Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

  • Congratulations derfloh on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

One front end with multiple back ends

Status
Not open for further replies.

hal8000

Programmer
Sep 26, 2000
19
US
Most people split a database to have one set of data used by multiple front end databases. Can it be done in reverse? I have three clients that will have their own data, same file structures, but will use the same front end in a terminal server environment. Thought it might be easier to do it this way so that I only have to maintain one set of programs,reports, queries etc. These are small datafiles, less than five meg and fewer than five simultaineous users. thanks in advance.
 
Dear hal8000,

Yes, certainly possible. I have done this before.

You need some way to store the Different views (Backend Names), the physical location and the actual mdb name.

Then present the user with a choice/selection of which view to open and based on the choice, refresh the links to the appropriate database using VBA code.

Regarding Terminal server and Access.
1) I would have each user run their own copy of the frontend. You can set this up so that at logon time, the frontend is copied to a user folder.
2) Make sure that your Terminal Server Access version is 2000 or later. Access97 can have problems running multiple instances on Terminal server.

Good Luck,
Hap... [2thumbsup]



Access Developer [pc] Access based Add-on Solutions
Access Consultants forum
 
Wont you method create multiple front ends that have to be maintained? Or are they updated at login? I am new to this process.

We have Access 2002.

Thanks for the reply and info.
 
I would store the Original good (not run) Access Frontend in a folder(HoldSource). Then I would use a script, run at logon time to copy that to the user's default folder and then run that copy.

Now, when you make changes to the frontend, just copy the new version to the (HoldSource) folder once.

Good Luck,
Hap..

Access Developer [pc] Access based Add-on Solutions
Access Consultants forum
 
Hap007 (MIS) 27 Oct 04 17:25 writes:
I would store the Original good (not run) Access Frontend in a folder(HoldSource). Then I would use a script, run at logon time to copy that to the user's default folder and then run that copy.

Question, why would you recommend this? I have multiple users opening/running the same copy of an access front-end (which access multiple back-end mdb's with no problems on terminal server. Am I asking for some problems by doing so? (Just moved all this over to a terminal server box from a citrix box that had run these for years with no problems).
 
Hi Paul,

I always recomend running the Frontend by only one user. If only one user connects at a time, no problem.

Perhaps your application works fine, but there can be problems if 2 users connect at the same time. Say your first user runs a shared frontend and connects to a backend, call it 'dataset A'. Now user 2 connects and then, using the same shared frontend, connects(links) to 'Dataset B'. Well if User 1 is still running the same shared Frontend application, then the tables he is using are now pointed to 'DataSet 2'. Perhaps User 1 sets a 'Global Variable to a value of '12/31/04' and user 2 sets the same Global Variable to '06/15/03'. now both run queries that create temp tables and report on the same temp table. Well, what would be in the temp table? What would the global Variable be? Many problems can show up.... Just depends how far you have pushed the limits in programming the Access Frontend. The more features that you program, the more possibility for errors.

Why take the chance?

The problem with an Access frontend, all internal variables and linked tables are the same for all users. Access FrontEnds are not like VB or C++ executables, where variables are loaded from the exe into memory, but rather are stored in the Access db. So, if you are sharing an Access FrontEnd, at the same time, problems can occur.

Again, if it works for you then great. But, problems can arise unless you use a unique FrontEnd for each simultaneous user.

Good Luck,
Hap...


Access Developer [pc] Access based Add-on Solutions
Access Consultants forum
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top