Licencing

[Angeline]

Hi,
I am creating a simple database to maintain survey data and calculate some
statistics. I work for myself but there might be an oppportunity to sell my
Intellectual Property which would include the database.

Can anyone point me in the direction of what this means in terms of
licencing on behalf of Microsoft?

 

[Alex White MCDBA MCSE]

Licensing,

If you create a database, it is yours, if you want to sell it that is your
right, if you want to sell it to people that don't have Access installed on
their computers you have 2 choices,

either

Purchase off Microsoft the Office developer Extensions, this allows you to
distribute royalty free the Access runtime to anybody with your database.

Or

have all your data in Access and write a front-end in a language like Visual
Basic going down this route you do not need Access installed on any
computers for the database to work, but you may have to pay for the
development system to write the front-end.

At the end of the day the Intellectual Property is yours, licensing is
something your customers may have to get involved in.

 

[Jeff Conrad]

Or you can just require that all end users have a full retail
version of Access installed on their machines. Many developers
go this route as well.

 

[Angeline]

Thank you Alex, I really appreciate that. Good news for me I guess.

Can I just ask what you mean by 'Access Runtime'. Does that mean others
could use and update the database if they purchase Office developer
Extentions ? As another question I had was about how (technically) do
multiple users update one database. I have never needed to ask the question
before but now that potentially I could need to deploy this to multiple
users, I just wandered how the logistics would work?

Thanks in advance..

 

[Jeff Conrad]

in message:

Thank you Alex, I really appreciate that. Good news for me I guess.

Can I just ask what you mean by 'Access Runtime'. Does that mean others
could use and update the database if they purchase Office developer
Extensions ?

No, not exactly.

If *you* purchase the Developer's Extensions, package up your database
file with the Access Runtime files, then the end users would not have to
purchase anything. The files necessary to run your database will be included
in the installation package the wizard will create. In actuality, what will be
installed on the end user's machines is a full Access installation, but it is
heavily crippled through hundreds of registry entries. I know this is *really*
stretching it, but think of it is an "Access Viewer" similar to Excel's Viewer.

See this link for all the information you need about this topic:

http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/developereditionfaq.htm

As another question I had was about how (technically) do
multiple users update one database. I have never needed to ask the question
before but now that potentially I could need to deploy this to multiple
users, I just wandered how the logistics would work?

See this link for information on splitting a database and many other
useful topics concerning multiple users:

http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/splitapp/index.htm

 

[Angeline]

Jeff,
Thanks again for all the helpful info!
You made me laugh in your helpful post about colour gradients when you said
repeat step one "I don't want to have to come over there!"

All the best
Angeline

 

[Jeff Conrad]

in message:

Jeff,
Thanks again for all the helpful info!

You're welcome, glad we could help.

You made me laugh in your helpful post about colour gradients when you said
repeat step one "I don't want to have to come over there!"

The threat of *me* coming over usually will scare just about anyone.
<vbg>

 

[Lynn Trapp]

The threat of *me* coming over usually will scare just about anyone.

<vbg>

Why is that Jeff? Do you wear a red suit, have horns, and carry a pitch
fork? ;-)

--
Lynn Trapp
MS Access MVP
www.ltcomputerdesigns.com
Access Security: www.ltcomputerdesigns.com/Security.htm
Jeff Conrad's Big List: www.ltcomputerdesigns.com/JCReferences.html

 

[Jeff Conrad]

in message:

Why is that Jeff? Do you wear a red suit, have horns, and carry a pitch
fork? ;-)

No, but my Assimilation tubes and purple suit with a big key
on it does cause some "awkward silence."

;-)