Michael Maddison
michael at ddisolutions.com.au
Thu Apr 26 22:02:43 CDT 2007
Hi John, ClickOnce sounds perfect for your situation. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/t71a733d(VS.80).aspx cheers Michael M I have a bunch of processes that are not particularly suited to Access for one reason or another. These include things like * doing what I call "directory watching" and performing some action when a file appears. * FTP transfers between local drives and FTP sites * Building complex data feeds between a database and a remote mainframe To take an example, I regularly build data feeds which look like: Header Rec Detail Rec Detail Rec Detail Rec . . Trailer Rec The header rec has some specific set of data in it such as who it is coming from, the date of the file etc. The detail recs have repetitive data such as payments to clients, payment dates, from/to dates that the payment is for, the amount, the check number etc. The footer rec has some specific data in it such as the number of checks, the bank account number that the checks are drawn against etc. I have built a report generator in VBA, inside of access, and it works, but it is really rather patchwork by nature. I have to reference specific libs, go outside of VBA to handle things like the file system and text streams (in an object oriented manner) and so forth. There are no threads so a single error can hang the system, and things that should happen in parallel have to happen sequentially. So, I would like to take one of these systems and move it to .Net. What I am trying to discover is how .Net systems are (reliably) deployed to the desktop. Often times these applets are used by more than one person, often at the same time. At the moment, because they are Access / vba based, I just do a copy down to the desktop (a single file) and open the mdb. A form opens and the user goes to work. These applets are under constant development, literally daily as I finish one report another is started. Bug fixes are done. I assume (but am not sure) that a VB.Net applet would be distributed as well, downloaded to the desktop and run from there. What is the vehicle for this distribution? John W. Colby Colby Consulting www.ColbyConsulting.com -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com