for module coding questions, you find that posting in modulescoding
will work well. There is few "dead" groups like
microsoft.public.access.internet that no one uses.

Question 4. Are there any known issue of developing Access 07on Windows
Vista, and implementing in XP?

If you mean deploying to windows XP, you be just fine. If you talking about
using and running an application you developed an access 2007th for access
2002 (access xp), then this will certainly can be a problem. so if you're
not talking about mixing different versions of access, then your home free
here.

One thing that you want to be aware of is that in windows vista you stay
absolutely away from placing your application in the program files
directory. That directory is usually locked up, so either place the
application my documents, or some other place.

Any other recommendations, ways to get started, books on Access VBA, and
Access in general.

A great coding reference is:

http://www.mvps.org/access/


for books and other gettting started:
http://www.accessmvp.com/JConrad/accessjunkie/resources.html

For deploying runtime updates to users, I have an article here on this
http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKallal//RunTime/Index.html

Note that you can hide the ms-access interface from your users by using the
Correct startup options, but you've have a lot to chew on for the time
being.

 

[Striker]

Lots of good info, thanks.
I was not thinking of working in two access versions, only my home machine
is Vista, but the machine the DB and MDE will be on are XP. All development
and deployment will be using Access2007, so soundls like this will not be an
issue.

Thanks, I'm off to go read some of these articles.