I have a client who has a complex data entry requirement to support some government compliance program. They have clients all over the world. In a previous version of this program, they had the clients complete paper forms and have them scanned and emailed to their central office for posting into an Access database app that I created.
Now they want their clients to enter the data directly. Initially I thought building-out intelligent PDF forms was the answer, but that proved to be much too messy for the type of data being entered. The validation requirements were too complex. So then the thoughts of an Access-Web presence arose, but once again, the lack of VBA scripting to support the validation killed that idea.
Finally I decided on a distributed database whereby I would create a subset of the database for each client and send that out as a backend MDB file and they would use the same front-end as the home office and return the completed MDB file via email.
The only thing that scares me about this approach is the installation of the app at the remote client site. I plan on using the AC2010 runtime but I don't think it's practical to use the runtime packager because of the size of the final file that would be created. So they will have to install the runtime themselves, but I think I need an installer package for the front-end. The big issue is the first-time relinking of the backend....and setting the Trusted location of the target drive/folder.
Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated.
Now they want their clients to enter the data directly. Initially I thought building-out intelligent PDF forms was the answer, but that proved to be much too messy for the type of data being entered. The validation requirements were too complex. So then the thoughts of an Access-Web presence arose, but once again, the lack of VBA scripting to support the validation killed that idea.
Finally I decided on a distributed database whereby I would create a subset of the database for each client and send that out as a backend MDB file and they would use the same front-end as the home office and return the completed MDB file via email.
The only thing that scares me about this approach is the installation of the app at the remote client site. I plan on using the AC2010 runtime but I don't think it's practical to use the runtime packager because of the size of the final file that would be created. So they will have to install the runtime themselves, but I think I need an installer package for the front-end. The big issue is the first-time relinking of the backend....and setting the Trusted location of the target drive/folder.
Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated.