[AccessD] Web form data into Access97

I've done several variations of this using asp pages and an on-line Access
mdb that is unloaded periodically by a workstation Access mdb.  I used
FrontPage to make the pretty html page and include statements inside the
combo boxes(drop down lists) to insert VBScript code to load the options
from the on-line mdb.  That made it an asp page.  The submit button sends
the data to an asp page that validates and either rejects or adds the record
to the on-line mdb.  As John Clark points out, you can send email with plain
vanilla HTML and generate a comma delimited file with FrontPage
Extensions(check with web hosting company) and import that into Access.  I
use DSN-less ODBC connections to avoid interaction with the tech support
people.  That calls for a real IIS 5 rather than an imitation.  Except for
the email, you have to solve the problem of accessing the on-line data from
your workstation.

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-admin at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-admin at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 11:04 AM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Web form data into Access97


You have a few different choices, and which is appropriate depends on their
preferences, your skill set, the ISP hosting the site, &c. The simplest,
probably, is to use FrontPage or some similar app to create a form whose
contents are written to a comma-delimited ASCII file. From there, it's
pretty straightforward to import the data into your actual tables. Then you
could repeat this operation on a schedule and delete the ASCII file once
it's imported.

hth,
Arthur

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Clark" <John.Clark at niagaracounty.com>
To: <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 9:26 AM
Subject: [AccessD] Web form data into Access97


> About two years ago, I wrote a program for our Tourism department that
> tracks their 800 line requests. Their operators type information into
> this program from phone calls, messages, and their web site. They do all
> of this manually, which makes sense for the phone calls, but it seems
> that there should be a way to replace Email with a web form, and have
> that information piped into the program...I'll stop short of saying I
> know there is, because I have absolutely no experience w/this.
>
> Now, this department is being "taken over" by an "outside"
> agency...budget problems have prompted the removal of a couple of depts.
> and they are being adopted by other sources. This is supposedly a good
> thing for the county, so I was given as a contact to aide in the
> migration...basically just answering questions. I guess my boss has
> setup some sort of support contract w/these folks.
>
> Back to the actual question...I spoke to the new director of this
> agency, yesterday, and he was surprised that they enter information from
> Email directly. He asked if there wasn't a way to pick the data out of
> the Email and put it into the DB. I told him that, what they should look
> into was to have a form on their website, and this data could be put
> into the DB, w/out human intervention. I did preface this by pointing
> out that I did not know how to do this.
>
> Is this possible? What does it take? What does it take considering the
> DB is already existant and wasn't programmed for this? Also, they
> currently use FrontPage for their site, which is hosted by an outside
> provider. If it can be done, but not w/FrontPage, I just need to tell
> them this. As it stands now, my involvement ends with a recommendation.
> But, if it is doable, I am thinking of offering my services. It is just
> that I am so busy right now, that I don't want to get in over my head
> either.
>
> Thank you
>
> John W Clark
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