Database from form results--retrieving the mdb file

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mata Stevenson
  • Start date Start date
M

Mata Stevenson

I've created a form using FP2002 for my organization to use to gather
information on visitors: requests for more info, contact info, schools,
special needs, etc.. This info is for the organization's use only, not
for visitors to query. They would like the form results to go to a
database which they could do various reports on, depending on their
changing needs.

I don't think that the DRW is the way to go. The simplest solution seems
to be to export the .mdb file from the web to their computer. That's
easy enough to do using FP, but they don't have FP and are not
computer-adept. How might THEY retrieve the file? Would they have to use
ftp software? Any way to retrieve the form.mdb file via a browser? An
alternate, but less efficient, solution would be to receive csv emails,
copy the content to .txt files amd import them into the database.

Help!

Mata
 
They could use an FTP client to retrieve the database - you might want to
have your host set up a username/password for FTP that only lets them access
the fpdb folder.

Another option is to create a database results page just for them that
displays all the records in the database; they can highlight the contents
and copy/paste it into an Excel spreadsheet on their desktop and then import
that into a database.
 
Thanks very much, Kathleen. You've been so helpful here for so long! I
think that really answers my question. Just one last thing. Would FTPing
to retrieve the database damage the FP extensions?

--Mata
 
Well, nothing is ever certain, but if your host sets up the FTP username and
password so that all the users can do is connect to that folder and retrieve
the database, and not write to it or to any other part of your site, you
should be OK.

--
~ Kathleen Anderson
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
Spider Web Woman Designs
web: http://www.spiderwebwoman.com/resources/
 
I see from the end of this thread you may already have an acceptable
solution, but just in case:

If you have administrative access to the server, you can install blat, a
(free) command-line e-mailer, and then configure the server to automatically
e-mail the database to your end-users. That pushes the results via e-mail,
rather than pulling them via FTP: it might be easier on your users, and
possibly something you can use down the road, too.

You could also establish a file share pointing into the database folder: I'd
really like to hear from someone who knows for sure what happens in that
case if you attempt to copy the database exactly when a user's attempting to
write to it.

Just a thought.
 
Thanks, Jim. That's very useful info, and I like it better than my
solution, which was to have the client install IE FTP Enhancer on their
browser.....Mata
 
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