A humbly simple question...

[Rob]

Dear all

I'm well into designing my first ever Access database which is
currently about 13 megs (.mdb file) containing data on progress and
attainment of approx 500 students. What I want to know is this: to
make the database available to approx. 30 colleagues on the school
intranet, do I need to change it into a .mdw file and give everyone a
login name and password, or can multiple users open the .mdb file at
the same time? I'm on holiday right now and am working on my
standalone laptop. I intend to put the database on the school
intranet in early September. As I said, I'm new to all this, so
forgive me if this is a silly question.

Thanks in anticipation
Rob

[Mark Reed]

I'm not as advanced as a lot of the others on here but from reading their
replies to similar questions, it is safe to say that a mdb file can be
shared with multiple users. It is advised to make sure the database is split
into a frontend and backend. That is the frontend containing all the
queries, forms, macros & reports and the tables residing in the backend. The
frontend should be installed on the local C: drive and the backend installed
on the network drive. With a setup like this, there shouldn't be any problem
with all 30 students accessing the database at the same time.

Mark

"Rob" <ro********@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2f**************************@posting.google.c om...

Dear all

I'm well into designing my first ever Access database which is
currently about 13 megs (.mdb file) containing data on progress and
attainment of approx 500 students. What I want to know is this: to
make the database available to approx. 30 colleagues on the school
intranet, do I need to change it into a .mdw file and give everyone a
login name and password, or can multiple users open the .mdb file at
the same time? I'm on holiday right now and am working on my
standalone laptop. I intend to put the database on the school
intranet in early September. As I said, I'm new to all this, so
forgive me if this is a silly question.

Thanks in anticipation
Rob

[Larry Daugherty]

It would be a very good idea to make sure that every user of your
application has a copy of the Front End on their pc. It would also be a
good idea to first copy each release of your application into an MDE file
before making it available for copy. People who get a new toy to play with
sometimes do just. You'd be surprised just how ingenious some idiots can be
when it comes to breaking an application. Giving them MDE versus MDB means
that they have no way to get in and alter your design.

Tony Toews created a utility he calls FE Updater which can be very useful.
His site has a lot of interesting stuff:
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

You might also look at the Access Web at www.mvps.org/access It's a great
collection of Access lore.

HTH
--
-Larry-
--

"Mark Reed" <ma*********@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:9k************@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net...

I'm not as advanced as a lot of the others on here but from reading their
replies to similar questions, it is safe to say that a mdb file can be
shared with multiple users. It is advised to make sure the database is split into a frontend and backend. That is the frontend containing all the
queries, forms, macros & reports and the tables residing in the backend. The frontend should be installed on the local C: drive and the backend installed on the network drive. With a setup like this, there shouldn't be any problem with all 30 students accessing the database at the same time.

Mark

"Rob" <ro********@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2f**************************@posting.google.c om...

Dear all

I'm well into designing my first ever Access database which is
currently about 13 megs (.mdb file) containing data on progress and
attainment of approx 500 students. What I want to know is this: to
make the database available to approx. 30 colleagues on the school
intranet, do I need to change it into a .mdw file and give everyone a
login name and password, or can multiple users open the .mdb file at
the same time? I'm on holiday right now and am working on my
standalone laptop. I intend to put the database on the school
intranet in early September. As I said, I'm new to all this, so
forgive me if this is a silly question.

Thanks in anticipation
Rob

[Keith Wilby]

ro********@hotmail.com (Rob) wrote:

to
make the database available to approx. 30 colleagues on the school
intranet, do I need to change it into a .mdw file and give everyone a
login name and password, or can multiple users open the .mdb file at
the same time?

Hi Rob.

You don't *have* to secure it but as another poster has mentioned, your
users will have access to your design. Securing the app is one option and
mde is another, but in either case you might want to consider applying some
business rules - eg do you really want all users to have the ability to
delete all records?

As far as distributing the front end (FE) goes, what I do is copy the
latest version to a "public" folder on our network and have the users'
shortcuts execute a batch file which copies it to their C drive and then
opens it. That way they always get the latest version when they log on. I
don't bother checking their current version against what's in my "public"
folder, a lot of people do this sort of thing but I don't see the point.

Best of luck.
Keith.
www.keithwilby.org.uk

[ssb]

Mark,

I am currently designing a simple access appliction with 3-5 tables
and about same number of forms, queries etc.

But I dont know how to create a separate installation for front-end
and back-end. For starters, lets say, I want both of these on my
C-Drive. How should I go about it..??

As of now, I just create a "design version" of my database and Use MDE
version for other use.

Thanks..

ssb.

"Mark Reed" <ma*********@ntlworld.com> wrote in message news:<9k************@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net>...

I'm not as advanced as a lot of the others on here but from reading their
replies to similar questions, it is safe to say that a mdb file can be
shared with multiple users. It is advised to make sure the database is split
into a frontend and backend. That is the frontend containing all the
queries, forms, macros & reports and the tables residing in the backend. The
frontend should be installed on the local C: drive and the backend installed
on the network drive. With a setup like this, there shouldn't be any problem
with all 30 students accessing the database at the same time.

Mark

[PC Datasheet]

Rob,

13 Megs is extremely large for your small database. Go to Tools - Database
Utilities and run Compact. It will probably take your file size down to less
than a Meg. The large file size is a natural result of the initial effort of
designing a database - when you change or delete things, Access doesn't do a
very good job of filling the "holes" in your file. It takes the easy way and
just uses new memory. Compacting will close all the "holes" in memory. Also note
that I am in business as a resource for help with Access if you need any outside
help.

--
PC Datasheet
Your Resource For Help With Access, Excel And Word Applications
re******@pcdatasheet.com
www.pcdatasheet.com

"Rob" <ro********@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2f**************************@posting.google.c om...

Dear all

I'm well into designing my first ever Access database which is
currently about 13 megs (.mdb file) containing data on progress and
attainment of approx 500 students. What I want to know is this: to
make the database available to approx. 30 colleagues on the school
intranet, do I need to change it into a .mdw file and give everyone a
login name and password, or can multiple users open the .mdb file at
the same time? I'm on holiday right now and am working on my
standalone laptop. I intend to put the database on the school
intranet in early September. As I said, I'm new to all this, so
forgive me if this is a silly question.

Thanks in anticipation
Rob

[John Winterbottom]

"PC Datasheet" <no****@nospam.spam> wrote in message
news:2n*****************@newsread3.news.atl.earthl ink.net...

. Also note
that I am in business as a resource for help with Access if you need any outside help.

I'm sure he noted that already Steve. You make it rather difficult to miss.

[Larry Linson]

"ssb" <ma******@yahoo.com> wrote

I am currently designing a simple access
appliction with 3-5 tables and about
same number of forms, queries etc.

But I dont know how to create a separate
installation for front-end and back-end.
For starters, lets say, I want both of these
on my C-Drive. How should I go about it?

As of now, I just create a "design version"
of my database and Use MDE
version for other use.

Having multiple users logged in to the same front-end or monolithic database
significantly increases your chances of that database becoming corrupted.

A front-end (of which each user should have their own copy) consists of
queries, forms, reports, macros, and modules (and perhaps some local lookup
tables); the back end consists of tables, relationships, and the data in the
tables in a shared folder (usually on a server). You link the the front end
databases to the tables in the back end using either VBA code or File | Get
External Data | Link.

There's an introductory presentation on Access in a Multiuser Environment
that I did for my user group that you can download from
http://appdevissues.tripod.com. It will identify topics that I thought
worthwhile to discuss, and a bit more. The best collection of detailed
information and links on the subject of Access in the multiuser environment
is at MVP Tony Toews' site, http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

[Rob Howe]

Have compacted the database and it's now approx 4 megs (quite a lot of
data in it, some in memo fields).

I've noticed that the text is spaced strangely in some of the memos,
e.g. the spaces after full stops sometimes aren't there. I imported
into Access table memo field via Excel, originally from Word. I copied
the Word text and pasted into Excel as text-only, then imported into
Access and it automatically set the field property to memo. Any ideas
on why the spacing might have changed?

Rob

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