Collecting data by emailing a database 1

[terre]

I have a problem, and wonder if anyone could suggest the best way around it.

I work in Education, and want the regional office to be able to collect data from each site across the region.

I wanted each site to have an access database, and at the end of each term, the database creates a new (smallish) database with all the relevant data, and email it to the regional office, where a Master database collates the data to generate regional reports.

All this works fine.

BUT!!!!!

THe Education department has stopped its email system from emailing databases...(or .mdb files anyway)
One solution would be to rename each file as a (EG) .rxx file, and then rename them back to .mdb upon receipt.
But this seems dodgy at best, and I thought might risk corrupting and/or losing data.

Any suggestions about a good way around this?

 

[PHV]

Why not using CSV files ?

Hope This Helps, PH.
FAQ219-2884
FAQ181-2886

 

[JoeAtWork]

I don't see why renaming the extension would corrupt the file.

In any case, I would be zipping the MDB's up since that's going to make the attachment much smaller. If your department doesn't stop .zip attachments then you're fine.

 

[TheAceMan1]

How are ya terre . . .

Have you given any thought to [blue]FTP![/blue] Only password protected regional clients could perform the uploads! For you ... this is fast and the most direct!

[blue]Your Thoughts? . . .[/blue]



See Ya! . . . . . .

Be sure to see thread181-473997 [blue]Worthy Reading![/blue]
Also faq181-2886 [blue]Worthy Reading![/blue]

 

[Lilliabeth]

I'm with JoeAtWork. We send databases back and forth to various organizations frequently and we just zip them.

It doesn't hurt the file to rename it though. We used to do this years ago when not everyone could unzip.

--Lilliabeth

 

[MajP]

I have also been doing this for years without any problems. We zip it up and then changed the zip extension to .piz and send it out. The other parties simply change it back to .zip.

With that said, some of the mail systems are getting smarter. Recently, I sent an associate a zip changed to a ".piz" with a .mdb inside. The system rejected it and sent a notice saying that I sent an illegal .mdb file type within the zip file. Somehow figure out that it was a .zip and that inside of that was a .mdb.

 

[terre]

Aceman1....
Don't really know enough about FTP.
Do you think it worth investigating?

Is it difficult to learn?

Easy to use, given teachers are not always computer literate/confident.

Suggestions as to good site/book to learn about.

Thanks you for your interest.

Thanks to all others for comments/suggestions.......

will ponder the way forward........

 

[TheAceMan1]

[blue]Do you think it worth investigating?[/blue]

Yes! ... Compared to the internet there's no more direct method for up/down loading files.

[blue]Is it difficult to learn ...[/blue]

No! ... Server setup just has to be done properly.

[blue]Easy to use ...[/blue]

Clients only have to learn how to [blue]upload[/blue]. Which can be as simple as [blue]pasting![/blue] ... or moving/copying files to an [blue]FTP Folder[/blue].

Its a bit to setup the server, but once its done your off to the races ... [blue]forever more![/blue]

The education department may already have an FTP server. You'd have to ask if an additional folder can be added for your use. Otherwise you could setup your own FTP server (within the bylaws of the department of course). The following link is an intro to FTP and setting up server/client:

Setting up a FTP Server in WinXP

[blue]Your Thoughts? . . .[/blue]

See Ya! . . . . . .

Be sure to see thread181-473997 [blue]Worthy Reading![/blue]
Also faq181-2886 [blue]Worthy Reading![/blue]

 

[terre]

Thank you.

I will look into this.
It does seem a viable way to do the job.

If not, the learning will be interesting anyway.

Thanks to all for your interest.