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How good is Microsoft Access and the Internet?
Debbie
wrote:
Hello Adam,
I was looking
for info on ACCESS and HTML, I had no luck on www.microsoft.com, and saw
a message you had posted to comp.databases.ms-access about .idc files.
I've also tried calling Microsoft (nobody was there!!), so I'm not getting
very far.
Basically,
our company wants to configure some home pages where the data is stored in
a database (most probably Access) and people will visit the pages and
get data pulled out of the database and displayed using HTML files. This
sounds reasonable to me, the question is, can Access handle it?
How do you
like Access? We're thinking about getting it.... if we can get any info
on it, such as can well on portables, can it run on Unix, can it handle
HTML, can it connect to other databases?
Well, thanks
in advance for any advice you can give.
Debbie.
Adam Answered:
Yes, there
is very little information about Access and HTML. It is very new technology
and very little has been written about it. I spent many hours gleaning
the information I needed to finally get a web site/access system running
for Magna Data an Internet Service Provider in Sydney.
Access works
very well with Microsoft NT Server, Internet Information Server and .asp
(Active Server Pages with SQL in them). I am very impressed at the speed
and ease of use, once it is setup. The nice thing about Access is it is
user friendly and fairly easy for non-programmers to maintain.
For that
job Internet users can visit their site, ask to see information on specific
products. Then they can even register online using the registration form.
This is just
a little application I wrote to demonstrate a sample use of Access, hinting
at much bigger uses. Access works great at taking Internet user input,
processing it and returning information in an html document.
Selecting
Access versus SQL Server depends on how much traffic you expect to get
at your site. Access is not as robust as SQL Server, but easier to use
and maintain (cheaper). SQL Server is the database that Microsoft uses
for its giant web site (BIG BUCKS).
The nice
thing is that with Access you can start small, with a Pentium 266 64 MB
RAM and 4 gig hard drive, maybe a $5,000 investment in hardware and software.
Then, as your site develops over the next few months, you can simply add
another 64 MB of RAM and then maybe a file server via ethernet with as
many hard drives as you want, etc. Then if your site gets really hot,
you can move to a DEC Alpha with SQL Server, etc. I guess the point I
am trying to make is that Microsoft has provided upgrade paths for you,
so if you select Access you can later move up as it makes sense, to bigger
equipment and SQL Server.
Access is
a Windows product which means it will not run on Unix. I have used both
Unix and Windows. Unless you have a Unix engineer in your office now,
don't use Unix. It will soon be a dead language, because Windows NT is
SOOOOOOO easy to use. It is Windows, you know. Bill Gates announced Wednesday
that all of their software is going to be Internet aware. However, if
you like a DOS-like prompt and know what this command means i1 ,then Unix
might just be your language of choice.
Access can
connect to many other databases. If a database has an ODBC driver, Access
can connect to it. By the way, I am using Access 2000 for the Internet
work. However, Access may not be able to connect to a proprietary database
of custom design.
Access will
run on any Windows capable computer with at least 16MB of RAM, including
laptops. WARNING! You will be very unhappy running Access 2000 on any
computer less than a Pentium 200 with 64MB. This is true with all Win
95 products.
Well, that
should give you some idea, I hope I got you excited about using Access
for your project. If you need some help, please call on us. Our expertise
includes:
1. Active Server
Pages (ASP) development
2. Internet
Information Server (IIS) setup and maintenance and
3. SQL Server
7 database development
4. SQL Server
7 setup and maintenance
Adam Cogan
Sydney, Australia
SSW
adamcogan@s*w.com.au
What is client/server?
Client/Server
database systems are different from traditional database systems in that
the database exists on a dedicated server machine. Instead of network
machines "fighting" each other for the information needed, a dedicated
server processes requests from network "clients". This greatly increases
reliability, since access to data is controlled entirely by the host machine.
Security is much more easily enforced since authentication is done by
the server machine.
If a client/server
system has been properly designed, the overall system speed will be increased
and network traffic decreased, since workstations only receive the data
they asked for.
Microsoft Access Server Headaches
As a consultant,
I am often called into projects that are running behind schedule and require
additional resources. This year, a stock broking corporation called me
in to convert a mainframe application to PC environment. The majority
of the company's income was generated from the application I was converting.
Not only was I converting their money maker, the system was required to
be up and running within six weeks. The project manager decided that I
should build the system using the Microsoft Access database product.
The application
design specified a maximum of three concurrent users. Based on the type
of queries that were to be performed, I felt comfortable in stating that
the performance would be acceptable for the users. After rushing to meet
my deadline, the system was implemented. Everything went smoothly until
this company's business skyrocketed and more loans than anticipated had
to be processed. Before I knew it, the number of users had increased to
fifteen.
With fifteen
users on the system, the network came to a standstill. The reason the
application brought the network to standstill is simple: in a Microsoft
Access server architecture, all database processing occurs on the local
PC. Therefore, when the users issued complicated queries to the server,
the network jammed with data being sent back to the local workstations.
Often, the queries being issued from the applications required thousands
of rows to be returned to the local PCs.
In the Microsoft
Access server environment, this is the equivalent of calling a car dealership
and asking how many blue pickup trucks they have in stock. To get the
answer, the dealer drives every car to your house and you count the number
of blue pickup trucks. Obviously, this is not very efficient. In the Client/Server
database computing environment (ie. Microsoft SQL Server), a different
approach is taken. Someone at the dealership counts the number of blue
pickup trucks and passes the information back to the caller.
Eventually,
the mortgage banking system was rewritten using a Microsoft SQL Server
as the backend. Performance was improved, network bottlenecks were decreased,
and users were happy.
The Year 2000 is all over....
It's all
over now and all SSW escaped unscathed but invalid dates in databases
still cause problems from time to time. All versions of Access and SQL
Server internally store dates using four digit years. (Actually it is
stored as a number). Hence the reason why valid dates stored in time/date
fields were not be affected when the century ticked over. The main problem
lies in the initial entry of dates, either manually or from imported data.
Access 2.0 will interpret any two digit year as starting with an implicit
19. Access 95 varies depending upon which .dll's are on your system. Access
97 assumes all two digit years below 30 are in the 21st Century and all
other two digit years are in the 20th Century. Access 2000 does the same
but gives you options in Tools - Options to configure this.
At SSW we
feel that it is best to subject all incoming dates to a custom date validation
routine. (For example we prevent data entry errors such as 1/1/199). This
has the added advantage that you can modify a single function to change
the rules for date validation easily as time progresses or your internal
business rules alter.
At a PC level
we also have had problems. Some of the built-in date functions, such as
Now(), read the date from the Windows system clock. If this is correct,
then the Now() function should work okay. However some users accidently
change the date, resulting in invalid dates being passed to the Now()
function. This is a system wide problem and, as such, we feel that it
should not be corrected inside Access (since all sorts of other dates
on your system will be wrong). Instead at SSW we include a test in the
start-up routine of all of our databases applications that tests the Now()
function and makes sure that it is later than 1 April 2000 (or whatever
the date is when you program the routine). If it is less than this date,
then the BIOS is reporting an incorrect date, a warning message to that
effect is shown so you can get the problem resolved. This also solves
problems caused by CMOS battery failure, so it's a good routine to use
anyway.
PS Windows
2000, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows '98 will apparently trap and correct
these BIOS date problems.
A related
matter is the display of date information. As a rule we advise that all
date information is displayed using a custom format such as d mmm yyyy
(move the fields around to suit your own country format) rather than using
the Short or Medium Date formats which only show two digit years. Using
a four digit year display format gives added re-assurance to the user
that the date information in the database is correct.
How do I find out if SSW Consulting Services will fit my needs?
Contact us, and we will discuss your project
with you. After understanding your situation and identifying your needs,
we will make a proposal for you. At this point, it's entirely up to you
whether you want to go ahead with the project, seek alternative solution
or adjust the proposal to your needs. Call SSW to organize time to discuss
your situation.
What is the typical size of SSW Consulting Services?
SSW projects can range from a few hours to
several months, depending on your needs. If you are interested in discussing
a particular problem or your application's architecture for a very short
time with a SSW consultant, check our web page SSW
Consulting Services for the rates. Whether you require a Database,
a Web Site, or both, we can provide your business with a customised solution.