Synchronizing Data from Sources Offsite (1 Viewer)

[ccg_0004]

Hi all-

I have come to a very sticky issue. We have a database that tracks tool rentals. The tools are maintained by servicemen (and women) that are geographically far from the home office. Many locations are very remote and the internet is inaccessible.

However, I need data to be added to the database from these external computers, even though they cannot connect to the server.

I considered using Microsoft SharePoint and allowing the users to work offline to add data and then synchronizing when they have internet connection established.

Several questions:

1.) Does anyone have any experience with this? If so, what are your feelings towards that dataflow?

2.) Any other options about how to get data into the database from the field?

CG

 

[statsman]

If all of your computers use the same Access database, it shouldn't be a problem. Just get the data and use an append query. If each location uses a different database, you may have to create a separate append query for each one.
Have your remote people download the tables onto a floppy or CD and courier it in. They could Email it to you in zip format as well. I find it difficult to believe there is a place on the planet where you can't get Email.

 

[boblarson]

If all of your computers use the same Access database, it shouldn't be a problem. Just get the data and use an append query. If each location uses a different database, you may have to create a separate append query for each one.
Have your remote people download the tables onto a floppy or CD and courier it in. They could Email it to you in zip format as well. I find it difficult to believe there is a place on the planet where you can't get Email.

Not necessarily a good fix here Statsman. If you think about it - what happens when you have more than one table and you have keys to worry about? Then you might have Site 1 has a record in table 2 which has an autonumber ID of 3 and is a Foreign key in table 3. So, Site 2 might also have a record in table two with an autonumber ID of 3. So, what do you do in that case? Not so simple now, is it?

So, in order for your suggestion to work, you would need to use GUIDs as the keys. That would reasonably assure that there were no duplicate keys ever.

In the past I've used replication on the backends but all of my database replicants could connect to the network somehow at some point. That worked well, but you do have to be able to connect with the network at some point.

As for SharePoint, I don't know that it works with replication.

 

[dfenton]

If you're contemplating SharePoint, then that would make the app dependent on a full-time Internet connection. In that case, the simplest approach would be to host the app in one location on Windows Terminal Server. This would centralize all administration and avoid all the complexities that come along with replication over a WAN. Believe me, as someone who's been deploying replicated Access apps since 1997, Terminal Server is *vastly* easier to implement and maintain.