Brad Marks
bradm at blackforestltd.com
Tue Oct 21 14:06:39 CDT 2014
All, Thanks to everyone who shared their ideas and insights on this question. This was sort of a curiosity question. When I have built inquiry systems in the past, I have always set things up so that each user had their own copy of the accdr front end. I was just curious if this was really necessary as I started to build the latest inquiry system. Based on the info that was posted, I have decided to build this inquiry system like the prior systems and set up a copy of the accdr front-end on each user's PC. I already have a nice change management system and it is very easy to add this new accdr to the process. Thanks again, Brad -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Heenan, Lambert Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2014 7:53 AM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] One Accdr (front end) for each User's PC or Share the Accdr file on the File Server I have to admit that I have *assumed* that your backend is an Access accbd or mdb file. If that is the case then yes, the server is only storing the data, and the user's PC is doing all of the work retrieving the data. The server may not even have Access installed, and even if it did, it's still the user's copy of Access doing the work. Now if the backend is SQL Server or Oracle or MYSql or some other actual DBMS then that changes things dramatically. Lambert -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of James Button Sent: Monday, October 20, 2014 5:09 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] One Accdr (front end) for each User's PC or Share the Accdr file on the File Server So are you saying that with the data not on the front-end PC's, the front end PC's will not be getting the server DBMS to read the tables of data on the server in order to provide required data to the data handler facility at the screen end of the process. As in select ___ from __ where __ IS LIKE "* Frederick*" and ... Does not put any load on the server DBMS - memory and data storage medium - both when all the data is on the PC on the user's desk, and when the data is on the central server? As in there will be no IO load on the server ? And - if the actual 'heavy lifting' is done at the front end systems - then does that not imply that for a cound where like will require all the data to be transferred up the comms link That is why canned procedures should be used to access the data so that the user PC activates a data selection (with parameters) that will cause the server to do the work and just send the needed results. Basically the server would have to read the data from the drive regardless, and that is, with current PC speeds pretty much the major time usage, unless the system does not have adequate memory to do the data handling for whatever concurrent loading it gets from the 10 client PC's JimB -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Heenan, Lambert Sent: Monday, October 20, 2014 9:19 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] One Accdr (front end) for each User's PC or Share the Accdr file on the File Server " The consequences of them accessing the data on the server will be: Delays in getting data selection done, as the server will be doing all the work that their local PC's were doing" Not so. The server is just acting as a file server, so when the 10 or so users open the same front end, all the heavy lifting is still being done by their local machine. Other consequences of allowing the users to share a front end - if you ever need to make an update to the front end design you will need to kick all the users out before you can deploy the revised version. When they each have their own copy of the front end you have no such constraint, but then you do have the problem of how to distribute new versions to the users. Lambert and his two cents. Prediction is difficult, especially of the future. -- Niels Bohr -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of James Button Sent: Monday, October 20, 2014 4:10 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] One Accdr (front end) for each User's PC or Share the Accdr file on the File Server Please note the following is only my opinion. If the front ends are never going to be allowed any update access at all by the imbedded security, or the access method including constraints - as in pre-coded SQL, then the main considerations for you at the server end will be the effect of an update being performed while one, or more of those users has the database open for access, and the effect on any scheduled (or ad-hoc) maintenance such as a backup if a user leaves their system in a state where it is accessing the database, and that access stops the DBMS being set in a can-do-maintenance state. The consequences of them accessing the data on the server will be: Delays in getting data selection done, as the server will be doing all the work that their local PC's were doing (adequate real memory on the server may mitigate that). And transmission delays as the selected data is transmitted across the Lan (Wan/web?) There is also the consideration that they will have assurance that the data they are viewing is up-to-date, and the results of any searches they do will change as the data does, and they will not have to schedule and actually achieve an update to their local copy. Now all of the above is a matter for your, and the organisation's management to consider rather than being a technical limitation of the use of Access. JimB -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Brad Marks Sent: Monday, October 20, 2014 8:31 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: [AccessD] One Accdr (front end) for each User's PC or Share the Accdr file on the File Server All, I recently built a small inquiry system with Access 2007. I am using a "Split" database (data stored in a "_be.accdb" backend file). The data is coming from an outside source and the inquiry system will never update the data. Currently all of the users (about 10) share the Accdr (front end) which is stored on a file server. A couple years ago, I built a similar inquiry system and I set things up so that each user had their own copy of the Front-end Accdr file. I am now wondering if this is really necessary. Would it be Okay for all users to share the Accdr (front end) which is stored on the file server? Please Keep in mind that no updates are ever done via the font-end. 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