FE, BE, and Website.... (1 Viewer)

[CEH]

Been trying to find some reading on this but this one is a little new to me and not sure what direction to go.... Let me explain my DB and what we are trying to do....
The App is to record job applicant information. That part is no problem, the db has been done for a couple of years and used by different companies... Access split DB...... Now the tricky part.... The Boss wants to upsize to SQL putting the backend on a website server... This is to allow people to fill out an application online. This information would then be available when you open the Access frontend. I guess what I am looking for is how to connect to a SQL backend that is on a website... Thoughts... suggestions?

 

[the_net_2.0]

this might, and I say MIGHT be of use: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms811006.aspx

you would need the driver first I would think, right? or maybe not, for MS technologies. Just a finding for you. I really have nothing else to say, as I don't have the experience.

 

[ChipperT]

I am not going to address how to use a SQL Server for an Access back end. That is addressed here in many places. What I think you are really asking is "How can I access a SQL Server database through HTTP using Access?". If that is truly your question then the answer is, you cannot. It does not matter where the SQL server database is located. The server where it is located is a database server, by definition. Now, it can share the same physical box (and OS) as a web server but the part where the SQL database "lives" is still a database server. In order to tie in an Access front end you will have to have a network connection to it, the same type of network connection that would be used if it were an Access backend.

In this sense, there is absolutely NO difference between a SQL backend and an Access backend. For that matter, there is no difference between them in connecting the database to the website either, whether you are using Sharepoint, ODBC or whatever method.

Is that what you are looking for?

 

[CEH]

Yes, I think you have hit the answer... And "You can't" was what I also remember
At this point it's immaterial if I put a SQL backend or use an Access backend... What I was trying to do was to connect to that backend, on an internet site, from an Access frontend OFF the internet.
Still seems a little odd MS never addressed this.....wanna sell sharepoint I guess.... But I remember using MS Frontpage... I could open the website pages,files whatever that were on my local machine and with one click open the host server...compare, move, transfer back and forth..... Just sounds like it would have been easy to incorporate in Access.

 

[ChipperT]

Yes, I think you have hit the answer... And "You can't" was what I also remember
At this point it's immaterial if I put a SQL backend or use an Access backend... What I was trying to do was to connect to that backend, on an internet site, from an Access frontend OFF the internet.
Still seems a little odd MS never addressed this.....wanna sell sharepoint I guess.... But I remember using MS Frontpage... I could open the website pages,files whatever that were on my local machine and with one click open the host server...compare, move, transfer back and forth..... Just sounds like it would have been easy to incorporate in Access.

Well, no... an Access frontend is a desktop application and, as such, needs some type of network connection to the database, whether it be VPN, IP, or whatever. Frontpage was a design application that offered a way to transfer files back and forth over HTTP.

If you want to use a Web application to maintain the data and access the data from a SQL or Access backend, then it will have to be written for HTTP protocols, whether you do that by hand, using a "design" application like Dreamweaver, or automatically generated by Sharepoint, but at its "guts" the web application will be HTML (or Java, Silverlight, Flash or another base that can use HTTP). We are talking apples and oranges when we try to compare a desktop app to a web app.