Brad Marks
BradM at blackforestltd.com
Mon Nov 18 13:12:39 CST 2013
Stuart, Based on your e-mail I decided to experiment with a web server. Over the weekend, I downloaded and installed an Open Source tool called WAMP (Windows - Apache - MS SQL Server - PHP). I then ran some tests and you are right. When a PDF file is served up by the web server (Apache in my case), the file is not locked when it is opened. I don't quite understand why this works, but it does. Thanks again for your advice. Brad PS. I had never played with Apache before and it took less than 15 minutes to download and install it and run some quick tests. I had also never played with PHP before and I was surprised to learn how easy it was to work in this environment. Here in Minnesota, we have long cold winters and it is good to have some new toys to play with in order to avoid the weather :-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Stuart McLachlan Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2013 9:23 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] Problems with Refreshing Access Report on Intranet Shadowcopy - http://www.runtime.org/shadow-copy.htm However, that is not the correct solution to your problem. Your problem is the way the Intranet is set up. Are you using a prpoer web server, or are you just using URLs to a shared folder on your network. It looks like the latter. If you use a web server to serve the PDF, it will not be locked by a user viewing it. On 13 Nov 2013 at 19:39, Brad Marks wrote: > Gustav, > > Thanks for the assistance. > > I changed the creation of the PDF to go into a working folder. > > I then added a small step to copy the PDF file from the working folder > to the folder that the Intranet uses. This step uses a .bat file (Copy > C:\Staging\Test.PDF C:\Intranet\Test.PDF) > > When I run this two-step process, I still run into problems if the PDF > file in the Intranet folder is in use when the second step is > executed. > > I am wondering if there is any Windows Utility that can copy from > A.pdf to B.pdf when B.pdf is opened. > > Thanks, > Brad > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com on behalf of Gustav Brock > Sent: Wed 11/13/2013 3:30 PM To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com Subject: > Re: [AccessD] Problems with Refreshing Access Report on Intranet > > Hi Brad > > Right after the creation of the PDF in a working folder, you could > copy it to the folder users reach. > > /gustav > > >>> BradM at blackforestltd.com 13-11-13 20:25 >>> > All, > > We use Access 2007 to create a large number of reports from data that > is stored in a purchased package system. This works very nicely. > > Recently, we have built a new report that shows "production schedule > information". Our users really like this new report, the catch is > that it takes about 2-3 minutes to generate it. > > Because of this long generation time, I have set up a scheduled task > to run every 15 minutes to generate this new report. The output is > exported as a PDF file. One of the pages on our Intranet has a link > to this PDF file. This approach has worked nicely. > > Our users really like being able to obtain this report instantly via > the Intranet rather than waiting 2-3 minutes when they generate it via > the Access application. > > There is one problem, however. If any user is viewing the PDF file > when the "refresh job" is running, the refresh is not able to place > the new PDF file in the Intranet's folder. > > I am curious if anyone else has run into this problem and has ideas on > how to work around it. > > Thanks, > Brad > > > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > -- > This message was scanned by ESVA and is believed to be clean. > Click here to report this message as spam. > http://h0stname/cgi-bin/learn-msg.cgi?id=601E4284B3.2B9F7 > > > > > -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- This message was scanned by ESVA and is believed to be clean. Click here to report this message as spam. http://h0stname/cgi-bin/learn-msg.cgi?id=A765F284B2.8B340