Sharing Over the Internet

[toast]

Hello all,

I have a split Access 2010 database with plenty of VBA.

I've been reading up on my options for sharing this over the internet (cheaply and easily, without losing the VBA, and probably without the need for any concurrent users)... am I correct in surmising that the only sensible option is remote desktop, to either my computer or to an online host?

Thanks for any pointers.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I am coming to that conclusion. I will be demoing an Access application linked to an Azure database Wednesday evening at the CTAUG.ORG user's group meeting. Look for a GoToMeeting invitation I will post in this forum tomorrow. The meeting will open around 6PM EDT and the main presentation will start around 7.

What I have found so far is that Azure only works if you can predict the IP address the user will log in from and preautorize that location. Since this doesn't really work for travelling users, you need to also set up a VPN. The user logs into the VPN and from that can get to the Azure back end because the VPN always has a "known" IP address.

 

[toast]

Thank you for your reply.

I'm sorry I missed the user group meeting; I've been away for a few days. I will certainly keep a look out for the next one.

Regarding my initial query, I am now wondering if I'd be better off migrating at this stage (before going live) to a better solution for sharing over the internet... the large stumbling block I predict with Remote Desktop is that we will need more than 1 concurrent user. Without server/multiple CALs this will obviously be a problem.

So I've been reading up on Office365 / Sharepoint (Access Services?) but I'll freely admit I'm more than a little confused... I've always been working over a simple LAN:

1. Are Office365 and Sharepoint (Access Services) the same thing?
2. Can you use an Access run-time frontend to connect to an Office365 backend? (most of the users don't have a copy of Access)
3. Can you disable browser access? (there is quite a bit of essential VBA)
4. Can you give restricted browser access so that some limited, web-compatible functions can be run?
5. Is it as simple as paying for an account on Office365, saving the tables to whatever format Office365 requires, uploading the backend to the server, then linking the frontend to the Office365 backend before distributing the frontend to the users?

My apologies for all the questions, but the more I'm reading on this the more confused I'm becoming!

 

[Pat Hartman]

The Access/Sharepoint option won't help you at this point. It would require a complete rewrite of the application to use Access web forms. Web forms are severely restricted and don't support all the events that standard forms support and they don't support VBA at all. You would need to rewrite all your code as macros and macros may not have the functionality you need. For example, you need a real programming language to automate Word and Excel. Macros can't do it.

Why do you need to share over the internet? Do you have remote users in other locations? Using Remote Desktop doesn't require that every user connect that way. The local users can run the FE from their own computers and link to a BE on the server and the remte users can use Remote Desktop so you may not need as many connections as you thought. Remote Desktop/Citrix is the best solution I have found for sharing Access applications. You could look for an ISP that provides Citrix support and let them run the Citrix server for you. It probably won't be cheaper than doing it yourself though.
1. I think Office365 is Word/Excel/Outlook running in a web browser rather than your local hard drive.
2. If your data is stored in Sharepoint tables (I don't recommend that solution but it can work for a simple app), you can have the Access FE loaded on each computer link to sharepoint tables. If users don't have Office Pro, you can download and install the Access 2010 runtime which is free. The A2010 runtime will run earlier Access version apps but when using the runime, my recommendation is to develop in the newest version you can. You will only need a couple of full Access installs but all the users can work with the free runtime.
3. I don't understand the question. Access isn't running in the browser unless you are using webforms.
4. Again, I don't understand the question. Sharepoint has security that you can use if you go with Sharepoint lists.
5. No.

 

[toast]

Thank you very much for the reply.

The questions possibly didn't make sense because of my confusion over what I was asking about!

To cut to the chase, I think sharepoint is probably not my solution at the moment; migration to SQL, run over the LAN with remote desktops as you suggest appears to be the best solution.

Concurrent remote users is almost impossible to predict at the moment. There are a number of satellite locations, but how frequently they need to use the database will depend upon how well they embrace the concept. Old dogs / new tricks / technophobes.