General questions about FE/BE deployment

Alessandro Nazzani · Sep 24, 2003

Hi all.

I'm developing (A97) a small Access application to be delivered in the next
weeks to our customer.

I have splitted it into .MDB (with table and relationships only) and .MDE
(all other objects).

It will be used by 5-10 users in a LAN: no security needed and all users
already have Access installed.

Provided that not all the above mentioned users have the same Access version
(*at least* 97, but can be any newer release):

1) Should I install one FE in a Network drive for all users or one local FE
for each user?
2) If I go down the second path, do I have to convert the FE to the user's
Access version?
3) Am I going to face problems linking tables from and writing data to the
BE (with different Access versions)?
4) Is there a way to check (possibly with code, not by hand) if the
appropriate Jet Service Pack is installed for each user?
5) Will my code work the same way for all users (IOW, are there any
statements/functions in A97 that I should avoid because are not properly
recognized in A2k, AXP, etc.)?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Alessandro

Rick Brandt · Sep 25, 2003

Alessandro Nazzani said:
Hi all.

I'm developing (A97) a small Access application to be delivered in the next
weeks to our customer.

I have splitted it into .MDB (with table and relationships only) and .MDE
(all other objects).

It will be used by 5-10 users in a LAN: no security needed and all users
already have Access installed.

Provided that not all the above mentioned users have the same Access version
(*at least* 97, but can be any newer release):

MDEs only run in their native version.

1) Should I install one FE in a Network drive for all users or one local FE
for each user?

Each gets their own or you lose performance and run higher corruption risk.

2) If I go down the second path, do I have to convert the FE to the user's
Access version?

You have to do this regardless (see point 1)

3) Am I going to face problems linking tables from and writing data to the
BE (with different Access versions)?

See point 1

4) Is there a way to check (possibly with code, not by hand) if the
appropriate Jet Service Pack is installed for each user?

There is information at MS site that tell how to determine this. I don't think
it can be done in code.

5) Will my code work the same way for all users (IOW, are there any
statements/functions in A97 that I should avoid because are not properly
recognized in A2k, AXP, etc.)?

Everything in A97 should work when converted to higher versions. The reverse is
not true.

Alessandro Nazzani · Sep 25, 2003

Rick,

Thanks for your reply.

MDEs only run in their native version.

Each gets their own or you lose performance and run higher corruption risk.

You have to do this regardless (see point 1)

See point 1

I'm not sure I understand, sorry.
You say each user *must* have his own FE (properly converted to the Access
version he/she has), ok: but my question here is referring to the BE. Of
course, there is only one BE: can you clarify your "See point 1" comment?

Thanks again.

Alessandro

Rick Brandt · Sep 25, 2003

Alessandro Nazzani said:
I'm not sure I understand, sorry.
You say each user *must* have his own FE (properly converted to the Access
version he/she has), ok: but my question here is referring to the BE. Of
course, there is only one BE: can you clarify your "See point 1" comment?

The back end can stay in the oldest version without any problems.

Tony Toews · Sep 27, 2003

Rick Brandt said:
MDEs only run in their native version.

A2002 can run A2000 MDEs. But A2002 can't create A2000 MDEs.

Each gets their own or you lose performance and run higher corruption risk.

Performance? Not much. Corruption absolutely.

3) Am I going to face problems linking tables from and writing data to the
BE (with different Access versions)?

A client has been happily running 10-15 users on A2000 and another
10-25 users on A97 using appropriate FEs for about eight months or so.
All against an A97 BE.

4) Is there a way to check (possibly with code, not by hand) if the
appropriate Jet Service Pack is installed for each user?

What I've done is use the various API calls available and am checking
the version number and date/time of a crucial dll, msjetxx.dll, to
ensure it matches what I have on my system. See the tips page at my
website for more details including sample code: Verify Appropriate Jet
Service Pack is installed www.granite.ab.ca\access\verifyjetsp.htm

5) Will my code work the same way for all users (IOW, are there any
statements/functions in A97 that I should avoid because are not properly
recognized in A2k, AXP, etc.)?

There's a few things I found. Relatively minor.

Access 2.0 and Access 97 to Access 2000/2002 conversion
issues/problems/bugs
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/conversionproblems.htm

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

Alessandro Nazzani · Sep 27, 2003

Thank you very much Tony (and Rick, of course) for your feedback.

One final question: is there any significant gain using an A2000 (or higher)
BE instead of A97? Should this be the case, I'd suggest an upgrade of all
users to our customer.

Cheers.

Alessandro

Tony Toews · Sep 27, 2003

Alessandro Nazzani said:
Thank you very much Tony (and Rick, of course) for your feedback.

One final question: is there any significant gain using an A2000 (or higher)
BE instead of A97? Should this be the case, I'd suggest an upgrade of all
users to our customer.

No. In fact A2000 is much more susceptible to the OpLocks problem.
It's easily fixed but irritating.

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