Jim Lawrence (AccessD)
accessd at shaw.ca
Sat Mar 29 06:03:19 CST 2003
RE: [AccessD] Replication - A2KHi John:
I have been running a Access replication application for five years. There
are basically three government offices with about forty total individuals.
The program has both an automatic and manual replication process programmed
in. I have one BE db with one table that is centeral to the process. This is
the file that supplies all the invoice numbers. It is linked to each site by
its URL address. As soon as a ne record is created, the program goes looking
for the next number. If the lines are glogged, that can take about 30
seconds.
I come in every so often and clean up any duplications because sometimes the
timing is off. The issue only comes up once every couple months or so. The
cost to permentantly resolve the problem, with a nice SQL BE, is prohibitive
so the clients have settled on this type of solution.
There simply is no other inexpensive solution. The cost is either on a
expensive product or an expensive programming process.
HTH
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of John W. Colby
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 8:29 AM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Replication - A2K
And perhaps the situation is simply different. People don't call to file
claims, they fill out paperwork and submit it. Not that your situation
won't occur, of course it will. I can certainly ask how often it occurs but
having spent 8 months on site I didn't get that it happened "several times a
day". People call to "check" on their claim that is already in the system -
having been entered from a claim form. The folks handling the phones do
take info over the phone, but mostly it is "fill out this form and mail it
in", or "get your doctor to fill out this form and mail it in" or "get your
employer to fill out this form and send it in". No paperwork, no claim! So
people "calling back with info" simply isn't a common occurrence since they
don't ask for verbal information other than current address and the likes.
I will certainly advise them of the facts behind the synchronization of
course. I get the feeling they will live with the occasional "out of sync"
info in order to get a doubling of effective speed.
John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
www.ColbyConsulting.com
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Wortz, Charles
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 11:10 AM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Replication - A2K
John,
I'm not saying your solution doesn't work. I pointed out a situation
that will arise and that they need to have some procedure in place to handle
it. Whether that procedure is within your solution or something they will
have to handle manually is for them to decide.
As to how often such calls occur, all I can say is when I worked for my
Dad in his insurance agency it happened several times a day that somebody
would call to file a claim but didn't have all the information the agent
needed so they would have to call back later with the additional
information. I doubt that human nature has changed much in the intervening
years.
Charles Wortz
Software Development Division
Texas Education Agency
1701 N. Congress Ave
Austin, TX 78701-1494
512-463-9493
CWortz at tea.state.tx.us
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of John W. Colby
Sent: Friday 2003 Mar 28 09:21
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Replication - A2K
They need an answer, and can't afford SQL Server. This is an answer.
To not look at the realistic options because of the 1 in 1000 (or whatever)
occurrence is not realistic.
I am certainly open to other options. However they just spent 8 months
moving an old creaky flat file to a relational MDB FE/BE. They don't have a
budget for a $10,000 solution at the moment. What solution can they get for
$500? Moving to SQl Server will be $5k or more. They don't have that, they
have said so. I have done all of the typical "make sure the fields are
indexed" things.
So rather than saying "this solution doesn't work", why don't you
suggest a solution that does?
John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
www.ColbyConsulting.com
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Wortz, Charles
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 8:33 AM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Replication - A2K
John,
But what about the situation where a customer calls back five minutes
later with additional information and gets a different examiner? How is
the second examiner going to be able to get to the customer's data if
you replicate on a 15 minute schedule? This may not be a common
occurrence, but it does happen and you need to be able to handle it.
And don't expect the customer to remember the name of the first
examiner, that solution is a non-starter.
Charles Wortz
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Is email taking over your day? Manage your time with eMailBoss. Try it
free! http://www.eMailBoss.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://databaseadvisors.com/pipermail/accessd/attachments/20030329/ffc4224d/attachment-0001.html>