Best practise about FE location (1 Viewer)

npa3000

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Hi,

I 've been wondering if it's better to have my FE file in each computer that uses the application or have it on a shared folder on our local windows server?

What do you believe?
 

Pat Hartman

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Best practice is for each user to have a personal copy of the FE on his c drive. Nothing is gained by having multiple copies of the FE on the server (you still can't share the FE no mater where it is!!!!!) Once you have a distribution mechanism in place, the FE doesn't require any work at all to distribute new copies.

Besides, if you've read anything written by Doc, you would understand the overhead of opening a file on the server vs opening a file on your hard drive.
 

GPGeorge

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Hi,

I 've been wondering if it's better to have my FE file in each computer that uses the application or have it on a shared folder on our local windows server?

What do you believe?
Hm. "believe" is one of those words that triggers an alert response for me.

In the world of computers, things are pretty unambiguous, or should be.

I'm fond of claiming that ambiguity is required in puns, poetry and politics, but not computer programs.

Along the same lines, I think we need to distinguish between "belief" and "conclusions based on evidence". I'm not coming up with a good word for the latter, but the phrase should suffice.

In other words, it's a matter of having demonstrable results from lots of experience, versus picking a choice more or less at random, based on convenience or another, subjective consideration.

Pat alluded to work done by another member to validate one reason for the recommendation not to rely on a shared network location. Another, of course, is the risk of corruption causing everyone to go on an extended coffee break until you can scramble and replace that borked FE. Still another is the risk of an unauthorized person casually browsing of the network stumbling across your Access FE and wondering what it's about.

In other words, there are reasons, good and sufficient to support the recommendation and in our world, we're all about objective decisions, not subjective ones.
 

AngelSpeaks

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When my client had his FE on his c drive, it didn't work. Their IT guy said it's because Access is on Citrix and he has to open Access and then his FE.
 

Gasman

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When my client had his FE on his c drive, it didn't work. Their IT guy said it's because Access is on Citrix and he has to open Access and then his FE.
Hmm, I wait for experienced citrix users to respond to that.
Surely if Access is associated with Access files, it would open them regardless?
 

The_Doc_Man

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@npa3000 - Pat's comment is simple. Having a local copy of the FE means nobody else is competing for the locks of the FE because they are on a private (non-shared) machine. Those locks, because they relate to local files, are resolved at memory speed rather than network speed.

@GPGeorge - "conclusions based on evidence". I'm not coming up with a good word for the latter, but the phrase should suffice.

I believe either "inference" or "deduction" might work here, depending on the strength and nature of the evidence in question.

@AngelSpeaks - Their IT guy said it's because Access is on Citrix and he has to open Access and then his FE.

It would have been nice for the IT guy to know enough to realize that if Access is installed correctly on the CITRIX server (and has the appropriate multi-user licensing), double-clicking the FE's icon will still launch it correctly. Though in this case, I will defer to Pat Harman, because she has more experience in CITRIX cases than I have. It is bad enough that IT guys don't know enough about Access to appreciate it for what it is, but then to have them ALSO not know enough about CITRIX to make it easily usable with Office applications... Sheesh!
 

AngelSpeaks

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@npa3000 - Pat's comment is simple. Having a local copy of the FE means nobody else is competing for the locks of the FE because they are on a private (non-shared) machine. Those locks, because they relate to local files, are resolved at memory speed rather than network speed.



I believe either "inference" or "deduction" might work here, depending on the strength and nature of the evidence in question.



It would have been nice for the IT guy to know enough to realize that if Access is installed correctly on the CITRIX server (and has the appropriate multi-user licensing), double-clicking the FE's icon will still launch it correctly. Though in this case, I will defer to Pat Harman, because she has more experience in CITRIX cases than I have. It is bad enough that IT guys don't know enough about Access to appreciate it for what it is, but then to have them ALSO not know enough about CITRIX to make it easily usable with Office applications... Sheesh!
I don't know anything about Citrix, but it's the same thing with Excel, Word, Adobe, etc. You have to go to Citrix, then File Explorer, and then if you click on the files, the application will open. File Explorer on the c drive doesn't even show you the correct extension of the file. That is on client's desktop.
 

NauticalGent

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I don't know anything about Citrix, but it's the same thing with Excel, Word, Adobe, etc. You have to go to Citrix, then File Explorer, and then if you click on the files, the application will open. File Explorer on the c drive doesn't even show you the correct extension of the file. That is on client's desktop.
Are they using Thin or Thick Clients?
 

CJ_London

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with Citrix and terminal server the server has profiles for each user - in the same way a computer C drive can contain multiple user profiles (desktop/my docs/etc)

So you would store the FE in each user profile on the server, not on their local machine. Main benefits are performance (almost equivalent to a user having the FE and BE on their local machine), connect from anywhere and from any device that supports remote desktop (includes iOS and Linux OS) which is used to connect to either system. Only real disadvantage I have come across is a user can disconnect from the server, leaving their access app running - but that also has the benefit that if there is an unintended disconnect (power outage, network interruption) the app remains running so will be in the same state when the user logs in again - although there may be a timeout for the app to close if left too long.
 

Gasman

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File Explorer on the c drive doesn't even show you the correct extension of the file. That is on client's desktop.
Simple setting in File Explorer surely?
I'm old school, I always show extensions and not rely on the icons.
 

AngelSpeaks

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with Citrix and terminal server the server has profiles for each user - in the same way a computer C drive can contain multiple user profiles (desktop/my docs/etc)

So you would store the FE in each user profile on the server, not on their local machine. Main benefits are performance (almost equivalent to a user having the FE and BE on their local machine), connect from anywhere and from any device that supports remote desktop (includes iOS and Linux OS) which is used to connect to either system. Only real disadvantage I have come across is a user can disconnect from the server, leaving their access app running - but that also has the benefit that if there is an unintended disconnect (power outage, network interruption) the app remains running so will be in the same state when the user logs in again - although there may be a timeout for the app to close if left too long.
Thanks for the great explanation.
 

Gasman

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Pat Hartman

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Here is a sample .bat file to run the app in a Citrix environment. It uses the user profile to find the user's personal drive.
Code:
md %USERPROFILE%\DwgLog
del %USERPROFILE%\DwgLog\DrawingLog.accdb
copy "\\BSCCTIMBERLINE1\Timberline Office\AccessApps\Data\CommonFE\DrawingLog.accdb" %USERPROFILE%\DwgLog
%USERPROFILE%\DwgLog\DrawingLog.accdb
This .bat file is the simplest way to distribute new copies of rhe FE. Neither of the first two lines raise an error so the .bat file can be used for both new and existing users.

The .bat file would be similar for Remote Desktop
 

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