What a decent size frontend application?

[Thinh]

I have front-end/back-end system. The front is pretty heavy as it has many pictures. What is the acceptable size of frontend application. Currently it is 10MB. What are the problem i may face if the front-end grows in the future as all the features has not been develop yet.

 

[Rabbie]

10mb doesn't seem to be too big. Remember it can be upto 2GB. It might be a good idea to store the pictures in a differnt folder and just store the path to each one in Access.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Two thoughts.

First, pictures in the front-end should never be included in the database if it is shared from a common location. Instead, you put the pictures OUTSIDE of the database and then enter the path to that picture in the .PICTURE property of the thing that holds the picture. Then you set the image control to treat that as a LINKED (rather than EMBEDDED) image.

Second, if the pictures are on a form and are actually related to a data table, you should store the name of the picture file in the database and again use a linked image control. Only this time, you would have to load up the link by declaring a form OnCurrent routine. Load the link from there.

 

[datAdrenaline]

In theory, the only limit is the 2Gig limit that Access has. But, to me that would be too big simply because it is cumbersome to distribute and performance would probably be pretty slow with a FE that grew to that size.

But as to say 10meg is too large, or 50meg is too large is too black & white for me. Your FE has to be the size required to perform to the specification desired. If you want a bunch of graphics embbeded in your FE to add to the user experience, then so be it, but your file size will be larger. If you require 1000 querydef objects to acheive the functionality you need, then fine. But what I don't encourage is the use of the FE as a Datastore. For example, if your app utlizes Temp Tables, don't bring those tables to the Front End, just create a temp database that you can used to dump data into, and then link to the temp db. I fully subscribe to the concept of keeping your data and the application objects (the FE) completely separate.

As a point of reference, one of the largest FE's I have created is about 17meg, no embeded pics.... it is a pretty significant application, here are the stats:

Tables: 139
Queries: 201 (large portion are Passthrough to SQL Server BE)
Forms: 126
Modules: 42
Reports: 141
LinesOfCode: 28247

 

[gemma-the-husky]

my biggest app (code only) is about 36Mb - data back end growing but up to 200Mb +

about 50 tables, hundreds of queries, forms, reports

no performance issues

 

[Simon_MT]

I would not put a good damn images anywhere a near database, although the company logo is allowed. It does really matter what size Size or depth of the database if there are external influences that can have a major performance hit.

Using a proper server, deploying the database on a small disk volume has helped and indexing seem to be more important for performance. I still use a Menu bound to a BE parameter table and this makes the whole application fast!

Simon

 

[Thinh]

is there a way to get the current location of the database? I can link the pictures but the problem is I don't know the exact path as it will not be on site. My company has many different location.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

i had this issue - i store the image paths i need (logo, form backgrounds) in a table, so users can select their own - then dynamically check the link when the form opens, and refresh it - you can do this

other way is to insist they be called c:\myapp\imagename.bmp etc

 

[datAdrenaline]

>> I would not put a ... .... images anywhere a near database <<

I generally do not have issues with using images on the Front End to enhance the user experience (ie: Form Backgrounds, Button Images, Company Logo's, etc.) ... But with the .MDB format I definately agree to the thoughts expressed about NOT including them in the data structure itself (ie: store the path and manage an image control via VBA).

 

[boblarson]

is there a way to get the current location of the database? I can link the pictures but the problem is I don't know the exact path as it will not be on site. My company has many different location.

You can use this to get the current path of the access mdb/accdb file:

CurrentProject.Path

And for the whole path including the database name:

CurrentProject.FullName

 

[Thinh]

Thanks, that should do the trick as long as the picture is under the application folder can always use this to link them up even if i dont know where the exact path may be.