[AccessD] Force Closing the FE

Hi Jennifer

Further to what has been said here - I also keep a track of what users have
logged in and from what machine and when
It has allowed me to prove or dis-prove a lot of things said by clients
<grin>
I also capture the logout/logoff times too and am able to do a simple
average time logged in once I have these details
Good for reports and again - for proving or dis-proving some claims
If for whatever reason there was an ungraceful shutdown of the app or the
local machine the log off times and machines are not recorded
So this then allows me to see all the orphaned logons without a
corresponding logoff. This info is useful as well

My approach to this 'Everybody Out!' issue was to give an admin person a
special admin form/s. 
This admin form allowed them to type messages (as well as 'canned' messages)
and set statuses that the app responded to accordingly

I had a routine that periodically checked this special Massages table in the
BE and then behave accordingly.

E.g. the Admin person could send a generic message to all users and the
users would see this message. 
They could see it as a message box that required a click from the user, or
as Stuart mentioned, in a timed/modal form
It depended on the 'type' of message the admin person wanted to send
The admin person could also set up a timed shut down - Users were alerted to
that and they saw on screen countdowns for say 5mins down to closing time
Or the admin person could set a forced immediate shutdown as well - again
depending on the need
The code had many messaged it could react to - I had about 6 or 7 that were
code driven - but these could be categorised and made into a growing table
driven list
A bit like a Message Bus

Of course for your needs it sounds like you need to get the time from a
server and if a set time (Say 7:00pm) has passed then shut the front end.
That's not too tricky either - but of course this mucks up the logon logoff
times and average logged on times - but that's not a big deal if you aren't
doing that already
Lots of fun with these back end administrator screens 

See ya

DD


-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jennifer Gross
Sent: Tuesday, 15 February 2011 4:58 AM
To: AccessD List
Subject: [AccessD] Force Closing the FE

Hi Everyone,

 

I have a distributed FE linked to a common BE, with no control over force
closing the FE from a network perspective.  Is there a way to put a timer on
the FE so that if it stands idle for an hour or so, or if a certain time
passes, say 7 PM or midnight, that the FE will Exit?  That way I can be
reasonably assured that all FE are closed and the lock on the BE will be
released for maintenance.

 

I have always had some sort of network control over getting into a user's
workstation once the culprit has been identified and closing down the FE, so
I've never been faced with this issue.  Am wondering how you all handle it.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Jennifer Gross

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