A quick question on Access distribution

  • Thread starter Thread starter Simon Harvey
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Simon Harvey

Hi there,

I recently met a programmer who was using Access as a data store for vast
areas of his java applications state. He was using it to store webpages,
program settings, user account settings and so on.

I thought that this was a bit odd because I thought that would mean that the
clients would need to have Access installed on their machines before his
application would run. He assured me that this wasnt the case and that as
long as the users had MDAC, everything would be just fine.

I was hoping that some kind chap could confirm or deny that. Is it possible
to use an mdb file as a data store, then access it programmatically even
when the end user doesnt have Access installed on their machine as an
application?

Many thanks

Simon
 
If all you're doing is using the Jet database (i.e.: the .MDB file) to store
data, then yes, you can retrieve that data from any ODBC-compliant
application with no licensing implications. It's only when you start using
features of Access such as forms, reports, macros or modules that you need
to have the Access executable installed. (And there's a royalty-free
run-time version of Access that you can distribute with your Access
application if you need to)

Be aware, though, that they stopped including the necessary Access drivers
after MDAC 2.5. If you're distributing a newer version of MDAC, then you
need to distribute the Jet Service Pack as well.
 
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