Web Hosting (1 Viewer)

[GendoPose]

Hi All,

To make life easier on some of our employees who don't have access on their pc's, we want to create a web-based front end for those users (and also users on tablets, but that's another story).

Firstly, is it possible to have a web-based front end linked to a server on our LAN? (i.e, currently we have the front end installed on people's desktops that link to the F Drive, a network drive).

Secondly, how do I go about hosting the front end?

Thanks all.

 

[Rx_]

Do you understand that any existing MS Access applications that include VBA must be re-written to convert to the Web App? There are many other considerations too.

Another option we use is Citrix (or Remote Terminal for the MS option).
This uses the ICA client that consumes much, much less bandwidth on the LAN.
With Citrix, an Application Server runs MS Access and Citrix manages the integrated security. Then, all users (except developers) can run Citrix and don't need to install Access on the desktop. In general, with the Access running on the Application server, close to the back-end (data), the overall speed is faster.
The developer can just drop the latest version of an Access application(s) on the server's designated folder. Every user is updated at the next log-in.
It allows Access to use all the power of VBA, Excel automation, and other Add-In's.
If your applications is going to move to SQL Server as the back end anyway, the application is typically very near (from a bandwidth point of view) to the data.

It might be worth looking at the constraints of the Access Web to see if it fits your need. The Citrix version will basically run your existing Access application(s) with no change to code or performance. Your situation will of course depand on the complexity of your application, number of users, and other factors.

The Citrix expo this month is suppose to be introducing something along the line of Citrix 'Lite' geared for small business. At least according to the sales jargon (beware if lips are moving) it might be geared for 10 user license on LAN.
One other point of Citrix. We have Access running on PC, Surface, Apple, ...
It is platform independent. There is a new "Android" and smart phone release. When time allows, I can't wait to put an Access application geared for my Android.

 

[GendoPose]

Do you understand that any existing MS Access applications that include VBA must be re-written to convert to the Web App? There are many other considerations too.

Another option we use is Citrix (or Remote Terminal for the MS option).
This uses the ICA client that consumes much, much less bandwidth on the LAN.
With Citrix, an Application Server runs MS Access and Citrix manages the integrated security. Then, all users (except developers) can run Citrix and don't need to install Access on the desktop. In general, with the Access running on the Application server, close to the back-end (data), the overall speed is faster.
The developer can just drop the latest version of an Access application(s) on the server's designated folder. Every user is updated at the next log-in.
It allows Access to use all the power of VBA, Excel automation, and other Add-In's.
If your applications is going to move to SQL Server as the back end anyway, the application is typically very near (from a bandwidth point of view) to the data.

It might be worth looking at the constraints of the Access Web to see if it fits your need. The Citrix version will basically run your existing Access application(s) with no change to code or performance. Your situation will of course depand on the complexity of your application, number of users, and other factors.

The Citrix expo this month is suppose to be introducing something along the line of Citrix 'Lite' geared for small business. At least according to the sales jargon (beware if lips are moving) it might be geared for 10 user license on LAN.
One other point of Citrix. We have Access running on PC, Surface, Apple, ...
It is platform independent. There is a new "Android" and smart phone release. When time allows, I can't wait to put an Access application geared for my Android.

That's definitely worth considering in that case then, the application itself relies quite heavily on VBA and I don't want to have to re-write it all in Macros, if I even could anyways! I'll keep an eye on the Citrix Lite and see what's said about it and then see what recommendations I can make further up the chain, thanks for the help!