"Thomas Kroljic" wrote in
:

And my second question would have to do with any changes that I
would need to make to the data structure. How do I update the
Field databases? Again, would it be better to write the vba code
to modify the data sturctures instead of using Replication
Manager?

I envision very few changes to the database sturcture. But I
can see
forms, reports, queries... being added or updated.

Why you mention Replication Manager, I don't know. It's an
out-of-date tool that doesn't provide much in the way of
functionality that you can't get via other metods.

See the Jet Replication Wiki for somewhat comprehensive info:

http://dfenton.com/DFA/Replication/

Now, to some issues:

1. as others have said, your app needs to be split, front end
(forms/reports, etc.) and back end (data tables). Only the back end
should be replicated, as:

a. replication is not needed to push out changes to a front end.

b. replication doesn't work reliably with anything but pure Jet
objects (tables/queries).

Your app should be split in this form even if you're *not* using
replication.

2. if the users are always connected to the Internet when away from
the central office, you'd be much better off avoiding replication
entirely and using Windows Terminal Server as your remote host for
the app.

3. if your users need to work outside the office disconnected from
the Internet, then using a local replica is a great way to manage
that. If you limit synchs to when they are back in the office
connected to the wired LAN, then it's very easy to implement with
plain old direct replication. If they want to synch in the field
(with an occasional Internet connection) or they need to synch
across a WiFi or WAN connection, then you would have to use indirect
replication which is an order of magnitude or more harder to
implement and much more difficult to keep running reliably (because
there are so many more "moving parts"). If you need remote synchs,
then I'd recommend upgrading to Access 2010 and using Sharepoint
2010 instead. That allows both offline editing and easy synching
when connected.

Basically, even though I'm one of the few people who has a lot of
knowledge of Jet replication, I recommend against using it except in
a very narrow range of circumstances. A2010 and Sharepoint 2010
remove the last of those except for those who can't afford the
dependency on a Sharepoint server.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/