Access 2007 and the Internet

[wdrspens]

Hi,
I have a question which most people would probably describe as inordinately stupid, but it does not stop me asking it and hoping for a helpful answer.
I have an Access 2007 database that I would like to put online on a "hosted" site (not my own servers) for other people to view and interact with, in the sense of seeing reports etc and making selections, but not change the data.
Can that be achieved, or will I have to try to learn SQL?
Thanks
David

 

[ButSeriously]

I don't see why you shouldn't be able to achieve this, just set all fields in any tables you do not want updated to "locked" before you publish it.

 

[wdrspens]

I hope you're right, but I thought I would first have to instal Access 2007 on the server - is that not necessary?
David

 

[Pat Hartman]

Unlike earlier versions of Access, 2007 does not come with user level security. Security is entirely controlled by whatever front end you use rather than by Jet at the back end. So, your ASP pages or whatever front end you use, need to implement security. I would not use Access2007 for this purpose since it cannot be secured. Move your data to SQL Server so that it can be secured. You can leave your Access front end as is although you will probably need to optimize it since quite likely it will be slower than the ACE back end was.

 

[wdrspens]

Thank you, Pat, you kindly answered my question, although I do not understand the answer.
I am so ignorant that I am perplexed.
"So, your ASP pages or whatever front end you use, ...".
I was hoping simply to upload my .accdb file to the "host" server so that a visitor to my site could use it just as I use it here on my computer.
Clearly, even if it is possible, I should not do it for security reasons, so I will, after all, have to try to get to grips with SQL
Thank you very much.
David

 

[Pat Hartman]

How would the user obtain your Access front end? Although it is possible to link an Access front end to a Jet/Ace backend over the internet, it will be painfully slow. Using a SQL Server or other ODBC back end will be faster but still slow compared to the same setup over a LAN.

 

[georgedwilkinson]

Why not just use

DoCmd.OutputTo acTable, "MyTableName", acFormatHTML, "C:\myfilelocation\index.html"

in a form's timer event?

Your server would have to have Access or the runtime installed (runtime is a free download for 2007) or another PC would have to have access to the file's location.

 

[wdrspens]

Thank you all very much for your kind help.

It is way over my head, but nevertheless does give me food for thought.

Thank you all very much indeed.

David