Recommendation for Access DB access

[tybee]

Server OS is Windows Server 2003.
IIS version 6.0
Access version - Access 2002

We have an old CAD drawing list Access database with 54,000+ drawing descriptions in one table, with one search form and one result form. The engineers use it to keyword search the descriptions to find the CAD drawing number, then go to the drawing cabinet to pull the drawing, which may not be the one they wanted. I was asked to make their life easier, since they have a lot of the drawings in .TIFF format that can be loaded to this server. My first choice, which works for me as an administrator, was to add a button on the results form that would extract and build the file name for the .TIFF file, then use the following code to open the drawing file so they could look at it to see if it had what they wanted.

strFileName = "http://webservername/Engineering/CADdrawings/sect" & strFolder & "/" & strSection & "d_" & strNumber & ".tif"

stAppName = "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"

Call Shell(stAppName & " " & strFileName, 1)

This works okay for me, but not for the engineers who would be IUSR_servername logins, or Browsers, I think. As I've read over the last several days this is not a good way to do it, but I have had no luck using the .asp option mostly due to the new security "enhancements" on Windows 2003 and IIS 6.0, which I know little about. I can't get around the 800a1eba error when the page tries to open the database.

If the direct Internet Explorer option is not the best way, is the .asp option the way to go or is there another way that I haven't stumbled on yet? We don't have an SQL server I can bum space off of, so I am limited to this web server for any options that are open. I just need to be pointed to the proper option for this application.

Thanks,

Greg

 

[Len Boorman]

We also have a similar database. Again in excess of 50K drawing references

Basically we just hyperlink to the drawing. They are .tif and .pdf

We have a structured file name convention and controlled file location. This make building the hyperlink automatic.
People can search by
Description or part description
Project
Prefix

We also control by issue and therefore the "Reader" only gets to see latest issue but "supervisor can view previous issues as well

All runs out of Access

Len

 

[tybee]

Thanks for the reply. As I was coming to work this morning I realized I left out the crux of my problem. The Engineering web page is on our intranet web site. There is a link on their page to the Access drawing reference data base. They click on this link which is supposed to open the database, then they enter their search criteria, select a drawing, then click on the open display button--which then works much the same as you described with the structured file naming convention, etcetera. This is the link code from the web page.

<p align="center"><b><font size="4" color="#0000FF">
<a href="drawingsconverted.mdb">Drawings Database (MS Access)</a></font></b></p>
<p align="center"><b><font size="4">

This is what I forget to include. My problem using this method is that I as an administrator have no problem with this setup, but no matter what permissions I grant in IIS, or to the users, or folder security, they have not been able to open the database from the web link. Which leads me to believe what I read that doing it this way is not a good idea, so I am looking for alternative ideas. If it were just for the Engineers I would just put the database on their shared drive, but any number of people in the mill need to be able to do this--electricians, pipefitters, etcetera, from any PC. I do appreciate any replies.

Thanks,

Greg

 

[Len Boorman]

I am not a web expert but the permission required may be for the "Web User". This is I think a sort of anonymous user within IIS that acts as the "User". It may be permissions on this "User" that are required.

We also can access drawing via a "Web" interface but
1) It was written no "cribbed" by a Ph.D. who has left
2) It is total rubbish although it does work
3) We end up with drawing files at three locations would you believe

So I cannot recommend any of this setup.

Is there not a network location that "All Users" can see. You will also need to be sure that All users can also see the drawing storage location

That's about as far as I think I can go at the moment
L