frontpage, access, server, sql

[marc]

I have a lot of questions, I thought if you read them all first you could see
where I am going with this and then you can answer the ones you like, by
putting a #..answer in front of your answer. I don’t know Access or SQL at
all. A person fills out a FrontPage form, that I have setup to be sent to a
Access database, on an offsite server. If I understand it correctly, the
Table fields and Rows automatically get populated. I hear that having your
main column alphabetical speeds Access up.
Question #1 Does Frontpage2003 in Access populate the rows in incoming
order? or does Access automatically take over and ranks one column/field in
alphabetical or numerical order?
Question #2 If not is it possible to do something in FrontPage to make at
least one column have its rows in numerical or alphabetical order?
Question #3 can one use Access to somehow preset all FrontPages A’s to fall
into one section of rows and then b’s etc. or do you need to sort them every
now and then in Access.
Question#4 How long can the field/column names be and the record/row names
be in Access. Does FrontPage automatically chop them of?
Question#5 Is it easy to rename the field and record names afterward, and
does frontpage automatically update.
Question#6 Can one in an offsite database make different Access databases,
and have each new form send to a different database? Since I hear that one
Access database can only hold 2 gigabyte, and often runs out of memory with a
large Website.
Question#7 If you know you will need to access the results from your
clients, filled out forms, a lot, and in different ways, by different people
in your office, is MS Access the best way to go.
Question#8 How do you connect Access to your answers from forms, which
reside on an outside web server?
Question#9 In using an offsite server for your Access, for security is it
better to copy/backup your Access on a local computer and then just use that
copy, for retrieving info. and exactly how does one do that?
Question#10 How difficult is it to set up Access as a Front end" to a larger
database like mySQL or SQL,
Question#11 Is that something, totally out of the question for a SQL
illiterate.
Question#12 How much would it cost to have someone else do it.
Question#13 Will it make it more difficult to Copy/backup access, or more
difficult to use access??

 

[Ronx]

First - you cannot use Access on an offsite server if offsite means on a
different machine. The Access database need not be in the website, but it
must be on the same server as the website. MS SQL Server can be located on
a different server, and will work with FrontPage.

#1 FrontPage does nothing. Nor does Access. The Jet database engine
places the data in the Access database tables in the order they are
received.

#2 You can display the data in the database in any order by using SQL
statements to describe the required order. For example
SELECT * FROM tablename ORDER BY fieldname ASC will display the entire
tablename table in ascending order of the data stored in fieldname field.

#3 Same as #2

#4 Rows don't have names. Column names are limited to either 32 or 64
characters (don't remember which).

#6 Offsite database - see comments at top of this post.
You can have many tables in a database. If you expect to use 2GB
then look at MS SQL Server instead. The database does not use any memory -
it is a file. The asp application uses memory, and if memory becomes a
problem as a result of web site database operations then the asp programmer
needs to be re-educated, or you need a dedicated server for the website -
and MS SQL Server.

#7 No. MS SQL Server is better for multi-user access. An Access database
will not function on the web site if it is opened in Access.

#8 You Export the database to the desktop, and open in Access. The
original database is left on the web server.

#9 See #8

#11 No - but you have some learning to do.

#12 Some professionals charge $200 or more per hour ....

#13 Copy/backup is simple button pushing. Getting at the data and using
it requires some skill.

 

[marc]

Ronx, Thank you for your speedy reply, and putting up with a beginner,
here’s some questions continued.
#1 Fully answered, Thank you.
#2 Good, But still can one do anything in your website (through FrontPage)
to make the jet database place it in order? (I suppose not)
#3 Good, But can MS Access also reorder by fieldname? (I suppose so)
#4 Good, But if I understand it correctly, if you use FrontPage for your
website, your column names get automatically made, according to your input in
forms properties name. Will FrontPage, or Access, or the jet database chop it
to 32 or 64 characters?
#5 Good, But if you rename the properties (ex. Text box properties) in
FrontPage will that automatically be updated in the column name in Access, on
the server when you re-published.
#6 Good, But on a server that contains both your website and Access, can you
have FrontPage create and send to many MS Access databases?
#7 Fully answered, Thank you.
#8 Good, but how do you export and import a Access database? According to my
understanding, that resides in your webpage (with FrontPage), so you can use
it locally. My web server says I can’t do it through Access, (something about
FrontPage overriding passwords codes)
#9 through#12.Fully answered, Thank you.
#13, Good, but does using access as a “front end†to SQL do anything to the
data, so if I want to use Access locally, will it make it more difficult to
export the database? More difficult to use Access locally? Will there be
extra work?