"dawnecia" wrote
Has anyone ever published an Access database
on the intranet? What are some of the issues
and concerns you encountered? Is this something
you would recommend?
Exactly what do you mean "published an Access database on the Intranet"? Do
you, indeed, mean, "Access" and do you, indeed, mean a company's internal,
private implementation of Internet technology. Or, do you mean a database
created with Access, that is, a "Jet" database, and do you mean the Internet
(as in World Wide Web, with public access)?
First, let's make clear the difference between Access and the Jet database
engine: Access is the end-user interface and development software; Jet is
the engine that accesses and manipulates an MDB or MDE database.
There is only one feature of Access for web use, Data Access Pages. These
were somewhat limited, and their use was mostly in intranets (internal nets)
not on the Internet. Existing DAP applications will continue to be supported
in Access 2007, but it will not create new ones nor allow maintenance of
existing DAPs -- so you would have to use Access 2000 - 2003 to create the
DAP and keep the older Access version installed to maintain it.
Jet databases, on the other hand, are frequently used on the Internet (and
intranets, as well), but there must be an interface to them:
Probably the simplest web interface to a Jet database would be a website
created using Microsoft Front Page and its Data Interaction Wizard. This is
good for a plain, simple presentation and relatively simple functionality.
Interestingly Front Page 2003 is the last version of Front Page to be
produced by Microsoft; there will be no Front Page 2007. (Two software
"successors" to Front Page in the Microsoft software lineup are the
SharePoint Designer and Microsoft Expressions.) But, the good news is, that
you can keep and use your existing copy... unlike DAPs where there will be a
later version that doesn't support it, there's nothing that would overwrite
or interfere with your older copy of Front Page.
Cold Fusion works nicely and development is not difficult, but requires a
Cold Fusion server on the web server to perform the Access. Created
originally by Allaire, it was purchased by Adobe. Check the price, as some
companies / clients are reluctant to have to purchase an extra-cost special
server.
More complex interface and functionality can be created with ActiveX Server
Pages, .asp, or ASP.NET in the DotNet environment. ASP.NET capabilities are
part of Microsoft's Visual Studio products. ASP was created with earlier
versions of Visual Studio, prior to the DotNet initiative.
And, there are a number of programming and development languages/tools for
web sites, many of which have some provision for database access. With a
combination of these, you can create complex interfaces.
Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP
