97 to 2002; converted app now restricted to single user

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Guest

We are trying to convert some ACCESS-97 applications to ACCESS-2002. The 'convert wizard' seems to work fine, no errors on conversion. The application & all its objects now work fine in 2002. HOWEVER, only one user(at a time) can get into it now. Multiple users can get through to input forms, but only the first one in can use objects which 'touch' the tables. Anyone else gets error message. We've combed through 'help', and MS whitepapers addressing Office2002 & Access conversion to no avail. We've checked all the object attributes & properties & options that we know about and such items seem to all be set to allow multi-users / sharing.
Any suggestions on things/settings/options to check for appropriate multi-user appication behavior is greatly appreciated.
Thanks a bunch.
Willis
 
IS the database split into FE/BE? Does each user have a copy of the FE on
their workstation?

--
Kevin3NF

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Willis said:
We are trying to convert some ACCESS-97 applications to ACCESS-2002. The
Click to expand...
'convert wizard' seems to work fine, no errors on conversion. The
application & all its objects now work fine in 2002. HOWEVER, only one
user(at a time) can get into it now. Multiple users can get through to
input forms, but only the first one in can use objects which 'touch' the
tables. Anyone else gets error message. We've combed through 'help', and
MS whitepapers addressing Office2002 & Access conversion to no avail. We've
checked all the object attributes & properties & options that we know about
and such items seem to all be set to allow multi-users / sharing.
Any suggestions on things/settings/options to check for appropriate
Click to expand...
multi-user appication behavior is greatly appreciated.
 
Go through EVERY A2K2 installation and check the "Default
Open Mode" Property is set to "Shared". You can get to
this Property using the Menu Tools / Options.../ Advanced
tab.

For multi-user applications, you should split them to
Front-Ends and Back-Ends as Kevin suggested.

HTH
Van T. Dinh
MVP (Access)


-----Original Message-----
We are trying to convert some ACCESS-97 applications to
Click to expand...
ACCESS-2002. The 'convert wizard' seems to work fine, no
errors on conversion. The application & all its objects
now work fine in 2002. HOWEVER, only one user(at a time)
can get into it now. Multiple users can get through to
input forms, but only the first one in can use objects
which 'touch' the tables. Anyone else gets error
message. We've combed through 'help', and MS whitepapers
addressing Office2002 & Access conversion to no avail.
We've checked all the object attributes & properties &
options that we know about and such items seem to all be
set to allow multi-users / sharing.
Any suggestions on things/settings/options to check for
Click to expand...
appropriate multi-user appication behavior is greatly
appreciated.
 
Willis said:
Multiple users can get through to input forms, but only the first one in
Click to expand...
can use objects which 'touch' the tables.

I'm not quite sure what this means, Willis. Could you expand a little on
what it is that users can and can not do?
 
Thanks Kevin & Van. We'll check those settings. Both your inputs, especially about the FE on every user's PC gives us more to check out.
Yes, the app was built with FE & BE ( I just learned why that's usually a good thing to do). Both reside on a share drive, with a shortcut to the FE mde on users' desktop. Is this an effective approach? Again, thanks a bunch. W

----- Van T. Dinh wrote: -----

Go through EVERY A2K2 installation and check the "Default
Open Mode" Property is set to "Shared". You can get to
this Property using the Menu Tools / Options.../ Advanced
tab.

For multi-user applications, you should split them to
Front-Ends and Back-Ends as Kevin suggested.

HTH
Van T. Dinh
MVP (Access)


-----Original Message-----
We are trying to convert some ACCESS-97 applications to
Click to expand...
ACCESS-2002. The 'convert wizard' seems to work fine, no
errors on conversion. The application & all its objects
now work fine in 2002. HOWEVER, only one user(at a time)
can get into it now. Multiple users can get through to
input forms, but only the first one in can use objects
which 'touch' the tables. Anyone else gets error
message. We've combed through 'help', and MS whitepapers
addressing Office2002 & Access conversion to no avail.
We've checked all the object attributes & properties &
options that we know about and such items seem to all be
set to allow multi-users / sharing.
Any suggestions on things/settings/options to check for
Click to expand...
appropriate multi-user appication behavior is greatly
appreciated.
 
Good Morning Brendan,
Multiple users can get past the security (password) form, and into the main user interface form(menu selection buttons), but only the first user can append records ( to the user it's entering a new time record on input screen), the subsequent users get an error message about locked something.... I need to go to other PC to recreate and get specific error msg.
 
I think Kevin and Van are on the right track, then. While your app is split,
you are sharing the front-end across the network. While I've seen reports in
the newsgroups that some people have managed to get away with that for a
while, in my experience, sooner or later it causes problems. The front-end
needs to be on the user's local PC.

--
Brendan Reynolds (MVP)
(e-mail address removed)


Willis said:
Good Morning Brendan,
Multiple users can get past the security (password) form, and into the
Click to expand...
main user interface form(menu selection buttons), but only the first user
can append records ( to the user it's entering a new time record on input
screen), the subsequent users get an error message about locked
something.... I need to go to other PC to recreate and get specific error
msg.
 
I whole-heartedly agree with Brendan that each user should have a copy of
the Front-End on his / her PC rather than sharing the Front-End.

In fact, sharing the Front-End is a bit of a concern. I rarely get
corruptions on my databases but I got 1 today on a shared Front-End. I
always have Front-End on each of the user's PC. However in this
application, I have a MS-SQL Server Back-End, A2K2 Front-End (A2K0 format
MDB) but the Front-End is run on the Citrix MetaFrame XP (due to very
limited bandwidth available to remote users).

AFAIK, Citrix loaded a copy of the Front-End into the memory for each
logged-in user but as we know, Access creates and uses temporary space on
the MDB and there is only ONE copy on the W2K Server that hosts the Citrix
MetaFrame XP Server software. My guess is that the only Front-End in the
hard-disk is shared (I may need to do more research on the Citrix to prepare
for all eventualities).

--
HTH
Van T. Dinh
MVP (Access)



Willis said:
Thanks Kevin & Van. We'll check those settings. Both your inputs,
Click to expand...
especially about the FE on every user's PC gives us more to check out.
Yes, the app was built with FE & BE ( I just learned why that's usually a
Click to expand...
good thing to do). Both reside on a share drive, with a shortcut to the FE
mde on users' desktop. Is this an effective approach? Again, thanks a
bunch. W
 
Van T. Dinh said:
AFAIK, Citrix loaded a copy of the Front-End into the memory for each
logged-in user but as we know, Access creates and uses temporary
space on the MDB and there is only ONE copy on the W2K Server that
hosts the Citrix MetaFrame XP Server software. My guess is that the
only Front-End in the hard-disk is shared (I may need to do more
research on the Citrix to prepare for all eventualities).
Click to expand...

Van, I have no experience with this myself, but I seem to remember
reading that the best arrangement with Citrix is to have a separate copy
of the front-end for each user on the Citrix server. I'm not sure how
this is managed; you may want to ask Tony Toews about it.
 
Dirk Goldgar said:
Van, I have no experience with this myself, but I seem to remember
reading that the best arrangement with Citrix is to have a separate copy
of the front-end for each user on the Citrix server.
Click to expand...

Yes, each user should have their own copy even in a Citrix/Terminal
Server environment.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
 
Hi Tony

In my appln, the Citrix Server administrator set the MDB file (to be
converted to MDE later) as a (Citrix) Published Application.

Do you meant I have to have a separate Published Application for each user?

I have had enough problems trying to help them (by phone) in setting up the
Citrix Client and navigating to the single Published Application.
 
Van T. Dinh said:
Hi Tony

In my appln, the Citrix Server administrator set the MDB file (to be
converted to MDE later) as a (Citrix) Published Application.

Do you meant I have to have a separate Published Application for each user?

I have had enough problems trying to help them (by phone) in setting up the
Citrix Client and navigating to the single Published Application.
Click to expand...

In our Citrix usage the "published app" command is to a batch file that first
looks for the presence of the MDE in the user's Profile folder on the Terminal
Server. When it's not found, it is copied there and then executed. Each user
gets their own copy in their profile folder and updates are handled exactly the
same as if Citrix was not involved.

Whether Citrix reduces the need for separate files as far as corruption is
concerned I guess would depend on whether shared filed usage corruption is
largely a "network" issue. If sharing the same front end is inherently
dangerous and it's NOT because of network speed or dropped packets then Citrix
could not possibly help. If it IS mostly due to networking, then I suppose
Citrix would eliminate most of that concern.

Another consideration that plays a roll in my apps is that I frequently modify
the SQL of stored queries used as Pass-Throughs to the SQL Server. This would
create collisions if the same file were being used by multiple people.
 
Thanks, Rick.

I know next to nothing about Citrix. I am not sure whether the Citrix
Server administrator (administrator by default) knows Citrix much better
than I. Thus, I need a bit more info. to pass to him.

By batch file, do you meant a simple VB Console Application or something
similar?

If you have source code for the batch file, I would appreciate if you could
send me a copy ([email protected]) or post it
here.

I hardly get corruptions with my various databases but with this one, I
already got 1 corruption during the first week of operation so I am a bit
concerned about sharing the Front-End using Citrix.
 
Van T. Dinh said:
Thanks, Rick.

I know next to nothing about Citrix. I am not sure whether the Citrix
Server administrator (administrator by default) knows Citrix much better
than I. Thus, I need a bit more info. to pass to him.

By batch file, do you meant a simple VB Console Application or something
similar?

If you have source code for the batch file, I would appreciate if you could
send me a copy ([email protected]) or post it
here.
Click to expand...

It's a plain ol' DOS batch file. One of our admins set it up. Below is a basic
template.


@echo off

if not exist %HomeDrive%%HomePath%\SomeFile.mdb copy c:\SomeFile.mdb
%HomeDrive%%HomePath%

call c:\PathToOffice\MSACCESS.EXE %HomeDrive%%HomePath%\SomeFile.mdb
exit
 
Thanks, Rick.

It looks like I have to get involve in this as well as the administrator is
very young growing up on Windows so he might not know DOS at all.
 
Van T. Dinh said:
Thanks, Rick.

It looks like I have to get involve in this as well as the
administrator is very young growing up on Windows so he might not
know DOS at all.
Click to expand...

ROFL! It's a terrible thing for us geezers to have to deal with the
chronologically challenged.
 
Van T. Dinh said:
In my appln, the Citrix Server administrator set the MDB file (to be
converted to MDE later) as a (Citrix) Published Application.

Do you meant I have to have a separate Published Application for each user?
Click to expand...

No.

We created a one line .cmd file which was the exact same text as in a
shortcut which in turn called my Auto FE updater. The Auto FE Updater
handled the making of a copy for each individual user.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
 
Van T. Dinh said:
I hardly get corruptions with my various databases but with this one, I
already got 1 corruption during the first week of operation so I am a bit
concerned about sharing the Front-End using Citrix.
Click to expand...

Yup, I'd be concerned.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
 
Rick Brandt said:
if not exist %HomeDrive%%HomePath%\SomeFile.mdb copy c:\SomeFile.mdb
%HomeDrive%%HomePath%

call c:\PathToOffice\MSACCESS.EXE %HomeDrive%%HomePath%\SomeFile.mdb
exit
Click to expand...

This process is much the same as the Auto FE Updater except that the
Update only copies the file as required.

However if your users are on a WAN with servers in multiple offices
then this becomes dangerous. Your home directory might be on a
server a thousand miles away from the backend system. And we all
know how bad Access is over a WAN. (Unless using SQL Server or
similar of course.)

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
 
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