[AccessD] Serving reports to the web

And therein lies the problem.  No of external users unknown.  One of the
owners of the company is "selling" their services to a potential new client,
i.e. a new package where they take over administration of claims from a
company that the potential client is not satisfied with.  Details unknown
(to me).  The thing I know though is that once the floodgates open...

So figure that the client CURRENTLY has about 3500 open claims, so figure
POTENTIALLY 3500 users asking for claim status.  How many of those users are
computer literate?

So, now you need to create users whenever a person hits the web site that
doesn't already have an account.  Obviously we have personal information on
everyone.  They have to provide SSN to us, name, address, DOB etc. in order
to process the claim.  So I am certain that we have enough info to validate
them and set up the user on the web site.

"Internal users" consist of about 40 users running a VERY complex access FE,
not something that can be turned onto a web page.  A main form with up to 20
tabs with Just-in-time subforms, various tabs displayed / hidden depending
on the policy type, business rules coded into classes etc.  Not gonna
translate to web pages easily, too expensive to port, no reason to port.

All info exposed internally, i.e. users update EVERYTHING in this database.
Sometimes only supervisors etc but someone is allowed to see/modify every
single table.

Externally, unknown at this point but I am guessing that it will be mostly
"summary" data.  Claimants would get status of their claim, perhaps payment
info etc.  Read only.  Managers would get summary info most likely.  I
really haven't been provided any details yet.

As for infrastructure, the client has resisted even a SQL Server, though
Express might just get them moving on that one.  They farm out their very
simple web page hosting.  They have a single T1 coming in with 3 64k
channels used for internet access, the rest used for phones.  NO very high
speed access even available to them for a reasonable price.  This is a small
business park, miles from the center of any town.

The company is small (60 employees) with no in-house expertise in IIS or SQL
Server, and I am not up to speed on those either.

I suggested, from simple to complex, emailing reports to a provided email
address, PDF files uploaded to a server with access to those reports through
a web page, and setting up IIS to run a web site out of their office.  With
their bandwidth issues I am not sure that the latter is doable but the owner
doing the "selling" pretty much nixed the first two and asked us to examine
the third, so there we are.

I would love to see us do this stuff, and I would prefer an in-house
solution (server) so I don't also have to handle the headache of getting the
data out to an external hosted server. 

It sounds like the hardware / software you discuss would not come cheap
though. 

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com 

Contribute your unused CPU cycles to a good cause:
http://folding.stanford.edu/
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Nick
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 9:45 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Serving reports to the web

This is pretty much what I do all the time. There's a range of approaches,
but a lot depends on the details. How many external users, how often you
need to create accounts, how many internal users. What information gets
provided to the claimants, what information is exposed internally. 

For example, with ASP or even better, ASP.NET, there are ways to build
something that would allow the internal users to essentially navigate
through the entire database on an ad hoc read only basis.

What kind of infrastructure is available for this system? There's a
difference in what you can do if you have to build onto stuff already there.
At first glance based on the initial 40+ internal users I think I would like
a SQL server box, and internal IIS box, and an external IIS box, would this
kind of hardware be made availale?

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of John Colby
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 2:16 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'; Tech - Database
Advisors Inc.
Subject: [AccessD] Serving reports to the web

Does anyone have any knowledge of what is required to serve reports to users
on the web.  

The scenario is the Disability Insurance call center, a new client, which
wants to get access to summary information on insurance claims being
processed for management, but eventually to allow claimants to see the
status of their claim live, online.

I need a feel for how the security issue is handled, how users / passwords
can be created automatically, and once created how reports can be generated
and displayed based on the user logged in.  Details are sketchy, but I am
guessing that a secure area would be created where users log in.  The first
pass would segment the users into claimants and managers.  Once logged in, a
selection of possible reports (assuming that once demonstrated, the reports
will grow uncontrollably).

The BE is currently an Access BE approaching 500 mbytes, pounded on all day
by ~40 users live in-house entering claims and answering calls.  How does a
web enabled app get data out.  The "boss" has already pretty much nixed
emailing reports and downloadable predefined PDF files.  Which to me
indicates they are looking at "configurable" reporting out of live data,
straight to html, with strong security to keep the wrong people out.

Anyone out there with experience in doing this kind of stuff?

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com 

Contribute your unused CPU cycles to a good cause:
http://folding.stanford.edu/