newbie needs help - vb6 connecting to access 2000

[Guest]

My boss has asked me to solve this problem:
this simple application that queires an access 2000 table to look up group
infomation.
Since not all user have license for access 2000, I was asked by my boss if
it is possible to make access 2000 an exe program which I understand is not
possible atleast w/o access 2000 developer edition anyway. My plan is being
that many users will need to use this app and they run on win 98 and win 2000
machines w/o .NET framework installed, I decided to make the front end a vb6
executable. The app will then connect to the access 2000 DB table which will
be in a common directory on a shared company drive.

Before I start, do you see any obvious flaw in this plan or a better idea?


Also, I brought my laptop to work to make the vb6 program. However, I have
access xp on my machine an I fear I may have problems connecting to is
through vb6 even though access xp has a setting where I can make the DB in
access 2000 format. I read someone did not have a problem connecting using
ADODB.. I do not want to put access 2000 on the laptop just for this program.
I research and found a guy who said he had no problem connecting to access
xp from vb6 when using ADODB. Do you think I should go forward with this
approach or do I risk wasting time hoping the connection to access xp will
work.
If this all works out, do you see any problems with various users running
the vb6 front end app. and connecting to the access 2000 db table on a shared
drive?

sorry for so many questions !!!^%$#^%#@!!!

 

[John Nurick]

My boss has asked me to solve this problem:
this simple application that queires an access 2000 table to look up group
infomation.
Since not all user have license for access 2000, I was asked by my boss if
it is possible to make access 2000 an exe program which I understand is not
possible atleast w/o access 2000 developer edition anyway.

It's not possible at all. What the developer edition does is let you
distribute a free run-time version of Access with the application.

My plan is being
that many users will need to use this app and they run on win 98 and win 2000
machines w/o .NET framework installed, I decided to make the front end a vb6
executable. The app will then connect to the access 2000 DB table which will
be in a common directory on a shared company drive.

Before I start, do you see any obvious flaw in this plan or a better idea?

No. But if you're not already familiar with VB6 database work, you need
to know that there's a lot more work involved in building a database
application using VB6 than using Access: lots of data-handling
functionality that's built into Access forms and controls has to be
manually coded in the VB6 equivalents. From that point of view, it may
be more economical to try and buy a copy of Access 2000 developer
edition.

Also, I brought my laptop to work to make the vb6 program. However, I have
access xp on my machine an I fear I may have problems connecting to is
through vb6 even though access xp has a setting where I can make the DB in
access 2000 format. I read someone did not have a problem connecting using
ADODB.. I do not want to put access 2000 on the laptop just for this program.
I research and found a guy who said he had no problem connecting to access
xp from vb6 when using ADODB. Do you think I should go forward with this
approach or do I risk wasting time hoping the connection to access xp will
work.

I'd be inclined to use DAO rather than ADODB when working with a Jet
(MDB) back end. Either way there should be no problems working with an
Access 2000-format MDB file, though it might be wise to use late binding
to avoid library and dll version issues when you install the VB6
executable on the older machines. But these are VB6 questions, not
Access ones, and you'll get better help in the VB newsgroups such as
microsoft.public.vb.database, microsoft.public.vb.database.ado and
microsoft.public.vb.database.dao.

If this all works out, do you see any problems with various users running
the vb6 front end app. and connecting to the access 2000 db table on a shared
drive?

No, so long as you don't expect to support more users than the
equivalent Access setup would.

 

[MacDermott]

If all you want to do is give your users a way to look at data in a table,
and they all have at least Excel 2000 installed, you can make a simple
connection (Data - Get External Data) for them to use.
If you want to build a small form where they can enter a few parameters and
get an answer automatically looked up in the table, Excel can do that, too.

But if not everybody has even Excel, or you're just more comfortable using
VB6, that way will work fine, too. If you're already familiar with ADODB,
go ahead and use it. It sounds like too small of an app to lose much sleep
over. AFAIK, Jet 4.0 should have no trouble connecting to either an Access
2000 or an Access 2002 format MDB file. It shouldn't matter a bit what
version of Access you have installed on your machine, as the whole point of
the exercise is to use it on machines where Access isn't installed at all.