Re: How to Distribute a New Version

From: Cheryl Fischer (cherylfischer_at_NOSPAMmsn.com)
Date: 03/02/04 

Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2004 09:29:02 -0600

Shelly,

If your project is still in the User Testing, I would not worry too much
about preserving the test data that your users have already entered.
Hopefully, you will not have a user that has entered the entire case load at
their location! Most likely, you will probably have most users entering
one, two or a few records and a couple of users that have not entered
anything.

Based on prior threads, the changes that you have made to the application
would almost mandate that users test new case entry all over again. You
might want to send each user a brief document explaining that you have made
many optimizations to how the data is stored (which will be invisible to the
users) in addition to the visible changes to forms and reports. Because of
these changes, you are asking users to enter a couple of new cases, run
queries, run reports, etc., and return their comments. 

--
Cheryl Fischer, MVP Microsoft Access
Law/Sys Associates, Houston, TX
"S Jackson" <jackson_shelly@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ekDT7QGAEHA.624@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Yikes!  I can't write the kind of code that you are talking about that
will
> go out and import data from the back-end.  I do not have the expertise or
> training, unfortunately.  (Just an FYI:  I do have the db split already
and
> yes it will be easy for them to replace the FE file.)   The agency stuck
me
> with doing this project even though I am a legal assistant, not a database
> developer!  I've been floundering around ever since.
>
> Looks like I am stuck spending hours on the phone doing it the hard way
> having users import tables, do append queries to add the data to the new
> tables and then deleting the old tables.  This is the only way I can see
how
> to do this (I'm ignorant!).
>
> S. Jackson
>
> "Rick Brandt" <rickbrandt2@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:c2235g$1n6lkv$1@ID-98015.news.uni-berlin.de...
> > "S. Jackson" <sljack63@cox.net> wrote in message
> > news:BN_0c.20471$1k.2601@okepread01...
> > > How do you developers distribute a new improved copy of a database
that
> > has
> > > already gone out to the user?
> > >
> > > I have sent out individual copies of my database across the agency for
> > users
> > > to tryout before we centralize it and begin networking it (this will
be
> > much
> > > further down the road).  Since then, I have made several design
changes
> > to
> > > the tables and many changes to the FE and I want the users them out.
> > Most
> > > of the users are not trained and need a lot of hand-holding.  Also,
they
> > are
> > > spread out across the state so I do not have access to their pc's.
> > >
> > > Do I send complicated instructions for them to import all their old
> > tables
> > > into the new db, and run append queries?
> >
> > What I do...
> >
> > Split application so that changes to the front end are simply a matter
of
> > replacing the file.  Front end has a "first time run" routine that
> > establishes the links to the back end file automatically when first run.
> >
> > If the new revision also involves changes to the back end file (tables),
> > then I will do one of two things depending on which is deemed less work
or
> > more reliable for the circumstances.
> >
> > 1)
> > My "first time run" code described above will apply all of the changes
to
> > the back end file.  This might be the creation of new tables, or the
> > modification of an existing table by adding/changing a field.
> >
> > 2)
> > When the back end changes are significant I might distribute a blank
> > template file for the new back end and have my "first time run" routine
> > link to the new file and then import all of the data from the old one.
> >
> >
> > --
> > I don't check the Email account attached
> > to this message.     Send instead to...
> > RBrandt    at       Hunter      dot      com
> >
> >
>
>