Is this a job for access or SQL?

[Paul H]

My client has over 3000 word documents on a network share. The documents
need to be searched for text strings. A typical search my be;

Search all 3,000 word docs for the string "Microsoft annual report"

I am guessing that access would pull each doc across the network, one by one
I would have thought this would be a performance killer. So what type of
solution would fit the bill, SQL? I am an access developer, but even if I
don't get the work I would let to point the customer in the right direction.

thanks,

Paul

[lesperancer]

using sql will still pull docs across the network

I'm assuming you're using 'word' automation to do the search
and you're using 'file' functions to select all documents within a
folder

I wonder if you could put an access mdb (ie. backend) on the same
network share as the word documents with a 'module' to build a list of
documents with a given string in a 'results' table

and then have a front end running on the client desktop to
open the BE mdb to run the module (maybe using autoexec)
report the findings of the 'results' table

[lylefair]

It's a job for Indexing Service.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...tpage_6td1.asp

"Indexing Service is a base service for Microsoft® Windows® 2000 or
later. Formerly known as Index Server, its original function was to
index the content of Internet Information Services (IIS) Web servers.
Indexing Service now creates indexed catalogs for the contents and
properties of both file systems and virtual Webs."

Indexing Service can be programatically accessed through a variety of
technologies. One of these, readily available in Access, is ADO.

BTW, the search you describe will be instantaneous.

You can check by turning on indexing service. Open My Computer. Right
Click on Drive C. Select Properties. Check "Allow Indexing Service to
index this disk for faster file searching". Indexing is done when the
computer is not in use. The intial catalog takes some time to build
(after all it's indexing every word and phrase in your files). Tomorrow
morning go to the Search facility. In the search for a word or phrase
enter the word with a "!" in front as in "!Microsoft" ; names of files
containing "Microsoft" will be displayed instantly.
Indexing Service faciliates many kinds of searches, such as "Microsoft
OR Dummy", "Microsoft AND Dummy" and (most frequently found) "Microsoft
NEAR Dummy". But it's power goes far beyond this.