There is a split database wizard to help you out (assuming it was
installed to start with). But yes it is basically what you say. You do
need to link to the back end from the front end.
Can the "front end" be of a different file type?
What I mean is, can we have Access read from a text or dat file, say?
The reason I ask is because I've had very bad experiences with
databases that have multiple parts likes this. The worst case was in
a govt contract where they had several years worth of databases in
Lotus Approach which just automatically has 2 files to begin with
whenever you create a database. Can't remember why, but it defaults
to that as a normal behaviour in the program. Over 80% of the files
were gone. People must not have realized that each database was
composed of 2 parts so I could salvage very little of all those years.
I don't want to go to the trouble of creating this great new database
which will get a lot of use only to have the same thing happen down
the road.
So I'm thinking that if a different file format can be used for the
data and I present the db as a program that needs it's data files
backed up, I think that the users' understanding of this would be
greater.
Either that or build in a backup feature in the db that will zip up
all the "backend" data components?
What does anyone suggest. Granted I'm a newbie developer but I am a
power user and have written up solutions at home (although in
FileMaker Pro). We're currently using Excel spreadsheets that I wrote
up last year for them. They seem to have held up rather well, as I've
seen since my return this week, but they need something much more
robust now esp. since several people are sharing the data.
Thanks.
