I am really stuck. Please help

[Mansoor Ahmad]

Dear All

I am stuck at a serious problem. In my case customer sends information as text files that is accessible for us on internet. I want to get that data in my databse table. That infomation will be then used on a form to add comments.

What I could think of it till now is that if I download that text file from internet and save in a file on my computer and then access that file from access database by File-Get External data route.

But there are problems. This database is going to be used by multiple useres. I do not want all the users to have access to the rest of the tables in the databse because the chances are that data would be appended to another table. I want some kind of easy way that I can create on a form through which users can download that data into a specific table.

Thanks

 

[bjackson]

have you tried to just link to the text file

 

[hi there]

if you're looking for a simple non-automated approach. you might try adding a hyperlink to the form with a URL to the txt file on the internet. create a memo field named comments in the forms underlying RecordSource and place a memo control in the form. then have the user copy and paste the information from the txt file into the form. of course the user will have to have permission to add data to the form. an automated approach would be much better, but this is a quick solution if you want the user to grab the info directly from the internet.

 

[Mansoor Ahmad]

Confusion

Hi there

Thank you very much for your reply. But I am still a bit confused. Actually I am a beginner in Access. I would really appreciate if you can explain it in a bit more detail.

Following your advice I created a memo field in the underlying table and put it on the form. Following the link to text file, the file can be copied then where the user would paste it on the form?Would it be in memo field, if so then whole data will be in one field. I want the data to be pulled into a predefined table in specified fields. So that the same data would appear on form to add comments and other measurements etc.

The text file consists of various columes for example there are fields for Line No, Part No, Fault Code etc. I want all this information to be stored in a predefiend table with defined column headings.

Hope you would help me further. Thank you.

 

[hi there]

i guess i was confused about your original post. in the case that you have a predefined txt file that you just want to pull the information in, you should follow bjackson's suggest of linking Access to the file. I was thinking you wanted to pull all of the information from the txt file into a single comments fields. that's why i suggested creating a memo field. is the txt file a running total. for example is the list of values for LineNo, FaultNo,...etc consistantly growing or is a new txt file created for each update. in either case i would suggest linking a table in your application to the txt file and then using an update query to populate the table which is the RecordSource for your input form. try searching the forum for "linking".

hope that helps