[AccessD] Access runtime / SQL Server data project

I went to the prison tonight to install the prison ministry database on a system there.  Again the 
install looks like:

1) Install Hamachi and get it talking to the Hamachi server
2) Get Hamachi joined to the network for this specific project
3) Install the SQL Server native (ADO) driver using an MSI install package
4) Copy a directory structure with the database files - an application FE and my framework MDA
5) Run a little application which inserts registry stuff to make that directory a "safe location"
6) Run the application FE.

This is moderately complicated by the fact that at this location the internet access is not "always 
on", but is a cellular (telephone) internet adapter on the end of a USB cable.  So the user has to 
start the wireless adapter and get onto the internet, and then Hamachi has to log into the Hamachi 
server to get the point-to-point info to connect to my server.

So we got the internet up, then I did 1 through 5 above.  I have a test application which I try 
first which does *not* use my framework, but is just a simple form bound to one of the simplest 
tables on that SQL Server database.  The test application opened and displayed the bound form just 
fine.  It took me about 45 minutes to get to this point.

When I double clicked on the real application file (mdb) it told me that the file that I just 
clicked on (the application MDB) could not be found.  Say what???

I was a bit flustered by that but I went out to the applications folder and saw that Microsoft 
office had a folder so I drilled down into that and opened Access and ... it immediately (and 
without my asking) opened my application mdb that I had just been told couldn't be found.

Say what???

So I closed it and went back to the application directory and double clicked the application mdb 
again and it opened, and continued to open without error after that.  I created a shortcut to my MDB 
app on the desktop and opened it through that.  The app is talking to SQL Server on my virtual 
machine server on my hardware at the office, over the internet - and a somewhat slow connection at 
that.  I think the down link is about 380 kbit or some such.

Anyway, I opened forms, entered some test data etc.  It is working!  It is not spectacularly fast 
but I have done zero optimizations to it.  The main project form with a couple of regular bound 
subforms takes about 8-10 seconds to open.

These same forms just snap open on the wi-fi at the local Arby's.

So I will need to make sure that I use JIT subforms, and in the end I will probably have to go 
rework my framework to allow pulling a single record at a time for the main forms etc.  Eventually I 
will use pass through queries to allow SQL Server to do the filtering and sorting of data.  Stuff 
like that.  But it works as is, lets me get something into their hands, and allows me to optimize 
once I have fleshed out the application itself.

So there ya have it.  Access runtime, using bound forms, on a too slow internet over an Hamachi 
software vpn to a virtual machine running Windows 2003 x86 with 4 gigs of memory running SQL Server 
2008 Express x86.  If that isn't "worst case" I don't know what is, not to mention a whole lot of 
esoteric technology pulled together to make one tiny little database work.

;)

Having done that I have an immediate need for the exact same technology stack for two more projects.

-- 
John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com