RE: sharing info between Access and a website

James,

I have recently developed a system for a client where their end user logs on
to a web site that I developed using asp.net to view (read only) data
specific to that user. The data is stored in an Access 2003 format database
file. This stroage file is actaully created by users in my client's office
using another Access 2003 Application that utilizes a split file design.

The users at the clients office make the needed modifications to the data
and then when they have completed their modifications, they click a button to
initiate code that creates a special .mdb file containing the needed data for
a specified end user. The user is then prompted if they would like to have
this special .mdb file uploaded to the server. The file is uploaded to the
server via FTP, replacing the existing file.

In our application we are not allowing the end users to make any
modifications to the data, thus we have no need to retrieve any existing data
before the upload process. If you plan to have your processes run in off
hours (when users are not activly using the web site) then you could actually
download a copy of the exiting database file using FTP, do what ever
processing you need to do to acquire any updated data. After downloading the
current data, you could then at some point upload any new data or records or
whatever.

You might actully want to at least consider moving the entire process to
asp.net. Using asp.net you can maintain any and all data in real time
without having to have the uploading and downloading with FTP going on.

These are just some of my thoughts on the subject, but I hope that some of
these thoughts help you in trying to find a solution to your project.

If you have questions or comments concerning the asp.net thing, you can
email me from my website shown here below my signature.

--
HTH

Mr B
askdoctoraccess dot com


"JamesDeckert" wrote:

Information about interaction between Access and the internet seems to be
sparse. I'm not wanting to put the back end on the net. What I'm wanting to
do is share information between my Access system and a website (probably as a
batch process once a day). I've some stores who use my system, and another
company is developing a web based system open to customers to update their
orders. I'd like to download those changes into Access, and vice versa (when
a store makes changes).

I've found an http possibility for receiving data, and some ftp code (which
I haven't tried yet) for downloading/uploading. But my question is, is there
a "best" process for this kind of thing. Also, the site may want security
verification (user name, password). Is there some way to "post", or talk back
and forth briefly "real-time" between the two systems?

I envision the files being shared to be small (a few K) XML/text/CSV type
files.

Of all my Access books, none discuss sharing info with the internet.

Thoughts? Ideas?

thanks,
James Deckert
.