Reminder/Alarm when Access is not Running 1

[sandra45]

Hi, can anyone help me with this problem I have, I couldn't get answer from Access form forum.

At this moment I have a database built in Access 2000 and it is stored in the server Win2K Server. This database is accessed by about 10 clients over the network LAN.
We need a reminder function to be incorporated into this existing database. So each user/client can input their scheduled activities into the database and click if they want to have the activities with reminder "on" or not. If they click the reminder "on" and set the time and date to have the reminder pop up on their screen, then I need this reminder function to work even when the database in Access is "off" or "not running". This is to avoid the data corruption and conflict.
If the reminder is using Outlook, it means Outlook has to be running too to have the reminder active or working. So I don't think Outlook is really the thing that I'm looking for.

In brief, I need to have an application that will look at the reminder information at Access tables (even when Access is not running), and trigger reminder in the form of pop up and modal form. And then the user will click the reminder form and automatically the user will be routed to the scheduled activity where the reminder is triggered.

I hope this details what I have in mind. Thanks Paul. Anything in mind to have this works?

Sandra

 

[jrbarnett]

Sandra,

As you have found, it is not possible to run code from within Access on demand as it is file based, and as such any programs written within it will only run while that database is open.
I can make a few suggestions:

1. A background program written possibly in VB (as its controls can access Access tables with little effort), run as part of the PC startup or network login routine that would check this table for events by the current user and cache them in memory. When the appropriate date & time comes it can then display an appropriate on screen message. It would also have to re read the table every so often - maybe once every 15 minutes or so, to check that nothing has changed but during this time there need be no constant database connection open.
The problem with this approach is that the user could close the program - even if you made it very difficult to do this, things like greying out the Close box and disabling File -> Exit, they could still do a Ctrl Alt Del and terminate the application from task manager.
With this approach therefore there are similar problems to your Outlook reminder suggestion.

2. A slight variation on item 1, it won't do exactly what you want but would be far easier to write, as it wouldn't need to run in the background:
A standalone program that displays a list of notifications for the current user as they log in, with an option to to tick items (which will clear them). and then an exit button to close the program.

3. You don't say what operating systems are running on the workstations, but if it is NT 4, 2000 or XP, you could possibly modify your form to set a scheduled task to do a Net Send to the user at the time which will display an on screen message using the Messenger Service. It won't be able to run the database opened at the scheduled activity, but it could be a useful reminder.
If this sounds interesting, I would take a look at the AT command from the command prompt, and the Shell command in VBA to set it.

4. This is the easiest to implement and will be the cheapest, but the least reliable as it relies on the human element:
Buy them all a paper diary which they can keep on their desk and put in appointments with date/times and they can keep with them and refer to it as needed.
A more upmarket version would be to use a PDA which could do the alarm element, but neither of these options could keep the link to the access database up to date.

John

 

[jrbarnett]

Sandra,

I have just found this: it lets you look at outlook reminders without outlook running - and it is tiny compared to the full package, as well as being free software.

http://download.com.com/3000-2350-10142679.html

So if you could put your reminders into outlook and get users to run this it would solve the problem.

John

 

[sandra45]

Hi John, thanks a lot for the info. I think I prefer the first option you mentioned up there. I have downloaded the free reminder, however I'm running in Windows 95, therefore I can't test it. Some clients are still running Win98, so I don't think this will solve the overall problem.

Can you let me know what I should do (in details please) to set up option no. 1 above? I'm not that familiar with programming in Windows API. Thanks.

I'm sure this input will be very useful for other users as well.

Sandra

 

[jrbarnett]

Sandra,

I am not particularly familiar with writing applications that use the Windows API, or Visual Basic proper itself (as opposed to VBA).
I would be inclined to ask in the VB forums here as there will be people there that know far more than I do in this area. It is worth remembering that you will need a full version of a recent version of Visual Basic in order to do this.
It would be possible to write it in access, but it would need to load access as part of the login and keep it running in the background, and this is something I wanted to avoid because of the overhead of having the database open (this is why I suggested the tiny outlook reminder program), and to be honest you may as well have the main database open if this sounds appealing.

John

 

[sandra45]

Hi John, it's just that some users are not operating in Win2K or XP or NT4, some are still using Win98. Furthermore, I haven't checked that tiny reminder downloaded earlier.

I'll have a look at somewhere about WinAPI, I'm sure this can be done. No, I'm very much discouraged to have the database running in the background, it consumes too much memory. I'm sure the users won't be happy about this either.

Thanks a lot John, I'll post it here if I get some answers.

Sandra

 

[sandra45]

Hi John, it's just that some users are not operating in Win2K or XP or NT4, some are still using Win98. Furthermore, I haven't checked that tiny reminder downloaded earlier.

I'll have a look at somewhere about WinAPI, I'm sure this can be done. No, I'm very much discouraged to have the database running in the background, it consumes too much memory. I'm sure the users won't be happy about this either.

Thanks a lot John, I'll post it here if I get some answers.

Sandra