Access Application Distribution Issue

[Arup Kamal]

Hi,

I am working for a large MNC in my country.
I have made an app for marketing ppl using VB.
But, this app uses MS ACCESS for Displaying Reports ONLY.


As a result every user will be requiring Access license..

I heard Access Developer extensions allow rolaty free distribution.

I need to provide a report on how we can keep the app as it is
(same dependency on access reports) by purchasing access developer
extensions or somethign else. I need details about licensing issues,
limitations, procurement process and limitations..

Since many here uses pirated copies, few have clear idea about licensed
software. Since my company is careful about Intellectual Property Rights
and against piracy, I need some very solid information so that my company
can invest without violating any law...


Thanking You,

ArupK

 

[Rebecca Riordan]

I applaud your concern for intellectual property rights, and think you'll be
pleased with how easy this will be to solve...

If you purchase a copy of the Developer's Edition (see the Microsoft site
for purchasing details), you receive a license to distribute the Access
runtime royalty-free. In layman's terms (this is NOT legal advice!), your
users can display and print reports, but cannot change them unless you
provide code to allow them to do so. You can't use the runtime to re-create
the kind of design capabilities that Access itself provides, but you I
routinely do things like allow grouping levels and selection criteria to be
defined at runtime, and nobody has ever questioned it. There's a line
there, and I'm not precisely where it is, but as long as you're not trying
to provide the same capabilities as Access yourself, you should be fine.

HTH

--
Rebecca Riordan, MVP

Seeing Data: Designing User Interfaces
Designing Relational Database Systems, 2nd Edition
www.awprofessional.com

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Programming Step by Step
Microsoft ADO.NET Step by Step
www.microsoft.com/mspress

 

['69 Camaro]

Hi, Arup.

I, too, applaud your efforts to protect the intellectual property rights of
others.

Since the users of your VB application will be using Access only to display
reports, you may also be interested in Microsoft's free Snapshot Viewer.
The English version and 21 other language versions of the Snapshot Viewer
are available online for anyone to download from Microsoft's Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...3F-6D74-423D-8274-8B7E6313EDFB&displaylang=en

A single licensed copy of Access can be used to create the reports needed by
your VB application, and then to export each report as a snapshot file.
Your VB application can open the free Snapshot Viewer to display these
report snapshot files for the user, so each user's computer will not need to
have Access installed, just the free Snapshot Viewer.

The caveat is that the Snapshot Viewer does not allow the user to make any
changes to these report snapshot files. The user can only look at the
report that someone else (the developer) created, then print the report if
desired. If the users need to make changes to the reports, then Rebecca's
advice to get the Developer's Edition (for Office XP and earlier versions,
or Visual Studio Tools For Office for the 2003 version) for the license to
distribute the Access run-time version royalty-free is your best bet.

HTH.

Gunny

See http://www.QBuilt.com for all your database needs.
See http://www.Access.QBuilt.com for Microsoft Access tips.