Data Access Page Use

[acss]

Can data access pages be utilized effectively over the corporate intranet as
a front end for access 2003 backend?

 

[Larry Linson]

Can data access pages be utilized effectively
over the corporate intranet as
a front end for access 2003 backend?

In fact, the only successful implementations of DAP application I heard
about were on corporate intranets, where the user software environment was
known and controlled by the IT department. DAPs did have serious
limitations, were never very well adopted, and the capability to create or
maintain them has been dropped from Access 2007, although they will still
run under Access 2007 (to the extent that they ran before under earlier
versions). If your application is straightforward and sufficiently simple
to be supported by DAPs, and your software environment is controlled or
controllable, it is possible that DAPs may be useful to you.

If all your users are on the same LAN and you have only a few tens of users,
I'd consider a split database arrangment, instead. If some users are on a
slow WAN, the DAP may be a viable option for you.

Larry Linson
Microsof Office Access MVP

 

[acss]

I belive you have described my current enviorment. I have three users working
at remote locations which i need them to enter data into the tables. The
current backend is located in a network folder and FE on users desktops but
data entry is slow so would DAP be the best method and where can i learn on
creation deployment on a site?

 

[Larry Linson]

I belive you have described my current enviorment. I have three users
working
at remote locations which i need them to enter data into the tables. The
current backend is located in a network folder and FE on users desktops
but
data entry is slow so would DAP be the best method and where can i learn
on
creation deployment on a site?

Frankly, there were enough problems and limitations with DAP that in similar
situations I created an Access MDB clients to various different server
database backend, connected via ODBC; or ActiveX Server Pages (.asp) or
ASP.NET (.aspx). In the environments where I worked, server databases were
implemented by the DataBase Administrator (DBA) and web applications were
implemented by web developers. I have not personally implemented DAP.

You can do the former with different server databases, but as many will tell
you Microsoft SQL Server is a good one, and the SQL Server Express edition
is freely downloadable from Microsoft. The DAPs I observed were implemented
by others. There are other open source server databases that are freely
downloadable, but with any server database, expect it to require some Tender
Loving Care from a DBA (that is not necessarily the job title, but describes
the person's role with the server DB).

If you are working with Access 2003 or 2002, a DAP may fill your needs.

Perhaps someone who has direct experience with DAPs will jump in and give
you guidance on resources. Microsoft Access 2003 Inside-Out is a good
book -- but I don't have it handy to see how much coverage John Viescas gave
to DAP; Access 2002 Developer's Handbook is another (there was no 2003
edition) there are two volumes, and you'll need to determine which has DAP
coverage; Googling on "Data Access Pages" turned up some 60,000+
references.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Office Access MVP