Distributing my application

[GaelicFatboy]

Up until now I’ve been using the applications I design for internal use at the company where I work, however, I am now developing an equipment selection application to issue to our customers.

I’m currently running on Access 2003, but we’re upgrading to office 2007 so I’ll probably be using Access 2007 to develop the application.

What I’m looking for is a spot of advice on how to package my application to make distribution and installation easy, I’m looking to use a promotional memory stick as a distribution medium.

I’ve been told that if I use 2007 I can get round any licence issues as there is a runtime version available as a free download over the internet, is this the way for me to go. If so would I need to write my own installation package or is there some form of installation wizard available that can package every thing for me.

I also understand that there have been a few security features removed for 2007, will this cause me a problem?

Cheer for any help

Denis

 

[suepowell]

HI,

I have been using access 2007 runtime with some of my customers and it works really well.

YOu need to download the developers toolkit and the runtime version from the microsoft website, then you can use the delevopers toolkit from within your database to create an install package which can include the runtime if you like. You then send this to your clients and off they go.

If the client only has runtime they can't access any of the code, but if they have access 2007 full version they can so you need to lock it down some other way if that is important to you. I have been creating .accde files which keeps things tidy, takes a bit of research to find out how to turn off the nav bar and stardard menu's which still being able to create it, but you'll get there in the end

good luck.

Sue

 

[Mike375]

Sue,

Does that require the customer to down load the runtime 2007

I have been playing with running A2003 .mdbs and all seems fine. I down loaded (at least I think I did) the developer part but I could not find it. Do you need retail Office 2007 on the computer for the developer part to down load. I only have Office 2003.

 

[suepowell]

HI,

No if you package the runtime with your db then the customer has all they need.

You do need to have a full version of access 2007 to run the delevoper extensions (as far as I know).

In 2003 and 2002 I believe they didn't make the developer extensions available for access users, they were bundled with some msde option and you had to buy them. For this reason I never did anything with runtime on those versions.

Access 2003 will run in 2007 runtime ( I think) but in this case your client would need to download and run the runtime .exe You could of course put it on the stick when you send out your database, but it is quite big.

One thing to be aware of is if the client has access 2003 then installs the 2007 runtime this is the version that will open when you double click a database. What that means is they cannot make changes to their 2003 database structure without opening it in 2003. Which they do by opening access then the databse.

Hope this makes sense.

Sue

 

[Mike375]

Access 2003 will run in 2007 runtime ( I think) but in this case your client would need to download and run the runtime .exe You could of course put it on the stick when you send out your database, but it is quite big.



Sue

I could not work out how to copy what had been downloaded. I assume there is compressed file that down loads and then extracts. I think the download is listed at 56mb. The Offcie12 folder created shows 89md and the program lsit from Control Panel (uninstall) shows 124mb

Obviously copying \Office12 to disk does not work but I would like to avoide the person having to down load.

 

[suepowell]

HI,

I can't get on the microsoft site at the moment to check, but the file I have is about 56 Mb When I downloaded it I saved to disk rather than ran it, so if you do that you should be able save it then copy for distribution.

Sue

 

[GaelicFatboy]

Cheers for that boys and girls, I'll have a play and see how it goes.

Cheers

Denis

 

[Mike375]

HI,

I can't get on the microsoft site at the moment to check, but the file I have is about 56 Mb When I downloaded it I saved to disk rather than ran it, so if you do that you should be able save it then copy for distribution.

Sue

Thanks Sue!! Too Simple Although in fairness to myself there are a couple of others on the forum where it was also too simple.

Just tested it by copying to another computer, double clicked on it and it created \Office12 and doubling clicking on MSAssess.exe opened 2007 and looking for an .mdb

 

[Mike375]

Cheers for that boys and girls, I'll have a play and see how it goes.

Cheers

Denis

Denis, a couple of things that might save you some bother

This thread, go about 2/3rd down the first page and there it starts with what has to be done to turn of the security warning if you have the runtime 2007 but not the retail A2007

http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=161950

Secondly, make sure a DB you run with RT2007 has something like an Autoexec to open a form to get going other wise you only have a blank screen

 

[GaelicFatboy]

Will do cheers for that one and all.

Denis

 

[gemma-the-husky]

i dpon't know whether A2007 is different, but earlier verisons of Access provide a liimited user interface only and no error handling, so if you DO use any of the available screen icons (eg A-Z sort, filter buttons, binoculars etc) you need to programme this functionality to make it avaialble in the runtime. Your app also needs to be robust as any run time error will crash it.

 

[boblarson]

Secondly, make sure a DB you run with RT2007 has something like an Autoexec to open a form to get going other wise you only have a blank screen

Setting the startup form in startup options will do the same, even for the runtime.

 

[Mike375]

Setting the startup form in startup options will do the same, even for the runtime.

Never even thought of it. Thanks Bob.