DWUTKA at marlow.com
DWUTKA at marlow.com
Thu Dec 22 10:47:29 CST 2005
Sounds like an IIS server is what you need. Doesn't even have to be a 'server' class machine. Get a Server OS, put it on a machine with two hard drives (can be a desktop), and mirror them. (Using Dynamic Disks). You now have a redundant machine running IIS. You don't need a lot of bandwidth to run a website, unless you are planning to host streaming media, or allow people to download large amounts of files. A web page that is a few k will still load quite fast. Drew -----Original Message----- From: John Colby [mailto:jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 11:13 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [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/ -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com