Re: General Sanity Check on Programmatic Resetting of Links

Don't know the answer at this point. I think the large majority will be
desktop PCs, but some of the managers may be on laptops. I see the value of
the "first run" thing so the link-resetter doesn't need to run with every
startup. FWIW, since all the databases involved are read-only, looking at
data that gets downloaded from the mainframe over the weekend but not
manipulating it in any way, we've even got a "Plan C" that would put all the
files on each user's hard drive at the start of his first Monday run. That
would no doubt make everything run lightning fast, but (1) we're not
comfortable with the assumption that every drive will have 2-3gb free for
that purpose, and (2) pulling all those files across that itty-bitty 10-Base
T wire from the home office could be a real ordeal. If 50 different remote
users all try to do it simultaneously, the whole remote site might go up in
smoke!

"John Nurick" wrote:

Hi Larry,

You sound perfectly sane<g>. Lots of databases do this sort of thing.

Will all the front ends be on desktop machines and not move once
installed, or will some of them be on laptops that move between
offices?

If all-desktop, you could just put a "FirstRun" record in your
"Settings" or "Defaults" table. Check its value when the database
opens, and only if it's true call the routine that asks for the
location and then reads the "Source files" table and re-links the
linked tables, then set FirstRun to false.

If you have to deal with laptops, you'll need to test on startup
whether the source files are where expected. See
http://www.mvps.org/access/tables/tbl0009.htm and
http://www.mvps.org/access/tables/tbl0007.htm for some sample code.

On Tue, 16 Oct 2007 09:59:00 -0700, LarryP
<LarryP@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

We have several Access 2003 databases that link to numerous source files on a
workgroup server at our main location. Unfortunately, people at some of our
sublocations can't make use of these databases because of bandwidth issues:
although they can "see" the main location server and the relevant files, when
they try to run the databases things get really, REALLY slow. Screens that
display in 10-15 seconds here take 20 minutes there, etc. The IT guys say
not to hold our breath waiting for a hardware fix, it ain't gonna happen any
time soon.

So, we're contemplating copying all the necessary files, currently about 2GB
worth, to a server at the remote location once a week. Doing that, though,
would involve resetting a couple dozen links in the front ends of the various
databases. For obvious reasons we don't want to have to maintain multiple
front end versions, so we're envisioning a procedure in the common front end
that says "If I'm logging on at the home office, set all the links to
xxxxxxx, but if I'm logging on at sublocation A, set the links to yyyyyyyy,
..." etc. The necessary data about what the links should be for each
location would be stored in a table.

Has anybody tried anything like this, and if so, with what result? What
problems might we encounter, and what suggestions might anyone offer to make
the transition to this solution as painless as possible? Just hoping for
general guidance before we put a lot of effort into this.


--
John Nurick - Access MVP

.

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