bound forms vs. unbound forms

[James A. Fortune]

Well that configuration is how most of my apps are set up, but I have no idea
what the maximum concurrent user limit for one particular form/table combination
would be.

Then I think I'll wait a while longer before testing those limits.

Not sure how that relates to "forms on the internet" since an Access form cannot
be run over the internet.

I was speculating about potential future products. Visual Studio has
some controls that have some data binding capabilities but I'm not sure
whether or not they were designed to deal with concurrency issues.
Visual Studio also seems to have a much better plan in place than Access
for dealing with multithreading. So it seems possible that, given
multiuser success with bound forms in Access with a SQL Server backend,
a market might exist for an Access-like product (motive) to be created
with Visual Studio (means) that would allow for bound forms on a website
and take advantage of multicore processors on the client. Using a
locking file is certainly possible. It would save me the trouble of
implementing my own collision resolution code, which I have done before.
I'm still not sure that I could trust the whole bound form on the web
concept yet.

James A. Fortune
(e-mail address removed)

 

[James A. Fortune]

One person stated he had 10,000 users world wide on an Access front
end against a SQL Server system.

Tony

That's very impressive if it includes editing. The future of bound
forms is looking suddenly brighter.

James A. Fortune
(e-mail address removed)

Microsoft Emacs.NET:
http://www.douglasp.com/blog/2007/12/27/EmacsNet.aspx

 

[BillE]

OK. Bound forms win. Unbound forms, go back to visual studio where you
belong.
Thanks.

-Bill

 

[David W. Fenton]

I'm still not sure that I could trust the whole bound form on the
web concept yet.

I don't think it would make sense to even try, as maintaining an
Access-style binding to the back end requires a whole boatload of
traffic (usually 1-second refresh intervals). On a LAN, that's no
problem whatsoever. Across the Internet, it's going to be a really
bad problem. That's precisely the reason why you can't run Access
across a WAN connection, because maintaining the bound connections
is relatively intensive in terms of traffic across the wire.

The Web is stateless, and there's a good reason for that.

Someday when everyone has fiber, maybe it can be more like Access,
but that's a long time coming, at least in the US (and I'm not even
sure it would work then).

 

[James A. Fortune]

I don't think it would make sense to even try, as maintaining an
Access-style binding to the back end requires a whole boatload of
traffic (usually 1-second refresh intervals). On a LAN, that's no
problem whatsoever. Across the Internet, it's going to be a really
bad problem. That's precisely the reason why you can't run Access
across a WAN connection, because maintaining the bound connections
is relatively intensive in terms of traffic across the wire.

The Web is stateless, and there's a good reason for that.

Someday when everyone has fiber, maybe it can be more like Access,
but that's a long time coming, at least in the US (and I'm not even
sure it would work then).

That's a good point. It's probably one I've argued for elsewhere .
Perhaps there is more to consider. Many of the multithread techniques
use stateless techniques instead of file locks. Some even use
transactions. Thus, there might be ways to get around file lock
problems. However, stateless assumptions tend to break down in real
world applications. It's looking like Access style bound forms are
going to be mostly limited to LAN's unless someone comes up with a very
clever idea. So it looks like good advice to go unbound if the
application is going to be placed on the internet and maybe to go
unbound if you have lots of concurrent users, especially if the backend
is Access, pending new technological breakthroughs.

James A. Fortune
(e-mail address removed)

 

[James A. Fortune]

OK. Bound forms win. Unbound forms, go back to visual studio where you
belong.
Thanks.

Maybe: Bound forms win, but unbound forms are there too in case they're
needed.

James A. Fortune
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

OK. Bound forms win. Unbound forms, go back to visual studio where you
belong.

<chuckle>

They do come in handy at times.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
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