How do I distribute it?

[Ed Landau]

Hi: I've just developped a really simple MS Access App. The VBA runs
within the database. It uses some DLLs which I register with a script.
It's on MS Access2003 (Office11). I've got 2003Pro but could get Ent.

Never having done this before, I'm not sure what I need to do in order to be
able to distribute it. I'd like not to require other users to have Access
installed (let alone 2003). For starters, I'm just looking to be able to
give this to friends to try out.

note this app does not do anything extraordinary... just builds tables based
on files on the system and prints reports.

Any help would be great.

Thanks
-Ed

[Scott McDaniel]

If you're distributing to people without MSAccess installed, you'll need to
distribute a runtime version of your app, which will require that you own a
copy of Office Developer. This provides you the runtime and the legal right
to distribute it. Note that distributing with the runtime is not without
troubles; Google on "runtime deployment" or something similar and do some
reading before going down this road. Many (including myself) have chosen to
invest the money and purchase the Sagekey scripts with a professional
deployment tool (in my case, Wise) to avoid the troubles associated with
this.

Same goes for the .DLL files. You must own an appropriate product (i.e. VB,
Office Developer, etc) in order to be able to distribute.

There are many, many issues involved in distributing an Access app that
makes use of external .DLL files ... you must ensure that the files are
properly registered on the target machine, you must ensure that the target
machine enviroment is compatible with the one used on your development
machine (i.e. files are same version level, references point to the same
location, etc etc).

"Ed Landau" <au*********@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:27********************@newssvr21.news.prodigy .com...

Hi: I've just developped a really simple MS Access App. The VBA runs
within the database. It uses some DLLs which I register with a script.
It's on MS Access2003 (Office11). I've got 2003Pro but could get Ent.

Never having done this before, I'm not sure what I need to do in order to be able to distribute it. I'd like not to require other users to have Access installed (let alone 2003). For starters, I'm just looking to be able to give this to friends to try out.

note this app does not do anything extraordinary... just builds tables based on files on the system and prints reports.

Any help would be great.

Thanks
-Ed

[MacDermott]

Access applications do not run without Access installed on the machine.
Period.
However, you can supply a Runtime Version of Access with your application.
Users will be able to run existing mdbs in it, and of course modify
data,
but they will not be able to create mdbs or modify design.

To get a license to distribute unlimited copies of this Runtime Version with
your application, you will need to purchase the Developer Edition of Access
or Office.
This edition also includes the Package and Deploy Wizard, which may be able
to generate your installation scripts for you. (It has generally worked
well for me, but if you search the archives, you'll find many complaints
about it.)

HTH
- Turtle

"Ed Landau" <au*********@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:27********************@newssvr21.news.prodigy .com...

Hi: I've just developped a really simple MS Access App. The VBA runs
within the database. It uses some DLLs which I register with a script.
It's on MS Access2003 (Office11). I've got 2003Pro but could get Ent.

Never having done this before, I'm not sure what I need to do in order to be able to distribute it. I'd like not to require other users to have Access installed (let alone 2003). For starters, I'm just looking to be able to give this to friends to try out.

note this app does not do anything extraordinary... just builds tables based on files on the system and prints reports.

Any help would be great.

Thanks
-Ed

[TC]

You >have< split your application into a front-end/back-end structure,
right?

TC
"Ed Landau" <au*********@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:27********************@newssvr21.news.prodigy .com...

Hi: I've just developped a really simple MS Access App. The VBA runs
within the database. It uses some DLLs which I register with a script.
It's on MS Access2003 (Office11). I've got 2003Pro but could get Ent.

Never having done this before, I'm not sure what I need to do in order to be able to distribute it. I'd like not to require other users to have Access installed (let alone 2003). For starters, I'm just looking to be able to give this to friends to try out.

note this app does not do anything extraordinary... just builds tables based on files on the system and prints reports.

Any help would be great.

Thanks
-Ed

[TC]

"Scott McDaniel" <sc***@no.spam.thedatabaseplace.net> wrote in message
news:sM********************@comcast.com...

If you're distributing to people without MSAccess installed, you'll need to distribute a runtime version of your app, which will require that you own a copy of Office Developer. This provides you the runtime and the legal right to distribute it. Note that distributing with the runtime is not without
troubles; Google on "runtime deployment" or something similar and do some
reading before going down this road. Many (including myself) have chosen to invest the money and purchase the Sagekey scripts with a professional
deployment tool (in my case, Wise) to avoid the troubles associated with
this.

To the OP: the other (and simplest) option is to require the user to have a
working copy of MS Access on his PC. ("This product requires Windows version
98 or greater, >>MS Access version 97 or greater<<, ... " etc.)

TC