front-end/back-end

[Guest]

Could someone explain front-end and back-end to me?

thank you!
Wes

 

[tina]

it's the standard setup for a multi-user database. the backend database
contains all (or most of) the data tables, and is stored on the server. the
frontend database contains the queries, forms, macros, reports and modules
(and sometimes some "non-updateable" tables, usually that are used to
populate form droplists with standard options). the frontend database is
linked to the tables in the backend db on the server, and then a copy of the
frontend (*not* a shortcut) is placed on each user's PC. so the data is
shared among all the users, while the frontend db copies are used
individually by each user from their hard drive.
this arrangement avoids a lot of the corruption problems you get when two or
more people use the same .mdb file at the same time. and it cuts down on
network line traffic, because everything the database uses in on the local
machine, except for the data itself.

hth

 

[JulieD]

Hi

my understanding is that you can't enforce referential integrity between
tables stored in the front end and those stored in the back end ... so it's
not a good idea to have any tables in your front end. - is this correct?

Cheers
JulieD

 

[Duane Hookom]

You may have some temporary tables in the front end. Also, I keep tables:
tblAppVersion -> version number and date of last update
tblReports -> table of all the reports used in the application
tblCriteria -> all possible criteria used in reports
tblReportCriteria -> table that identifies which criteria are used with
which report
tblTables -> list of tables that require linking and which back end
tblToDo -> list of tasks to be completed in the application