Split database: One Time Execution

[Jim Shaw]

BlankMy Access 2002 application is deployed as a front end/back end pair of
databases. Client tables with production data are in the backend. When I
enhance and release a new version, I need to execute my code to relink the
front end tables to the back end and never run again. This should run the
first time the enhanced application runs and do so without user intervention
(there is other stuff that runs in the Autoexec Macro).

I'm thinking about a table in the front end to record the status of this
one-time event, but I'm not sure I can have tables on both sides of a split
database. (If I put this table in the back end and then try to access it
upon startup, the application may fail before I can relink, I think)

Questions:
1. Is there a better way to accomplish this one-time run control? Perhaps
an error event I can trap, or a database property I can test?
2. Can I have tables on both sides of the split?
3. When I split the original database, the system tables ended up in the
back end. If I have a front end table, will I not need the system tables to
be in the front end?

Maybe I worry too much?

Thanks
-Jim Shaw

 

[Steve Schapel]

Jim,

I think it would work to have a "flag" field in a table in the
frontend database file, on the basis of which the application
"decides" whether to run the re-linking code. It is certianly no
problem to have tables in both the frontend and backend files, with
the exception that referential integrity can't be enforced across
files... but that does not apply in this instance. Many developers
include code to check and relink backend tables every time the databse
is opened. It certainly would normally only be needed the first time,
but "just in case" the users get creative and start moving files
around.

- Steve Schapel, Microsoft Access MVP