Hello i have a database created with only Microsoft access (meaning no sql have been used) is it possible to make multiple users use it from different computers and the datas they input gets updated in all the computers?
Can someone just briefly tell me how if the answer is yes,
Much appreciated
I have on several occasions used the following technique with success:
(1) Split the Access Database in two:
The Back End: This database should contain the shared tables.
The Front End: A database for forms, queries and basically everything except tables.
Instead of actual tables, this database should contain "linked" versions of those tables which are held in the "back end".
(2) There is a central copy of the front-end database, but no-one opens this directly. Instead, they run a batch file which creates a local copy of that central front-end, and then opens that.
This setup has the advantage that the central "front-end" remains unused, and therefore isn't locked, and so the developer can edit it. The users will get the updates whenever they next launch the database using the batch file.
A second advantage is that the "backend" can be upsized to a "proper" database, and the front-end could then remain largely unchanged, just that the linked tables would no longer be in another Access Database.
I was wondering if this is something thats possible: currently I use this clickonce application to generate .ini files of access tables, I started learning vb.net not too long ago and I was wondering if I can replicate this utility via a vb.net form/app? Since currently not all the users in my company can use this utility for whatever reason by upper management and I looked around this site and other places, I found resources on how to create schema .ini files but what if the schemas are already in an sql table?
So for example each type of client has a code and schema type in our sql tables with "pick up locations", we use this in the click once app where I can select the access db, the table, and the location to drop off the created .ini file.
Currently in the sql, I have all the schemas in the schema table that has 3 different schemas and we tie the clients to one of these with each schema having different field order, length, type etc.
I want to be able to create a form and the user would be able to input the location of the access db and the table to be converted, then the client name (from a drop down) and based on the client the vb.net app would generate the correct schema ini file in the location for that client. Is this possible? I just dont want to keep looking into something if its not something achievable. Any information is greatly appreciated thank you
I am not sure what the correct forum is for a question like this, so if it would go better on a different one could you move it there please?
I have split my database into a front and back-end database. The front end is using linked tables which are linked to the back-end real tables. If a user changes something in a table on the front-end database, the changes are carried over to the backend database.
Why is this and how can I prevent this from happening? Is there a way to change the settings to make the database read only? Whether it's through VBA or not, I would accept either answer.
That's a feature, not a bug. You're using a linked table, it's linked.
If you want a separate table, make a separate table, and make some ETL (extract/transform/load) process to keep the two tables in sync as needed, accordingly with whatever business rules you need to implement.
If your Access DB is connecting to SQL Server via SQL authentication, you could have the SQL user on the SQL Server side only authorized to SELECT, and denied UPDATE, DELETE and INSERT permissions. Expect errors on the Access side when the linked table is modified then.
I'm working on a legacy project, written for the most part in Delphi 5 before it was upgraded to Delphi 2007. A lot has changed after this upgrade, except the database that's underneath. It still uses MS-Access for data storage.
Now we want to support SQL Server as an alternate database. Still just for single-user situations, although multi-user support will be a feature for the future. And although there won't be many migration problems (see below) when it needs to use a different database, keeping two database structures synchronized is a bit of a problem.
If I would create an SQL script to generate the SQL Server database then I would need a second script to keep the Access database up-to-date too. They don't speak the same dialect. (At least, not for our purposes.) So I need a way to maintain the database structure in a simple way, making sure it can generate both a valid SQL Server database as an Access database. I could write my own tool where I store the database structure inside an XML file, which combined with some smart code and ADOX would generate both database types.
But isn't there already a good tool that can do this?
Note: the application also uses ADO and all queries are just simple select statements. Although it has 50+ tables, there's one root "Document" table and the user selects one of the "documents" in this table. It then collects all records from all tables that are related to this document record and stores them in an in-memory structure. When the user saves the data, it just writes the document record and all changed data back to the database again. Basically, this read/write mechanism of documents is the only database interaction in the whole application. So using a different database is not a big problem.
We will drop the MS-Access database in the future but for now we have 4000 customers using this application. We first need to make sure the whole thing works with SQL Server and we need to continue to maintain the current code. As a result, we will have to support both databases for at least a year.
Take a look at the DB Explorer, there is a trial download too.
OR
Use migration wizard from MS Access to SQL Server
After development in Access (schema changes), use the wizard again.
Use a tool to compare SQL Server schemata.
We have a common problem of moving our development SQL 2005 database onto shared web servers at website hosting companies.
Ideally we would like a system that transfers the database structure and data as an exact replica.
This would be commonly achieved by restoring a backup. But because they are shared SQL servers, we cannot restore backups – we are not given access to the actual machine.
We could generate a script to create the database structure, but then we could not do a data transfer through the menu item Tasks/Import Data because we might violate foreign key constraints as tables are imported in an order the conflicts with the database schema. Also, indexes might not be replicated if they are set to auto generate.
Thus we are left with a messy operation:
Create a script in SQL 2005 that generates the database in SQL 2000 format.
Run the script to create a SQL 2000 database in SQL 2000.
Create a script in SQL 2000 that generates the database structure WITHOUT indexes and foreign keys.
Run this script on the production server. You now have a database structure to upload data to.
Use SQL 2005 to transfer the data to the production server with Tasks/Import data.
Use SQL 2000 to generate a script that creates the database with indexes and keys.
Copy the commands that generate the indexes and foreign keys only. These are located after the table creation commands. Note: In SQL 2005, the indexes and foreign keys are generated as one and cannot be easily separated.
Run this script on the production database.
Voila! The database is uploaded with all data and keys/constraints in place. What a messy and error prone system.
Is there something better?
Scott Gu had written few posts on this topic :
SQL Server Database Publishing Toolkit for Web Hosting
Generation scripts are fine for creating the database objects, but not for transporting database information. For example, client-specific databases where the developer is required to pre-populate some data.
One of the issues I've run into with this is the new MAX types in SQL Server 2005+. (nvarchar(max), varchar(max), etc.) Of course, this is worse when you are actually using Sql Server Express, which doesn't allow for exporting other than creating your own scripts to create the data.
I would recommend switching to a hosting company that allows you to have the ability to FTP backup files and does NOT require you to use your own scripts. That's the whole point of SQL Server, right? To provide more tools that are friendlier to use. If the hosting company takes that away, you may as well move to MySql for its ease in dumping information.
WebHost4Life is a life saver in this category. They offer FTP to the database server to upload your backup file or MDF and LDF files for attachment! I was so upset when I saw GoDaddy had the similar restriction you mentioned. Their tool didn't tell me it was a bad import, and I couldn't figure out why my site was coming back with 500 errors.
One other note: I'm not sure which is considered more secure. I enabled external connections in GoDaddy and connected with Management Studio, and I was able to see every database on that server! I couldn't access them, but I now have that info. A double whammy is that GoDaddy requires that the user name for the DB be the same as the DB! now all you need to do is spam passwords against those hundreds of DBs!
Webhost4life, on the other hand, has only your specific database shown in Management Studio. And they let you pick your own DB name and user name, independent of each other. They only append the same unique id on the end of the user & db names in order to keep them from conflicting with others.
You should not rely on restoring backups for copying / transferring databases. You need to use scripts - trust me you will get better at it.
I have used the RedGate Compare tools with shared hosting and it works well.
Database-generation scripts are messy, but they also have several advantages that ... well, make the pain more tolerable.
First, if you treat the DB scripts as real programming tasks in and of themselves, you can encapsulate the messiness. If you generate a script once (using a database tool), you can split the table structure aspects from the constraint aspects (keys, indices, etc.). Similarly, you can export the data once, but split it it into "system" data that's not frequently changed but is necessary for correct operation (stuff like tax or shipping rates, etc.), 'test' data that's easily identifiable, and 'operational' data that needs to be moved from DB version Old to DB version New (last week's Orders).
The first 3 minutes after you've accomplished that, things are wonderful: you can regenerate a new database with or without test data in a few minutes. Unfortunately, after 3 minutes, the databases are out of synch, at least in terms of data, if not quite as frequently in terms of structure.
I personally like to have each table's structure as a separate SQL file (and it's constraints as a separate file in a separate directory, and it's test data in one file, it's system data in another, etc.). On the one hand, this means that several different files have to be touched when making a change, but on the other hand, it makes it much easier to see the granularity of what's been changed: it's all right there in the version control logs. (I could probably be convinced that many-files is a mistaken strategy...)
All of this is predicated on the assumption that you have some facility for actually running a complex script involving many files and are not just constrained to some Web-based control panel, which may be what you're describing when you say "we are not given access to the actual machine." I feel that you can't do custom software development and not have some kind of shell access on the server; the hosting business is competitive enough that you can certainly find a script-friendly host easily enough.
Check whether the webhsoting company provides myLittleBackup
This is definitively the easiest solution to "install" a db from the development server to the shared sql server
Answer for SQL Server 2008 users.
I had the same exact issue as OP but I was using SQL Server 2008 and my shared hosting company is GoDaddy. Here's the solution to copy DB + the data to GoDaddy database...
In Visual Studio 2010, go to Server Explorer (in VS Express, I think it's called database explorer). Right click on database and select Publish to Provider ... this opens the Database Publishing Wizard ... go thru the wizard and it'll create a xxx.sql file on your local computer ...
Open SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the GoDaddy database (you should have already created this via the GoDaddy control panel within their website) ...
Open windows explorer and find the xxx.sql file and double click it. The script should open up in SSMS. Execute the script "within the proper database" ... voila, done.