Using Access 2000 across the Internet

[Visitor No 3]

My local Crinkles group(U3A), of which I am one, want me to develop a noddy
database and web
site for their members. Some are computer literate, others not so. I thought
an Access 2000 .mdb on a server from the local council with a web page in
Active Server Pages(ASP) and using ADO would do the trick, then one of them
could update it at home on the web to keep track of members and somebody
else could do the same for current programmes etc. The Chair Person could
then use all the data in the DB to keep track of things, such as sending
letters out to members, by accessing the DB directly over the Internet from
the council server as an application rather than a web page. Nothing
arduous.



The local council are about to start a project to make local communities
available on the web and are providing software, cyberspace and training in
web editing but the training will be low-grade stuff.

I have developed the odd Access Application in VBA but I have never used VB
or VBScript, which seem to be the tools for ASP.

My question, before I start, is: Is this a sensible route to take and my
other question is: Can ASP be programmed in VBA, with which I am familiar.



Also, is this taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. For example, could I do
something similar using P2P between two or more users across the internet.
This is something I have no experience of so if this is a runner, could
someone start me off by pointing me in the right direction. I expect this
would work with a backend on the council server and a front-end on each
users machine.

Thanks.

 

[Phillip Windell]

I have developed the odd Access Application in VBA but I have never used VB
or VBScript, which seem to be the tools for ASP.

My question, before I start, is: Is this a sensible route to take and my
other question is: Can ASP be programmed in VBA, with which I am familiar.

VBA has absolutely nothing to do with ASP. ASP is a "platform" that runs on
Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS). It interprets VBScript,
JavaScript, JScript, and serveral others although the popular choice is
VBScript. It runs only on the server and has nothing to do with the User's
browser.

The MDB is kept on the Web Server "outside" of the Web Path, and the folder
it is kept in, and the MDB file, must have read/write permission granted to
the Web Server's local IUSR account. Here is an example:

c:\wwwroot\visitorNo3Site
|
--website
|
--database

1. The Web Path (root of the website) is set to the folder "website".
2. The FTP Path (root of the FTP service) is set to "visitorNo3Site". This
lets you upload files to any folder
3. The IUSR account is given read/write to the folder "database"
4. Users going to the site come "in" at the folder "website" and cannot get
to the other fiolders, so they cannot "steal" or mess with the MDB file
located in folder "database"
5. The ASP engine running on the webserver itself, using the IUSR account,
is able to get to the "database" folder and read the contents to build the
web pages from the data and send them to the user's browsers

You do *not*..... "access the MDB over the web".
You maintain a local copy of it just like you maintain a local copy of the
website's files. In the same way that you would make changes to the local
web site files then upload them to the server to update the site,...you do
it the same way with the MDB file,...the MDB file is treated and worked with
exactly the same way as any other site file like *.html, *.asp, whatever.

It is possible to design an "Admin" web site that runs along side the
"public" one that can be used to make changes to the MDB file directly where
it is at,...but often this is more trouble than it is worth (unless you are
a highly skill professional at this) and will not easily work in all
situations.

None of your questions are really "Access" questions. They are ASP
questions,..you need to ask in one of the ASP groups like:

microsoft.public.ineserver.asp.db

You are dealing with ASP Classic,...this is *not* ASP.Net,...don't go to the
ASP.Net groups with this,...the two are no where near the same thing.

--
Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com
-----------------------------------------------------
Understanding the ISA 2004 Access Rule Processing
http://www.isaserver.org/articles/ISA2004_AccessRules.html

Troubleshooting Client Authentication on Access Rules in ISA Server 2004
http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/1/8/918ed2d3-71d0-40ed-8e6d-fd6eeb6cfa07/ts_rules.doc

Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server: Guidance
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/techinfo/Guidance/2004.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/techinfo/Guidance/2000.asp

Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server: Partners
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/partners/default.asp

Deployment Guidelines for ISA Server 2004 Enterprise Edition
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/isa/2004/deploy/dgisaserver.mspx
-----------------------------------------------------

 

[Bob Alston]

VBA has absolutely nothing to do with ASP. ASP is a "platform" that runs on
Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS). It interprets VBScript,
JavaScript, JScript, and serveral others although the popular choice is
VBScript. It runs only on the server and has nothing to do with the User's
browser.

The MDB is kept on the Web Server "outside" of the Web Path, and the folder
it is kept in, and the MDB file, must have read/write permission granted to
the Web Server's local IUSR account. Here is an example:

c:\wwwroot\visitorNo3Site
|
--website
|
--database

1. The Web Path (root of the website) is set to the folder "website".
2. The FTP Path (root of the FTP service) is set to "visitorNo3Site". This
lets you upload files to any folder
3. The IUSR account is given read/write to the folder "database"
4. Users going to the site come "in" at the folder "website" and cannot get
to the other fiolders, so they cannot "steal" or mess with the MDB file
located in folder "database"
5. The ASP engine running on the webserver itself, using the IUSR account,
is able to get to the "database" folder and read the contents to build the
web pages from the data and send them to the user's browsers

You do *not*..... "access the MDB over the web".
You maintain a local copy of it just like you maintain a local copy of the
website's files. In the same way that you would make changes to the local
web site files then upload them to the server to update the site,...you do
it the same way with the MDB file,...the MDB file is treated and worked with
exactly the same way as any other site file like *.html, *.asp, whatever.

It is possible to design an "Admin" web site that runs along side the
"public" one that can be used to make changes to the MDB file directly where
it is at,...but often this is more trouble than it is worth (unless you are
a highly skill professional at this) and will not easily work in all
situations.

None of your questions are really "Access" questions. They are ASP
questions,..you need to ask in one of the ASP groups like:

microsoft.public.ineserver.asp.db

You are dealing with ASP Classic,...this is *not* ASP.Net,...don't go to the
ASP.Net groups with this,...the two are no where near the same thing.

Take a look at my web site for info on how to utilize Access/Jet
databases in a web environment:

http://webpages.charter.net/bobalst...t Access Developer Transition to Internet.htm

http://webpages.charter.net/bobalston/Documents/Access-WebConversionSoftware.htm

Bob

 

[aaron.kempf]

don't listen to anyone that lets you use a MDB file in an web
environment.

if you used Access Data Projects; you wouldn't need to rewrite your
database

learn ADP and use DAP if you must.

MDB is a joke though; the most ridiculous db engine EVER.

-Aaron

 

[Visitor No 3]

<< Take a look at my web site for info on how to utilize Access/Jet
databases in a web environment:


http://webpages.charter.net/bobalst...t Access Developer Transition to Internet.htm


http://webpages.charter.net/bobalston/Documents/Access-WebConversionSoftware.htm>>


Thanks Bob,

That's just exactly the steer I was looking for.

 

[MikeR]

MDB is a joke though; the most ridiculous db engine EVER.

The internet must be a lot funnier than I thought, cuz there are thousands
(unsubstantiated, just like your assertion) of db solutions using Access as a
DB. If the tool does the job....
Mike

 

[MikeR]

MDB is a joke though; the most ridiculous db engine EVER.

The internet must be a lot funnier than I thought, cuz there are thousands
(unsubstantiated, just like your assertion) of db solutions using Access as a
DB. If the tool does the job....
Mike

 

[rjc]

My local Crinkles group(U3A), of which I am one, want me to develop a noddy
database and web
site for their members. Some are computer literate, others not so. I thought
an Access 2000 .mdb on a server from the local council with a web page in
Active Server Pages(ASP) and using ADO would do the trick, then one of them
could update it at home on the web to keep track of members and somebody
else could do the same for current programmes etc. The Chair Person could
then use all the data in the DB to keep track of things, such as sending
letters out to members, by accessing the DB directly over the Internet from
the council server as an application rather than a web page. Nothing
arduous.



The local council are about to start a project to make local communities
available on the web and are providing software, cyberspace and training in
web editing but the training will be low-grade stuff.

I have developed the odd Access Application in VBA but I have never used VB
or VBScript, which seem to be the tools for ASP.

My question, before I start, is: Is this a sensible route to take and my
other question is: Can ASP be programmed in VBA, with which I am familiar.



Also, is this taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. For example, could I do
something similar using P2P between two or more users across the internet.
This is something I have no experience of so if this is a runner, could
someone start me off by pointing me in the right direction. I expect this
would work with a backend on the council server and a front-end on each
users machine.

Thanks.

Check out http://squeekasp.com/gr/gr.asp?navbar=grnavbar

It has an ASP implementation named GenericDB and GenericReport along with a
couple of others. I used both of these ASP implementation for my boat club's
web site to make our Access DB accessible to the membership and the board of
directors. The documentation with GenericDB was sufficient to get me going
in no time and it was free!

Regards,