access linked table, homemade version control 1

[Guest_imported]

When I send my client a new access app through pc anywhere, I want the client's 3 access users to know they are using the most current frontend. Periodically I will send their shared folder a updated access front end. They always have the most current back end. The 3 client access users on 3 separate pcs would copy the current version from their shared folder and paste it on their pcs. When the db opens, ...well here is what I am debating. Would like a form or message box to pop up telling any of the 3 that they are not using the most updated app...with every updated frontend I do I will attach a new progressive number to it...if their current is 1000, the updated version of 1000 that I will soon send their shared folder will be 1001. 1001 will be my special version number somehow attached to the updated app being sent down to the client. I can't be there to make sure the client's 3 access users are using the new updated 1001 from their shared folder and not still the 1000. When their apps start up, I am thinking of attaching a dialog form to the AutoExec Macro to tell them that they are not using the most updated access version(anything less than 1001). I need help with a strategy...linked tables, path names, outer joins, quieries, vba code...ANY ideas would be appreciated.

 

[jflachman]

Two ideas:
1) Have the 3 users use a shortcut to the front end which resides only on the shared drive, not on their PC's.
2) If you have access to the backend, put a table with a single field. That field should be modified to contain the current version when you do an update. In the Open property of the initial form or switchboard in the front end, compare the version of the front end to the version in that table in the back end. If the version in the table is greater than the version they are using, display your alert message. Jonathan
________________________________________
It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.
-Eleanor Roosevelt

 

[Francescina]

I use the following technique in this case:
- The frontend exists in two copies: on each local drive and one on the server
-The frontend contains a local table "tblLOCALVersionCheck" (one single record with one field "versionID" is sufficient) and the same table is linked from the copy from the server "tblSERVERVersionCheck".

Since you replace the server side frontend file you can easily change the value of "versionID".
On each opening of the local frontend the content of the fields "VersionID" in both tables is compared. If there is a difference, display a message and quit the application thus forcing the client to run the update procedure.

I hope this helps.

 

[jflachman]

Francescina,
Good solution. Definitely more efficient than mine.

JFlachman Jonathan
________________________________________
It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.
-Eleanor Roosevelt

 

[MichaelRed]

I do it very differently.

Place a routine in the DB which runs on startup. It "checks" the date/time stamp of each object in the "Server" version of the db. For any object which is NEWER than the local copy of hte object, the local copy simply copies the server object over the local object. Of course, you also need to check for new objects, but IF the ckecher is done properly, it will ALWAYS report new objects as newer than nonexistant ones. This (topic) was discused in great detail recently (within the last 6 months?) in these forums, so for a more in-depth review/discussion, do a search.

The extende discussion included the mechanism/process for Users to "Suggest" new objects to be introduced into the database without adding them to ALL users copies until a review was done.


MichaelRed
redmsp@erols.com

There is never time to do it right but there is always time to do it over