help with splitting back end/front end

[dreamdelerium]

hey everyone, i have a question about splitting an access db into front end and back end. ive never done this before and just wanted to ask some questions. heres what im doing:

ive created a survey (7 forms, each form has about 3-5 tabs, each tab with 10-30 questions). the purpose of the tool is to collect all the date, prevent incorrect responses, and "clean" the data thats going to be stored. the peole filling out the survey's will have the hand written surveys and will input the responses into the db. there will be about 3-5 people doing this at any one time plus anyone should be able to access the project to view the data.

on a design level, i enter all the data and retrieve/display all the data using sql statements (ie, when the user click the save button it runs the docmd.runsql statement.) to store the data. how do i split the database and run an sql statement to store the data not in the local tables but on the server?
thanks for all your help
jason

 

[stopher]

Splitting the database always seems to sound more mystical than it really is.

When you use the database splitter all that happens is the tables are removed from your main database (the front end) and put into a new database (the back end) with the same name but with "_be" added. The splitter then creates a link in the main database to the new database for each each table. This link is a kind of virtual view. When you manage data in the linked table, you are really changing the data in the back end table.

The linked table also keeps the same name. So all your forms and queries etc will still reference the linked table as if it were the real table. You will notice a slight change in the icon so that you can tell it's a linked table not a real one.

You can split your d/b manually. Just create a new d/b and import the tables. Then delete them from your front end and create the links to the back end (right click=> Link tables).

From then on, if you need to change your table design, this must be done in the back end. If you add any new tables, these would need to be linked manually if you wanted to see them in the front end.

It goes withour saying that whenever doing any design changes, always take a backup first.

hth
Chris