Current Situation:-
• Busy but impoverished veterinary wildlife hospital with 30 – 40 new patients each day (more in the summer), and 1 pro bono inexperienced programmer (that’s me!).
• Software (in Access 2010) is 100% proven working on individual computers in a linked file system currently containing >30k records.
• Central server with a .accdb data record file (the “DB” file).
• 8 Client computers with 11 individual .accde Client files linked to central server data record file.
• 4 of these 8 computers (“R1”, “R2”, “V1”, and “V2”) in constant use. The other 4 computers are in occasional use.
• “R1” and “R2” are at reception, each with one Client File instance, and are used to admit and discharge patients.
• There are 5 monitors (‘Screens’) and two computers (“V1” and “V2”) in the surgery
• “V1” runs 3 instances of the Client file, (“Client File”, “Client File Copy 2”, and “Client File Copy 3”). Client File Copy 2 is assigned to show the ‘Waiting List’ (on Screen 2) and Client File Copy 3 is assigned to show the ‘Procedures List’ (on Screen 3) and the 3rd instance, using Screen 1, is used by the vets to update patient records.
• “V2” runs 2 instances of the Client file, (“Client File Copy 4” and “Client File Copy 5”). Client File Copy 4 is assigned to show the ‘Foster – Release List’ (on Screen 4) and either the ‘In-House List’ or a patient record (for updating) on Screen 5.
• Each of the Waiting List, Procedures List, Foster-Release List, and In-house List forms are automatically timer-updated every 5 minutes.
• To avoid data loss the DB file and the Client files have Default Record Locking set at “Edited Record”.
However:-
We still have the occasional (but embarrassing) loss of patient data which appears to be caused programmatically.
It appears that a potential cause of the data loss could be clashes between the Client file automated timer-updates of the five principal screens (Forms) and the vet and vet-nurse manual updates of individual patient records on any of the 7 Client file instances. To overcome this it has been proposed to remove the program automated timer-updates on the five forms, and cause updates to them all instead only upon closure of the manually updated Patient Record on any of the Client files.
However:-
Because closure of the Patient Record form on say “V2.Client File Copy 5” could not cause a refresh of the Procedures List run by “V1.Client File Copy 3”, etc, in order to achieve this it appears that we would have to remove the individual .accde Client files from the V1, V2, R1, and R2 machines and install instead 7 links to a server-located Client file so that closure of a Patient Record on the server Client file could cause the updating of the queries running the five principal screens.
We do not want to slow the responsiveness of the system or to overload the server.
Your comments and advice would be greatly valued.
• Busy but impoverished veterinary wildlife hospital with 30 – 40 new patients each day (more in the summer), and 1 pro bono inexperienced programmer (that’s me!).
• Software (in Access 2010) is 100% proven working on individual computers in a linked file system currently containing >30k records.
• Central server with a .accdb data record file (the “DB” file).
• 8 Client computers with 11 individual .accde Client files linked to central server data record file.
• 4 of these 8 computers (“R1”, “R2”, “V1”, and “V2”) in constant use. The other 4 computers are in occasional use.
• “R1” and “R2” are at reception, each with one Client File instance, and are used to admit and discharge patients.
• There are 5 monitors (‘Screens’) and two computers (“V1” and “V2”) in the surgery
• “V1” runs 3 instances of the Client file, (“Client File”, “Client File Copy 2”, and “Client File Copy 3”). Client File Copy 2 is assigned to show the ‘Waiting List’ (on Screen 2) and Client File Copy 3 is assigned to show the ‘Procedures List’ (on Screen 3) and the 3rd instance, using Screen 1, is used by the vets to update patient records.
• “V2” runs 2 instances of the Client file, (“Client File Copy 4” and “Client File Copy 5”). Client File Copy 4 is assigned to show the ‘Foster – Release List’ (on Screen 4) and either the ‘In-House List’ or a patient record (for updating) on Screen 5.
• Each of the Waiting List, Procedures List, Foster-Release List, and In-house List forms are automatically timer-updated every 5 minutes.
• To avoid data loss the DB file and the Client files have Default Record Locking set at “Edited Record”.
However:-
We still have the occasional (but embarrassing) loss of patient data which appears to be caused programmatically.
It appears that a potential cause of the data loss could be clashes between the Client file automated timer-updates of the five principal screens (Forms) and the vet and vet-nurse manual updates of individual patient records on any of the 7 Client file instances. To overcome this it has been proposed to remove the program automated timer-updates on the five forms, and cause updates to them all instead only upon closure of the manually updated Patient Record on any of the Client files.
However:-
Because closure of the Patient Record form on say “V2.Client File Copy 5” could not cause a refresh of the Procedures List run by “V1.Client File Copy 3”, etc, in order to achieve this it appears that we would have to remove the individual .accde Client files from the V1, V2, R1, and R2 machines and install instead 7 links to a server-located Client file so that closure of a Patient Record on the server Client file could cause the updating of the queries running the five principal screens.
We do not want to slow the responsiveness of the system or to overload the server.
Your comments and advice would be greatly valued.