Advice required for MS Access on the Web

[RobReid]

I am a designer/developer of databases using MS Access. I am finding more and more that my clients are requiring various forms of web based input through intranet/internet access. From reading various replies in Tek-tips I gather that MS Access Web Pages are NOT the way to go. Can anyone advise what approach I should take for the future? Is it ASP.Net or some other web programming language? I just need to find my starting point and take it from there.
Any help is much appreciated.

 

[fneily]

You state that you've read Data Access Pages are NOT the way to go. Whoever stated that probably never created an Access web application. I've placed an Access database on the Web for the Maryland Department of Transportation and others. You just have to get used to the language. With Data Access Pages (DAP), you're creating WEB PAGES. Thus to transfer data from a page to another you need to write cookies. The language you'll be using will be VBScript or JavaScript. Remember, you're coding in the Internet Explorer environment, NOT ACCESS. Also, I've found most IT departments aren't familiar with the XML produced by DAP's. So they'll tell you to rewrite it in ASP or something. DAP's been around for about 6 years, yet few IT people have learned it.
If you don't want to do alot of coding, Access, ASP, etc., you can put up a Citrix server (

http://www.citrix.com).

Then your clients can just login remotely and your Access database can just be stand alone.
If you don't like the Citrix server idea, I would say you could learn SQL or MySql quickly (relatively speaking) and use it to access your Access.
If you're just on an intranet, you could split your database into front end, back end.

For examples of DAP's:
msdn.microsoft.com\library - Then on the left, expand Office Solution Development, Microsoft Office XP, Access 2002, Technical Articles

http://www.kayodeok.btinternet.co.uk/favorites/kbofficeaccesshowto.htm