Publishing a MS Access file on the Internet

  • Thread starter Thread starter Carol
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Carol

I have a small Access Database that I would like to
publish to the internet for a client to use. How can I
make it possible?
 
I have a small Access Database
that I would like to publish to the
internet for a client to use. How
can I make it possible?
Click to expand...

That depends on what you mean by "publish to the Internet for a client to
use" --

(1) it is relatively easy, by various means, to upload a file to a website
so that someone can download it, and

(2) there are ways to let a user access the data from your databse via the
user's browser
(a) create Data Access Pages (DAP) with Access itself, though this is
limited to users with Internet Explorer 5.5 or later who have the Office Web
Extensions installed (unless that is a standard configuration at the user
site, this is not a workable solution). And, oh, yes, it must be run using
Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS).
(b) Use the Database Interaction Wizard of Microsoft Front Page (this
generally, means you will have a very, very simple user interface, and
possibly limited functionality). This, too, requires a recent version if IE
and, I believe, must be run with IIS, and certainly on a Windows Server.
(c) Use a third-party product such as Macromedia's (formerly Allaire's)
Cold Fusion (this will be more expensive as you have to license a server
product to run on your server, but can be very capable) -- there are a
number of third-party products, and I am familiar with very few of them, so
don't take my illustrative mention of this one as an endorsement. I have
seen applications done with Cold Fusion, but have not used it myself.
(d) Use Microsoft's Active Server Pages (.asp or ASP.NET) to create the
web application, access the database, and serve up the pages to the user.

No solution for user browser interface, including DAP, can duplicate the
rich-client capabilities that you can do in LAN-based Access, although the
latter two can provide a much richer "user experience" than the first two.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP
 
Carol said:
I have a small Access Database that I would like to
publish to the internet for a client to use. How can I
make it possible?
Click to expand...

If the client is external you can't use Data Access Pages, so you're limited
to creating asp pages, or using Terminal Services. If you only have 1 or 2
client connections I'd recommend using Terminal (Remote) Services, as the
cost will be negligable.
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Microsoft Access
Free Access downloads:
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access
 
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