Andy Lacey
andy at minstersystems.co.uk
Fri Dec 12 08:41:49 CST 2003
Food for thought Jim certainly. To be perfectly honest I've always steered clear of replication since some early and unsuccessful forays into it so have little experience of it. I will, however, look into this, and thanks for the idea. -- Andy Lacey http://www.minstersystems.co.uk --------- Original Message -------- From: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving" <accessd at databaseadvisors.com> To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving" <accessd at databaseadvisors.com> Subject: RE: [AccessD] Sort of like a filter only not Date: 12/12/03 19:39 Andy, <<So we need to be able, fairly quickly, to say "I'm going into a meeting with X so make the system show only X and Y's data (where Y is X's sister company)".>> Right. You also said: <<In other words, in that situation, the system needs to be cast-iron certain to only ever show the details of one customer, or at least a controlled sub-set (may be more than one as the customer may belong to a group).>> A good way to do that would be partial replication. You could even hand them the database to walk away with and never fear that their going to see another customers data. As you said, the system is far to extensive to go back and put filters into. Therefore the only thing you can do is manipulate the data. You your self said: "extract all data for the required customer(s) into an identical set of tables in another MDB then relink to that MDB." That first part is almost a definition for partial replication. Jim Dettman President, Online Computer Services of WNY, Inc. (315) 699-3443 jimdettman at earthlink.net -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Andy Lacey Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 9:28 AM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: RE: [AccessD] Sort of like a filter only not Sorry, reading my original again I may have misled you Jim. We're not talking about a situation where a customer permanently has a system with their data on it. We're talking about situations such as customer A coming to these premises for a meeting for a day and my client wanting to be able to show them the system on-screen but limited only to their data, OR a sales person going travelling with a laptop onto which we have downloaded the system (this we do already - for enquiry purposes only) and having meetings with several customers over several days. So we need to be able, fairly quickly, to say "I'm going into a meeting with X so make the system show only X and Y's data (where Y is X's sister company)". -- Andy Lacey http://www.minstersystems.co.uk --------- Original Message -------- From: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving" <accessd at databaseadvisors.com> To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving" <accessd at databaseadvisors.com> Subject: RE: [AccessD] Sort of like a filter only not Date: 12/12/03 19:03 Andy, Partial replication. Each customer would have a replicated MDB with only their data. Jim Dettman President, Online Computer Services of WNY, Inc. (315) 699-3443 jimdettman at earthlink.net -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Andy Lacey Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 5:46 AM To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com Subject: [AccessD] Sort of like a filter only not Morning everyone. Poets day is with us again but in the meantime I'm looking for bright ideas here. I have a biiiiig system here. I mention that it's big because any solution to this cannot involve changing every screen, report and query that's affected - far too much work. And the challenge is this: the users want/need to put selected parts of the system in front of customers. When they do so, however they do not want to show the names of other customers. So, for example, if they pull down a combo to select a customer they don't want to suddenly show that the customer's main competitor is also a customer. If they print a report of what the customer has received in the past 12 months they don't want to accidentally request All Customers and be embarrassed like that. In other words, in that situation, the system needs to be cast-iron certain to only ever show the details of one customer, or at least a controlled sub-set (may be more than one as the customer may belong to a group). So my idea was that before the meeting one could run a process which would extract all data for the required customer(s) into an identical set of tables in another MDB then relink to that MDB. Not all tables would be affected. Look-up tables, for example, would still point to the live MDB. But there would be quite a few involved because I'd need the customer table plus all related ones. This approach sounds ok, and an appropriate set of queries wouild soon do it, but it has its hassles, such as changes to the table structures which would require me to either keep the copy MDB up-to-date as well as the live one OR to create the copy one from scratch each time - but then I've also got to create indexes and relationships too and that's quite a job. Another idea I had, but I have to reject, was to rename the linked table (ie give it a different alias) then create a query with the same name as the table which filters the customers. All queries, screens and reports would then see that. But that's out because I use SEEKs on the customer table to access records quickly, and I can't SEEK on a query. So, has anyone got a better idea? Or a simple way of resolving the issue of changes in the table structures (can you somehow clone a set of tables complete with all indexes and relationships)? -- Andy Lacey http://www.minstersystems.co.uk ________________________________________________ Message sent using UebiMiau 2.7.2 _______________________________________________ AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com _______________________________________________ AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com ________________________________________________ Message sent using UebiMiau 2.7.2 _______________________________________________ AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com _______________________________________________ AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com ________________________________________________ Message sent using UebiMiau 2.7.2