S
S Stone
I have a need for advice on how best to resolve an issue with my custom
Microsoft Office applications that have grown too large, too numerous, and to
quickly for easy deployment of updates. I started with one Microsoft Access
system for one county and one in-house customer and within a short time have
grown to have five separate county systems for 10-25 customers, many of which
are housed remotely. Update requirements are weekly due to business
processes and the sheer size of the required updates has outgrown easy,
less-expensive methods of deployment.
The systems were built for Real Property Comparative Value Analysis for
multiple large counties using data obtained from each county's own real
property data and my customers are Property Tax Consultants assisting
property owners in obtaining a reduction in their property tax appraisals.
The time cycle for the appeal process is condensed to approximately 10 weeks
of the year with major data changes occurring in the cycle that are required
by the customers. The 10-20 GB updated files are too large to afford timely
and easy updates to remote users using less-expense means. Here's a
description of the system. Any ideas would be appreciated!
The CAD System was designed around Microsoft Access. It utilizes Visual
Basic for Applications code and makes calls to open and modify existing
Microsoft Excel spreadsheet files. Recently new functionality was added to
the system to allow it to make calls to open an Adobe Acrobat PDF file and
move to a bookmark associated with an open form in the system. The system
requires three reference files to be available to the VBA code that are not
default to Microsoft Access VBA modules. The references are the Microsoft
ADOX reference, the Microsoft Excel reference, and the Adobe Acrobat
reference files.
The system requires large amounts of relational data regarding real
property. The total size of each CAD system and its data files ranges from
5-8 gigabytes. VBA code, forms, reports, and macros reside in the system
database file and all the auxiliary database tables are housed in separate
database tables linked to the system database file. The system makes
frequent calls to a master database table using various search criteria all
of which are configured as index fields within the table. The quick
accessibility of this master table is critical to the successful operation of
this system.
Some functions within the system create temporary tables within the system
database file that would require the user to have security rights to modify
this file. Other database files are not modified by the user however when
Microsoft Access opens the file for retrieval of data for the user, it
creates an .ldb file so users would need the rights to add files.
Users of the system are required to use Microsoft Windows version 98 or
greater, Microsoft Office Professional edition version 2000 or greater, as
well as Adobe Acrobat version 5 or greater.
Many of the system files are updated at least once each week for a 10 week
period of the year and thereafter the files are updated approximately once
each month. The system is updated frequently throughout the 10 week period
as well.
Five of the users of the system are housed on the same LAN as the
development facility while approximately 10-15 other users of the system are
housed at four other remote facilities. More customers are making inquiries
now.
A separate “CAD System†is utilized for each Central Appraisal District;
i.e. each county. Currently five other counties have systems. All of the
system customers load and use more than one of the county CAD systems.
At the current time, most users load the total system on their local PC hard
drive while some remote customers are loading the auxiliary tables of the
system on a central server with the system table on their local hard drive.
One other remote site has loaded the system on a central server and access to
it is obtained using Remote Desktop Connection.
Microsoft Office applications that have grown too large, too numerous, and to
quickly for easy deployment of updates. I started with one Microsoft Access
system for one county and one in-house customer and within a short time have
grown to have five separate county systems for 10-25 customers, many of which
are housed remotely. Update requirements are weekly due to business
processes and the sheer size of the required updates has outgrown easy,
less-expensive methods of deployment.
The systems were built for Real Property Comparative Value Analysis for
multiple large counties using data obtained from each county's own real
property data and my customers are Property Tax Consultants assisting
property owners in obtaining a reduction in their property tax appraisals.
The time cycle for the appeal process is condensed to approximately 10 weeks
of the year with major data changes occurring in the cycle that are required
by the customers. The 10-20 GB updated files are too large to afford timely
and easy updates to remote users using less-expense means. Here's a
description of the system. Any ideas would be appreciated!
The CAD System was designed around Microsoft Access. It utilizes Visual
Basic for Applications code and makes calls to open and modify existing
Microsoft Excel spreadsheet files. Recently new functionality was added to
the system to allow it to make calls to open an Adobe Acrobat PDF file and
move to a bookmark associated with an open form in the system. The system
requires three reference files to be available to the VBA code that are not
default to Microsoft Access VBA modules. The references are the Microsoft
ADOX reference, the Microsoft Excel reference, and the Adobe Acrobat
reference files.
The system requires large amounts of relational data regarding real
property. The total size of each CAD system and its data files ranges from
5-8 gigabytes. VBA code, forms, reports, and macros reside in the system
database file and all the auxiliary database tables are housed in separate
database tables linked to the system database file. The system makes
frequent calls to a master database table using various search criteria all
of which are configured as index fields within the table. The quick
accessibility of this master table is critical to the successful operation of
this system.
Some functions within the system create temporary tables within the system
database file that would require the user to have security rights to modify
this file. Other database files are not modified by the user however when
Microsoft Access opens the file for retrieval of data for the user, it
creates an .ldb file so users would need the rights to add files.
Users of the system are required to use Microsoft Windows version 98 or
greater, Microsoft Office Professional edition version 2000 or greater, as
well as Adobe Acrobat version 5 or greater.
Many of the system files are updated at least once each week for a 10 week
period of the year and thereafter the files are updated approximately once
each month. The system is updated frequently throughout the 10 week period
as well.
Five of the users of the system are housed on the same LAN as the
development facility while approximately 10-15 other users of the system are
housed at four other remote facilities. More customers are making inquiries
now.
A separate “CAD System†is utilized for each Central Appraisal District;
i.e. each county. Currently five other counties have systems. All of the
system customers load and use more than one of the county CAD systems.
At the current time, most users load the total system on their local PC hard
drive while some remote customers are loading the auxiliary tables of the
system on a central server with the system table on their local hard drive.
One other remote site has loaded the system on a central server and access to
it is obtained using Remote Desktop Connection.