The Next Step

Albert Kallal knows way more about this than I, so I will leave you to that
part of the thread. I mentioned InstallCreator only because I have used it
with good results, although in a different situation, so it may not be
suitable for your needs. Paying for an installation utility may make good
sense if it does what you need and saves you time in the process, but that
is your call. I will just add that an installation utility makes good sense
in that I believe it will be able to determine whether the program is
already installed, and if so where it is located if not the default
location, and things like that.

"Karen" wrote in message
...
Thanks Bruce,

You have the picture right, 500 users using their own copy of the
application with their own data. I do appreciate the suggestion about
InstallCreator and am looking at it also along with the 'new' Package
Solution in Access 2007

--
Karen

"BruceM" wrote in message
...
You aren't paying attention. The OP said there may be 500 users, but they
are not all using the same data. That is, there could be a fairly large
number of users, but each has their own copy of the program. There may be
a
few users, but not 500 using the same copy of the program. As with
personal
financial management software, there is no need for centralized data
storage. Please do not debate this point with me, as I am only
paraphrasing
what I remember reading elsewhere in this thread.
Regarding the installer program, I mentioned it as something that has
worked
well in other situations, and may be of use here. In my case it
simplified
installation, but I am not saying it is the solution in all situations.

wrote in message
...
I think that the package and deployment wizard does nothing but make
things more complex.

distribute AccessRt.msi and give them a file. It is that easy

Tell them 'not to install AccessRT if they've already for Access'

and for christ sakes-- 500 users, move to SQL Server!

-Aaron

On Apr 9, 8:28 am, "Karen" wrote:
Thanks Bruce,

I'm looking at the InstallCreator now. I'll probably end up using the
Package Solution in Access because I have to install the runtime and the
Package Solution does that with voodoo I don't know how to find

I do have a way implemented where the FE checks to see if the BE needs an
update BUT, as you can imagine, I avoid that at all costs.

Karen Hagerman

Faculty

University of Phoenix





206-309-0438 (Leave a Message)

"BruceM" wrote in
. ..
I'm not sure how the FE Updater will work for users in far-flung
locations.
Perhaps it can be adapted, but it would need to check for a new version
of
the software in a web location rather than on the local intranet, which
means the computer would need to be online, which may be unlikely if the
laptop is brought to the actual inspection site. Even if they are,
connecting to the web site each time they start the app could be
cumbersome,
and is probably not necessary.
It may be best to have a web site, and a button on the application to go
there. The web location could contain updates. You could also notify
registered users about updates via e-mail, and direct them to the web
site.
There is installer software that perhaps could help to automate updates.
One version I have used, albeit on a local network, is he
http://www.clickteam.com/eng/installcreator.php
My experience with it is somewhat limited, but from what I have seen it
is
an excellent product.
There are a lot of considerations with upgrades. If you are just
replacing
the FE there is relatievely little to worry about, but if you need to
update
the BE then there will need to be a way to transfer data to the new BE.
Keeping in mind that with Access you are developing an application, it
could
be that the application is somewhat platform-dependent. That is, you may
need a different version for Vista than for XP, 2000, etc. Perhaps the
run-time possibilities with Access 2007 can provide the flexibility you
need, but my experience with Access 2007 hasn't gotten very far past
trying
to figure out the ribbon. It is on my home machine, and I have had little
opportunity to use it there so far.
This posting is just a collection of thoughts and suggestions about what
may
be possible rather than an attempt to offer tested advice.

"Karen" wrote in message
...
Hi Gina,

Thanks a lot for the response.

This was originally developed with Access 2003 and I've updated it to
Access 2007 also.

It is split into a FE and BE. I will definitely look at the FE updater;
today I just re-issue a new FE but as the group grows that might become
REALLY cumbersome with my method

The Access 2003 version was distributed with the runtime, the Access
2007
version will also be distributed with the runtime.

I do have the Developer extensions and can test on both a 'clean' XP
and
Vista machine.

When I first started on the original Access 2003 app I LIVED in the
newsgroups and learned lots. As you say, this is a great place to
connect
to those who have the experience.

Yep, you're right, it probably is 'grown up' based on its current
success
BUT so far it has been sold through 'word of mouth' and the current
users
just feel like old friends rather than the anonymous folks who may
purchase this based on an ad in a magazine.

We'll see, I'd just like to be as prepared as possible to distribute a
bullet-proof product to a larger group

Karen

"Gina Whipp" wrote in message
...
Karen,

First of all CONGRATS on your success! Now that that is out of the
way...

Deep breathes... What makes you think your application is NOT 'grown
up'?
Doesn't sound like your users are complaining, quite the opposite!
Sounds
like you're the one concerned it's not sophisticated enough for others
to
use. Let's take a gander at the application (I don't mean literally)...

1. From your description, sounds like it is not split. In the scenario
in
which it will be used I would recommend splitting it whether it is one
user
or 20 users. My reasons are, if I have to deliver updates/changes/fixes
I
don't need to have the end user send me their entire application and
wait
while I import my modifications, all I have to do is send them a new
front
end to 'pop' in place. There are additional items to consider, such as,
what if there back-end is sitting a drive you don't have or a server
you
don't have. In that case the is AutoFE Updater
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/downloadsindex.htm

Implementing a Successful Multiuser Access/JET Application
http://www.accessmvp.com/TWickerath/.../multiuser.htm

Albert Kallal has an EXCELLENT article
http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKal...plit/index.htm

2. Depending on the version of Access you can purchase the 'Developer'
extensions an distribute as a stand-alone thereby eliminating the need
for
your Clients to have Access. (Not in Access 2007 those extensions are
free). HOWEVER, not so easy to get prior versions if you do not already
own
them. You will need to look on reliable sites like Amazon.com.

3. You also might want to consider what version of Windows these
prospecitve Clients have. Do you have the ability to test on a Windows
XP
machine, Windows Vista machine? Though, if you application runs into
trouble you can search the newsgroups, plenty of answers for people
that
have run into this very same issue.

4. There are a ton of Access pages out there with all kinds of helpful
hints and tips. The MVP's and others in this group was sites you can go
to
and read up on best practices and all kinds of cool stuff. All you have
to
do is 'follow the yellow brick road'!

5. AND MOST IMPORTANT!!! We ALL started somewhere! For alot of us, the
newsgroups 'bailed' us out, helped us out and enlightened us! I have
been
doing this for years and still feel like a beginner when I stand next
to
these guys. Being a successful programmer is not always knowing the
answer
but where to go get the answer! You came here to find out the best
approach, you're already on the right track.

Lastly, please ignore Aaron, his solution to EVERYTHING is an SQL
Server!
(I am still trying to figure out how I can get it to make my coffee in
the
morning!) While there are 'real' reasons to move to a SQL Server yours
does
NOT sound like one of them. When and IF it every does, believe me
someone
with way more experience and know how will point you there!

--
Gina Whipp

"I feel I have been denied critical, need to know, information!" -
Tremors
II

"Karen" wrote in message
...
Hi John,

That's it exactly--------just have to figure out how to 'grow up' an
application that has had unexpected success.

Karen

"John Marshall, MVP" wrote in message
...
Looks like you have been bitten by our local troll. He is very myopic
and
will no matter what the question will reply with "Use SQL Server". I
would
strong avoid any recommendations he makes.

What you are asking is not that hard and some of the regulars should
be
able
to give you good advice. What you are looking for his information on
packaging an Access application so that 500 independant users can use
the
application with their own data. They will not be sharing information.

John... Visio MVP

"Karen" wrote in message
...
Thanks Aaron,

I think I was not clear about 500 users, think of it as 1 application
to
500 independent investigators. I do think that it is likely that the
next logical step will be upsizing the application to also work in
small
offices with a few users but.....................I have no intent to
wander into the world of corporate use. As you say, this application
was designed for an independent investigator to automate both the
collection and retention of commonly used data like Insurance
companies/contacts/clients/addresses/phone numbers etc. The resulting
dataset changes from independent contractor to independent
contractor.

As far as "partnering with someone that is serious about
Access"---that
is really the gist of my original post. I'm just an independent
worker
who created an application for a client, it was never my intent to
create an application for 'the world' but, it is spreading and 'they'
want to offer it now to a much larger community of independent
investigators. Shoot, I think that's great, a little extra income
would
be great BUT I cannot overstress how 'ignorant' I feel in regards to
how
to do this well and properly

Karen

wrote in message
...
Karen;

Id reccomend one of two strategies:

a) Focus on moving to SQL Server.
b) partner with someone that is serious about Access. I know of a
very top-notch Access firm in Seattle.. they could help you with
something like this.
...

read more »

Oh, by the way, the front-end is distributed as an .mde or .accde. Both
hide the built-in toolbars/ribbons and are limited to using the
toolbar/ribbon that were created for each of them

--
Karen

"Albert D. Kallal" wrote in message
...
"Karen" wrote in message
...

Although currently a one-user application, it would also make sense to
develop a means to let an entire
office use the application. The user front-end would talk to a SQL
Server backend.

If only about 2-10 users in the same office will be using the appliation,
then you'll likely not need to deploy and use SQL server in this situation.


Do I use the developer tools to develop the installation package or
migrate to InstallShield or Wise

The first question I would ask right now is have you been in issuing the
many bug fixes, updates, and satisfying the many requests that those people
have for new reports, or even modifying a report?

Other issues of wide distribution might require you to add the ability to
display the company name or particular branding information for that one
organization on the each report. (and perhaps you might wanna add a button
to your reports menu bar that allows you to be mail or send the particular
document your viewing as a pdf file). Once again only you can answer these
types of questions.

Another issue is things like defaults in forms. I have a form with setup
information for the particular company (name, address etc). I also have a
form that allows me to setup the defaults for things like State/Province and
city. Thus when the person enters a new record, the default city field is
"their" city, not the one I choose during development. Same goes for the
area code default, and state/province default. What I'm suggesting here is
for you to look at any of the values in your application that you perhaps
hard coded inside of the code, or have placed inside of the forms design
mode for defaults. This issue may or may not matter for your application,
but you want to sit down and give it some thought in terms of how these
things work now.

What this means is you want advoid hard coding some of the defaults in MS
access (forms, or tables). You also have to assuem it is unreasonable to
think that you're end users are going to be able to modify the code in the
system that you're deploying.

What this also means is that you likely using a split database right? If
your application is not split, then how have you been issuing the many bug
fixes, updates etc. for new features? So, how have you been updating these
people software now? I should point out that no installer tool will solve
this problem for you, and you have to have some design considerations in
your application to allow you to issue a bug fixes and updates to your
software in the field. This usually means your application has to be split.

I cannot stress how important it is to come up with a system to manage the
updating of this software on users machines you never seen. Furthermore it
sounds like you have some experience with the application being deployed in
the field right now. Note that with wider distribution you will have to
address the issues like different screen sizes (screen resolution), and also
things like different kinds of printers (about the only advice I can mention
with different kinds of printers is to make sure that you been very liberal
with your margins in your reports.

The other issue is to you plan to deploy the application on machines without
an actual copy of a MS access installed? If that's the case, then you'll
want to consider using the runtime package and deployment system that is
available for MS access. Note that these runtime systems do not have a means
to update and maintain your software in the field for you. However, the
runtime system does allow you to build a standard windows install that will
allow you to create a CD, or even a web download in which users can install
the software.

If you're going to distribute to machines that you've never used before, or
machines that have a very large variety of different versions of office,
then you're going to have a lot of problems in this regards. The reason for
this is a MS access does not play well when other versions of MS access are
already installed on the particular target computer. If this is the case,
then you have to do two things:

1) heed the above advice about making some means of updating your software
in the field.

2) If you're going to be looking at wide distribution on machines that you
don't know what version of office they have, then you have to come up with a
fairly robust and independent install of the MS access that will not damage
or interfere with the existing versions of office, or even MS access.
Installing multiple versions of MS access on the same machine tends to be
quite problematic. As a general rule I can to avoid this type of setup
altogether.

However if I was going to widely distribute to a lot of different machines,
and reduce the problems of support and installing the software, then I would
recommend you purchase some install scripts for the runtime deplopyment
system for MS access (the ones that come with ms-access package system are
NOT up to quality for commercial distribution of your application).

You can find install scripts he

www.sagekey.com

Where do I look for deployment specialists who are familiar with Access
applications?

How difficult it is to deploy your application is going to depend on how
well it's been designed now, and what you done so far to issue updates. Keep
in mind the issue of installing the application, and the issue of updating
new updates for bug fixes are not always one and the same thing.

The other issue of course is to do you want to install the application on
machines that don't necessarily have a version of the MS access installed?
Once again the amount of work to do this is going to be based on how much
effort and time you've put into the application now. For example do you hide
all in the additional menus and options you see in the MS access interface?
After all it might be too much that you require the users to go out and be
trained on how to use MS access. So, if you hide all things like the query
builder, and report writer from their prying eyes you make the application
far more user friendly and easy to use. For example, I don't allow my users
to see any of the query builder or any of the internals of my applications.
Take a quick read of the following as to how I allow users to to enter
things like date ranges and other parameters for report's:

http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKal.../ridesrpt.html

Another issue is have you design the user interface well enough to reduce
the training costs of people using this application? I give some hints and
thoughts on building a user interface that reduces your training costs by
substantial amounts he

http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKal...erFriendly.htm


If not the newsgroups then how do I find those 'experts' who know how to
take the next step? The newsgroups are great but I'm up for finding the
right 'experts' to contract with; just have no idea where to look

As mentioned if you are looking to purchase some deployment technologies,
sagekey is a good starting point. However the issues we'll need the most
work is to ensure that you've built and designed your system that reduces
training costs, should hide the MS access interface, should be split, should
likely allow you to deploy to users without MS access, and have designed a
means to update both the application part (front end), and the table
structures in the back end of your system by users you'll never meet in
person.


I know many of you have developed robust applications, what is the next
step?

As mentioned start by answering some of the questions above like do have you
run a split system? I talk about running a split database in the following
article of mine:

http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKal...plit/index.htm

Of course one thing always leads to the next step, and once you've learned
to split your database, then I'm sure you'll have cobbled together some code
to automatically re-link the front end to the back end. Same code is he

http://www.mvps.org/access/tables/tbl0009.h

How much work all of the above steps are really depends on how you've done
things now. For example to use the MS access runtime, you have to build and
provide your own menu system and interface. Since in all of my applications
I've always hidden the built in access menus, then deployment using the
runtime for me was no extra work at all. However if you've not been hiding
the MS access interface in your example appcation, then you have to address
this issue, Especially if you plan to use the runtime. (and of course if you
hide most of the MS access interface, then new users who will not be
overwhelmed with all kinds of menu options and features that they really
don't need to use).


--
Albert D. Kallal (Access MVP)
Edmonton, Alberta Canada

OUCH! Sagekey is certainly not inexpensive but..............I think I'll
try it out

--
Karen

"Albert D. Kallal" wrote in message
...
"Karen" wrote in message
...

Although currently a one-user application, it would also make sense to
develop a means to let an entire
office use the application. The user front-end would talk to a SQL
Server backend.

If only about 2-10 users in the same office will be using the appliation,
then you'll likely not need to deploy and use SQL server in this situation.


Do I use the developer tools to develop the installation package or
migrate to InstallShield or Wise

The first question I would ask right now is have you been in issuing the
many bug fixes, updates, and satisfying the many requests that those people
have for new reports, or even modifying a report?

Other issues of wide distribution might require you to add the ability to
display the company name or particular branding information for that one
organization on the each report. (and perhaps you might wanna add a button
to your reports menu bar that allows you to be mail or send the particular
document your viewing as a pdf file). Once again only you can answer these
types of questions.

Another issue is things like defaults in forms. I have a form with setup
information for the particular company (name, address etc). I also have a
form that allows me to setup the defaults for things like State/Province and
city. Thus when the person enters a new record, the default city field is
"their" city, not the one I choose during development. Same goes for the
area code default, and state/province default. What I'm suggesting here is
for you to look at any of the values in your application that you perhaps
hard coded inside of the code, or have placed inside of the forms design
mode for defaults. This issue may or may not matter for your application,
but you want to sit down and give it some thought in terms of how these
things work now.

What this means is you want advoid hard coding some of the defaults in MS
access (forms, or tables). You also have to assuem it is unreasonable to
think that you're end users are going to be able to modify the code in the
system that you're deploying.

What this also means is that you likely using a split database right? If
your application is not split, then how have you been issuing the many bug
fixes, updates etc. for new features? So, how have you been updating these
people software now? I should point out that no installer tool will solve
this problem for you, and you have to have some design considerations in
your application to allow you to issue a bug fixes and updates to your
software in the field. This usually means your application has to be split.

I cannot stress how important it is to come up with a system to manage the
updating of this software on users machines you never seen. Furthermore it
sounds like you have some experience with the application being deployed in
the field right now. Note that with wider distribution you will have to
address the issues like different screen sizes (screen resolution), and also
things like different kinds of printers (about the only advice I can mention
with different kinds of printers is to make sure that you been very liberal
with your margins in your reports.

The other issue is to you plan to deploy the application on machines without
an actual copy of a MS access installed? If that's the case, then you'll
want to consider using the runtime package and deployment system that is
available for MS access. Note that these runtime systems do not have a means
to update and maintain your software in the field for you. However, the
runtime system does allow you to build a standard windows install that will
allow you to create a CD, or even a web download in which users can install
the software.

If you're going to distribute to machines that you've never used before, or
machines that have a very large variety of different versions of office,
then you're going to have a lot of problems in this regards. The reason for
this is a MS access does not play well when other versions of MS access are
already installed on the particular target computer. If this is the case,
then you have to do two things:

1) heed the above advice about making some means of updating your software
in the field.

2) If you're going to be looking at wide distribution on machines that you
don't know what version of office they have, then you have to come up with a
fairly robust and independent install of the MS access that will not damage
or interfere with the existing versions of office, or even MS access.
Installing multiple versions of MS access on the same machine tends to be
quite problematic. As a general rule I can to avoid this type of setup
altogether.

However if I was going to widely distribute to a lot of different machines,
and reduce the problems of support and installing the software, then I would
recommend you purchase some install scripts for the runtime deplopyment
system for MS access (the ones that come with ms-access package system are
NOT up to quality for commercial distribution of your application).

You can find install scripts he

www.sagekey.com

Where do I look for deployment specialists who are familiar with Access
applications?

How difficult it is to deploy your application is going to depend on how
well it's been designed now, and what you done so far to issue updates. Keep
in mind the issue of installing the application, and the issue of updating
new updates for bug fixes are not always one and the same thing.

The other issue of course is to do you want to install the application on
machines that don't necessarily have a version of the MS access installed?
Once again the amount of work to do this is going to be based on how much
effort and time you've put into the application now. For example do you hide
all in the additional menus and options you see in the MS access interface?
After all it might be too much that you require the users to go out and be
trained on how to use MS access. So, if you hide all things like the query
builder, and report writer from their prying eyes you make the application
far more user friendly and easy to use. For example, I don't allow my users
to see any of the query builder or any of the internals of my applications.
Take a quick read of the following as to how I allow users to to enter
things like date ranges and other parameters for report's:

http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKal.../ridesrpt.html

Another issue is have you design the user interface well enough to reduce
the training costs of people using this application? I give some hints and
thoughts on building a user interface that reduces your training costs by
substantial amounts he

http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKal...erFriendly.htm


If not the newsgroups then how do I find those 'experts' who know how to
take the next step? The newsgroups are great but I'm up for finding the
right 'experts' to contract with; just have no idea where to look

As mentioned if you are looking to purchase some deployment technologies,
sagekey is a good starting point. However the issues we'll need the most
work is to ensure that you've built and designed your system that reduces
training costs, should hide the MS access interface, should be split, should
likely allow you to deploy to users without MS access, and have designed a
means to update both the application part (front end), and the table
structures in the back end of your system by users you'll never meet in
person.


I know many of you have developed robust applications, what is the next
step?

As mentioned start by answering some of the questions above like do have you
run a split system? I talk about running a split database in the following
article of mine:

http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKal...plit/index.htm

Of course one thing always leads to the next step, and once you've learned
to split your database, then I'm sure you'll have cobbled together some code
to automatically re-link the front end to the back end. Same code is he

http://www.mvps.org/access/tables/tbl0009.h

How much work all of the above steps are really depends on how you've done
things now. For example to use the MS access runtime, you have to build and
provide your own menu system and interface. Since in all of my applications
I've always hidden the built in access menus, then deployment using the
runtime for me was no extra work at all. However if you've not been hiding
the MS access interface in your example appcation, then you have to address
this issue, Especially if you plan to use the runtime. (and of course if you
hide most of the MS access interface, then new users who will not be
overwhelmed with all kinds of menu options and features that they really
don't need to use).


--
Albert D. Kallal (Access MVP)
Edmonton, Alberta Canada

" wrote:

Karen;

Id reccomend one of two strategies:

a) Focus on moving to SQL Server.
b) partner with someone that is serious about Access. I know of a
very top-notch Access firm in Seattle.. they could help you with
something like this.

But don't count on scaling to 500 users easily.

If you want something that with much throughput; you should just pick
up a copy of dreamweaver; and copy the forms; use wizards to make
webpages. Access just isn't designed for 500 users; and there isn't a
person in the world that can make a flawless (fast) solution using MDB
linked tables to SQL Server that supports 500 users.

Are you going to just keep SQL on one server?
Or one server at each office?
Or a local copy of SQL Server on every laptop?

The Office 2000 Developer Editon has all the tools that you need to
deploy SQL Server to desktops for local storage.
Then you would just need to configure replication.

The VB 2005 Express Edition has all the tools to do this also.. it is
free and easy. That might help you to minimize a lot of the
complexities of something like this.

I mean-- these are fire inspectors that run around to different sites
with a laptop right?
It's not like they can inspect across the internet; right?

I just think that you'd be best served by focusing on the SQL Server
side of the equation. Do that, do it right for a year-- before diving
into something like this.

In general-- Access is _NOT_ a professional software development
platform. Yes; some companies use it quite successfully. But if
you're talking about something like this-- do you even know the
security ramifications of this data? I think that security on this
type of data is probably 100 times more important than it first seems.

Upsizing a MDB database to SQL Server isnt' going to work with that
many users-- unless you move to ADP.

Sorry-- but those are the facts.

-Aaron

I beg to differ. I have been using Access since v1.1 and currently have an
app with a SQL back end that supports 1000+ concurrent users in 27 cities.
Also, 3 call centers use the app. We have extrememly fast response times and
no issues whatsoever. If you know how to code effectively, Access can scale
much further than most people realize.

On Apr 9, 3:26 pm, "Karen" wrote:
OUCH! Sagekey is certainly not inexpensive but..............I think I'll
try it out

You can also use (for free) inno SmartSetup:

http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

Hope this helps,

Peter De Baets
http://www.peterssoftware.com

"Karen" wrote:

Oh, by the way, the front-end is distributed as an .mde or .accde. Both
hide the built-in toolbars/ribbons and are limited to using the
toolbar/ribbon that were created for each of them

I do the same although my toolbar is very, very brief.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

" wrote:

For 500 independend installations; single user-- they need a frontend
backend?

Sounds to me like SQL Server is a much simpler architecture.

No it's not. You obviously haven't understood her question.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

Peter Hibbs wrote:

However, if you will need
to make changes to the Back-End file you need a different method.

I've been using Compare'Em
http://home.gci.net/~mike-noel/Compa.../CompareEM.htm

It has few quirks but the VBA code it produces is usable.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

Well that's why-- it's in your best interests to _LIE_.

Because you're still stuck using linked tables.

WAHHHHHHHH!!!!

-Aaron

On Apr 9, 3:53*pm, Richard Kohler
wrote:
" wrote:
Karen;

Id reccomend one of two strategies:

a) Focus on moving to SQL Server.
b) partner with someone that is serious about Access. *I know of a
very top-notch Access firm in Seattle.. they could help you with
something like this.

But don't count on scaling to 500 users easily.

If you want something that with much throughput; you should just pick
up a copy of dreamweaver; and copy the forms; use wizards to make
webpages. *Access just isn't designed for 500 users; and there isn't a
person in the world that can make a flawless (fast) solution using MDB
linked tables to SQL Server that supports 500 users.

Are you going to just keep SQL on one server?
Or one server at each office?
Or a local copy of SQL Server on every laptop?

The Office 2000 Developer Editon has all the tools that you need to
deploy SQL Server to desktops for local storage.
Then you would just need to configure replication.

The VB 2005 Express Edition has all the tools to do this also.. it is
free and easy. *That might help you to minimize a lot of the
complexities of something like this.

I mean-- these are fire inspectors that run around to different sites
with a laptop right?
It's not like they can inspect across the internet; right?

I just think that you'd be best served by focusing on the SQL Server
side of the equation. *Do that, do it right for a year-- before diving
into something like this.

In general-- Access is _NOT_ a professional software development
platform. *Yes; some companies use it quite successfully. *But if
you're talking about something like this-- do you even know the
security ramifications of this data? I think that security on this
type of data is probably 100 times more important than it first seems.

Upsizing a MDB database to SQL Server isnt' going to work with that
many users-- unless you move to ADP.

Sorry-- but those are the facts.

-Aaron

I beg to differ. I have been using Access since v1.1 and currently have an
app with a SQL back end that supports 1000+ concurrent users in 27 cities.
Also, 3 call centers use the app. We have extrememly fast response times and
no issues whatsoever. If you know how to code effectively, Access can scale
much further than most people realize.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Dude Tony... If you knew how to do basic math-- you might 'get it'.

500 users with
1)
a) 500 front ends
b) 500 back ends
c) 500 temp db MDBs (ROFL what a joke!)

or

2)
a) 500 front ends
b) 1 or 5 or 50 or 500 back end databases.

So which is less.. 1500? or 501?

Come on Tony; you really must learn to give up on that linked table
crap.. Linked tables are no longer the reccomended method for working
with any database.

-Aaron



On Apr 10, 3:37*pm, "Tony Toews [MVP]" wrote:
" wrote:
For 500 independend installations; single user-- they need a frontend
backend?

Sounds to me like SQL Server is a much simpler architecture.

No it's not. *You obviously haven't understood her question.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
* *Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
* *Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems athttp://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
* *Tony's Microsoft Access Blog -http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/