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MS Access Help

miju

right my perplection is this

I wanna do a databse with over 1,000 contact details and I want to be able to give this database out to people.

Thing is I'm gonna be doing the database in MS Access and I'm not sure how to go about exporting it so people don't need to have access on their machines.

Is there a way to export it in MS Access?

If not would a nifty little VB or Java program do the trick?

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KinchTheBlade

Hi
You cannot do a standalone Access app - there is though a royalty free version of the Access binaries with the developer version but it is really not worth the distribution size and hassle.

VB (or whatever) is much straightforward for something like a contacts app for a only 1000 records

Kinch

miju

OK cool thanks very much.

I' m alright at VB no expert or anything so could you tell me whether the contact details should be a plain notepad file or will VB open the MS Access file

The Corinthian

VB has no problem connecting to mdb's through any of a number of means. If it's a simple Access database, then using the VB Data Control would be the most straightforward solution.

miju

thanks for that Corinth your my new knight in shining armor (ah your not really but your cool none the less)

I've a good idea on how to do it just wanted to make sure that yoiu can do it before spending hours kicking the crap outta my computer

at lease now if it doesn't work it's my fault

boo-boo

Originally posted by the-raptor

I wanna do a databse with over 1,000 contact details and I want to be able to give this database out to people.

If 'might' be worth looking at xml (with java or vb) for this - if its just one table you're talking about it wouldn't be too difficult to implement - and you cuold distribute it easily cause its just a text file.

miju

well to be precise if you visit the link in my siggie (for a start it's majorily out of date but we're in the process of majorly redoing that bad boy)

anyway, we have a contact directory which i think is around around 1,000 but it's prob more TBH it was an approx figure of the top of my head.

What I want to do with this directory is not only have it on our site but i'd like to do up another database that we can have available for download. but i dont just want ppl to download it I'd really like to present well in it's own package (plus it will help me get to grips better with VB or Java as thats part of my Comp Science course in college)

boo-boo

ok - if this contact directory is in the format of a single table then its easy to model it in xml - and well worth doing.

this is an excellent xml / java site, don't have any vb/xml links tho'

http://www.ibiblio.org/xml/

You can use the xml file as you could a database - making queries against it etc.
But it does mean learning a lot of new stuff - but if you're doing programming you'll
enjoy it & its a hot new (ish) technology.

if its a number of tables and you're joining then with sql queries or using referential constraints etc. then its a lot more difficult - and involves a fair amount of work.

XML will not be as quick as a db - but it sounds ideal for what you're doing.
A user could download it embedded in a VB- Java app and work away on it, & you don't care if they have Office - mySQL or whatever.- & its free.

Try to get your hands on XML in a nutshell - by O'Reilly - well worth looking at.

HTH

The Corinthian

Originally posted by boo-boo
ok - if this contact directory is in the format of a single table then its easy to model it in xml - and well worth doing.

Why? Other than it’s a buzzword and “it’ll be fun” what’s the business case for doing so?

You can use the xml file as you could a database - making queries against it etc.
But it does mean learning a lot of new stuff - but if you're doing programming you'll enjoy it & its a hot new (ish) technology.

An XML document is a text file and not a database. Databases are clustered in such a manner as to maximize the efficiency of storage and queries (in particular, with regard to indexing).

Even if he were to just use a text file, why would XML be any better than a CSV?

Additionally, any data stored in a text file could be easy to harvest unless he goes through the trouble of encrypting it also.

XML will not be as quick as a db - but it sounds ideal for what you're doing.

It’s not.

A user could download it embedded in a VB- Java app and work away on it, & you don't care if they have Office - mySQL or whatever.- & its free.

And VB is free too then? As for Java executables - bad idea, is he going to bundle the application with the latest Java runtime and dependencies too, seeing as he can’t control what will be present on the desktop that it will be running off?

XML is an excellent technology, but it’s no Philosopher’s Stone and so it shouldn’t be used to solve all of life’s problems. Too often it’s used because it might be ‘fun’ to develop or for marketing reasons and not because it’s appropriate to the project.

amen

XML could be good to use
if the users have IE/Netscape installed them he could
use JScript to access the DOM and provide user funcationality such as searching,
update details etc

The Corinthian

Originally posted by amen
XML could be good to use
if the users have IE/Netscape installed them he could
use JScript to access the DOM and provide user funcationality such as searching,
update details etc

Why is it so good to use for a standalone desktop application? Are the XML DOM's in IE and Netscape the same then? What about other browsers/platforms? How would you suggest protecting the data from harvesting? How would you package and distribute such an application for use by non-technical users?

:rolleyes:

RicardoSmith

XML are you mad? There is no reason to use XML for this. For once I agree with The Corinthian. You could use a DB but all you needed is a file to hold the data as you distribute it. A CSV file is fine. You can export that from Access no problem. Nearly all applications can import that file format, so they would be able to import it into excel, access, outlook or their address book, whatever they wanted in fact. If you want to distribute a front end for it well thats a different issue. The data and the front end should be independent of each other anyway so no matter what data format you can any technology you like for the front end of it.

But the real question is what software do the end users have on their machines? What machines do they have? If they are using Unix/Linix or Macs then theres no point doing a VB app. Do they have locked down workstations or what. What level of expertise to the users have? Are they used to windows? Will they be able to import a file? What browser do they have? Do they have access to a browser, or can they only access office applications? (common in many offices)

Frankly everyone trying to give an answer when you don't know the question. Ask the questions FIRST! You should have the basics of a user requirments spec even scribbled down before trying to write a solution. Using XML as a database is very ineffecient especially once the data grows to any size.

miju

OK thanks for the all the replies specifically what I'm looking to do is;

1: do a database in Acess (cos I know a good bit about it)
2: make a front end for the db in VB (again cos I know a decent bit about it)
3: to have it availble for download on my site for WINDOWS users initially. With the idea being they download open the file (hopefully without much installation) and be automatically able to look through (BUT NOT ADD ENTRIES) the db

am i missing something or does that sound like a half decent plan?

RicardoSmith

You'll need an installer for your VB app. You'll need to test the installer on a test machine so that it doesn't trash the end users PC. (yes it does happen)

The Corinthian

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
You'll need an installer for your VB app.

VB comes with one.

miju

right so is it safe to say i'd be able to this with relatively little difficulty then?

The Corinthian

Originally posted by the-raptor
right so is it safe to say i'd be able to this with relatively little difficulty then?

No, it’s not. I’ve no idea how competent a programmer you are, neither have I studied the project specification in question in enough detail to come up with a professional opinion on whether it’s the right way to go or not.

This is a first glance assessment, for free, on a community board and comes with no endorsements or guarantees. You get what you pay for, after all

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by The Corinthian
VB comes with one.

I thought it comes with a program for creating installers not an actual generic installer for any VB applications...:D where do I find this magic installer?

The Corinthian

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
I thought it comes with a program for creating installers not an actual generic installer for any VB applications...:D where do I find this magic installer?

Both VB 5 and 6 come with a utility for creating set-up programs for the applications written with VB as well as packaging any dependency files. You can even add custom dependency files such as mdb's to the final set-up.

I assume you were talking about this?

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by The Corinthian
Both VB 5 and 6 come with a utility for creating set-up programs for the applications written with VB as well as packaging any dependency files. You can even add custom dependency files such as mdb's to the final set-up.

I assume you were talking about this?

Yes. But there can be issues with it. Its not a free lunch. And you have to build the installer via the wizard too. Its best to have some knowledge of whats its doing before unleasing it to your users. Its important to be aware of that. I've seen VB installers destroy windows on many a machine. All it takes is the wrong dll.