Access 2000 Package and Deployment Wizard problem!

[David Anderson]

I have created an Access 2000 application that I now wish to distribute to
users as an MDE file. The Access 2000 Package and Deployment Wizard does a
fine job of storing the relevant installation files on a CD, exploiting A2K
Runtime.

However, I would prefer to let users download my application from a website.
The Package and Deployment Wizard offers a 'Web Publishing' deployment option
that appears to address this need. My only problem is that it doesn't work
for me. I get the following error message,

Unexpected error number 48 has occurred: File not found: WebPost.dll

Initially, I got a different error that alerted me to the need for
WebPost.dll and suggested that I reinstall Visual Basic. Since I don't even
possess Visual Basic as a standalone application (I only have VBA via
Access), this was rather unhelpful. However, I found an online source of this
dll and placed it in my Windows/System32 folder. The error message changed to
that shown above but did not solve my problem.

Any suggestions about where I should go from here? I'm running Windows XP Pro.

David

 

[Alp Bekisoglu]

No expert or guru here, but thr first thing that comes to my mind is: have
you registered the dll to your system? and checked where the PDW is looking
for this file?

Alp

 

[David Anderson]

Hi Alp,
I followed the instructions to register the dll, but regsvr32 just gave me
the message "webpost.dll is not an executable file and no registration helper
is registered for this file type."

I've no idea what dll 'registration' means and so this message was not very
helpful for me. Can you offer any clarification?

David

 

[Alp Bekisoglu]

Hi David,

I'm sorry it didn't work for you. Unfortunately, as I had indicated before,
I'm no guru here so can't say much more. I'll let you know if I come across
anything else.

Alp

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

However, I would prefer to let users download my application from a website.
The Package and Deployment Wizard offers a 'Web Publishing' deployment option
that appears to address this need.

Now I've never noticed that option but is there any help on that? I
wonder if it is for a completely different option than you think it
is. For example some kind of Office Web Class (OWC) stuff that Access
had back then.

I suspect you'd be much better off locating a self extracting
executable packager so that users can download one file from your
website which in turn would then expend the package into a temp folder
and then install it. PKWare have such a utility as a companion to
PKZip.

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
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

 

[David Anderson]

Hi Tony,
I have taken your advice - but am evaluating WinZip Self-Extractor 3.1 (in
conjunction with WinZip 11.1 Standard) rather than the PKWare alternatives.
They appear to do an excellent job, though it will cost $49.95 + $29.95.
These products make it easy to deploy the output of the Access Package and
Deployment Wizard. Essentially, PDW does the packaging, WinZip 11.1 creates a
single archive of all the package files and WinZip Self-Extractor 3.1 creates
the self-extracting executable that I make available for download.

Browsing PKWare's website is a frustrating experience. It's easy to go in
circles in a fruitless search for what exactly they sell, where you can buy
it and how much it will cost. The bottom line appears to be that they don't
want to sell to end users (at least not outside the USA). To find out any
details you have to send an email! I suspect they are only interested in
corporate sales. In contrast, I was up and running with evaluation versions
of the WinZip products within a few minutes.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

David

 

[bubbles]

My guess is that you could:
a) use PDW to create the package,
b) then locate the package in your website.
c) provide the link to this package to your users in an email.

Users can then click the link and start the installation.

HTH
Bubbles

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

Browsing PKWare's website is a frustrating experience. It's easy to go in
circles in a fruitless search for what exactly they sell, where you can buy
it and how much it will cost. The bottom line appears to be that they don't
want to sell to end users (at least not outside the USA). To find out any
details you have to send an email! I suspect they are only interested in
corporate sales. In contrast, I was up and running with evaluation versions
of the WinZip products within a few minutes.

Yowzer. I had no idea. I purchased PK Zip and the SEA product about
5 or 7 years ago. I'm sure the web site was much simpler back then.

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
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/