Is there a way to share an Access database online?

I believe you can send an attachment with file on it, and then pluck it into your own Access.
Yes I just checked in my own access. open your file and just send it as a mail attachment.

Uhhh…MODS - what happened to Athena’s post?

I didn’t do it I swear!

Ack! where’d my post go?

Phlosphr, I realize I can do that, but what I really want is a truly shared on-line database - like I can do with SQL Server or MySQL, or, at the very least, an .mdb that can be opened from a Web-based host.

Here’s my OP:
I need to maintain a small database on line that will be shared between me and one other person. The other person is somewhat technical - I’d call him a power user. He’s definitely not a programmer, Web admin, DB admin, or anything like that.

He is familiar with Access, so doing this with Access would be the best and easiest route. The Web server we have access to is basically just a file server sitting out there. No SQL Server, no MySQL, nothing like that.

I can ftp up an MS Access .mdb file. Once it’s there, is there a way to connect to it? I’ve tried pointing MS Access there and it doesn’t seem to want to open it.

Point me in the correct direction here, please.

I’m going to be doing this in the not too distant future, but I’m still working on all that needs to be done. If the web server you’re using can handle web pages created in Front Page, you can put your Access database on a Front Page web page and send it up that way. That’s what I’ve been told, anyway, by the Tech Gods who manage our library consortium. Right now I’m in the process of testing it and I’m having issues–but that’s probably because I’m only a Tech-God-in-training.

Access is an ODBC compliant database. You can connect directly to it through a web interface just like you would SQL. We’ve got two or three dbases with SQL and/or Access backends that are accessed by .asp web pages.

But the deal is that SQL server is a server/client software application. Client software - whether Web based or not - needs to have a SQL Server backend running in order to get access a SQL database via ODBC. You can’t just plop a SQL database file on any old server and then expect to get to it.

The situation I’m in is that I do just have “any old server” sitting back there. I’ts not running SQL Server or MySQL or anything. Seeing as Access is not simply a client/server solution, I was wondering if I could simply point Access to the file on the Web and open in that way. Barring that, is there a way to access it via Frontpage web extensions or any other client software?

It can be done, but how depends what your “any old server” is. Is it a Windows 2K (or even XP Pro) running IIS? Or something else?

I don’t believe you can just point to an access file on a webserver and have it open in your local MS Access install. You could design ASP pages that allow you to view/edit the database using an ADO (or using another connection preference) but I don’t believe this is what you are looking for.

If you both don’t need to access it at the same time you could use the web server as an FTP server and download, edit, and upload but this is not a good work around.

It’s a server provided by a Web hosting service. I know it’s Windows as opposed to Unix - so it has to be either 2K or XP Pro running IIS (right?).

I know, for example, that it hosts Web pages create with FrontPage, and has all that nifty Frontpage publish directly to Web stuff.

I’d prefer just to be able to open it in Access. However, if that’s not possible, I’m not opposed to creating some simple Web pages to do it… as long as it’s fairly simple to do. Are there good tools to do stuff like this? Anything that you can suggest?

For the record, I’m no slouch with computers, but I am a bit of a slouch with Web crap. I’ve spent the last ten years doing C++ and database (SQL Server) programming, but none of it was Web based. I can write an Enteprise level application providing 24/7 support for thousands of users and computers, but I can’t bloody connect to an Access database on a Web site.

A MS Database can be split into a front end and a back end.
Each of the users would have the front end loaded on their own computer and these would link to the data which is stored on the server in the back-end database.

Search the help files for “Splitting Databases” and you should get a pretty good overview.

zoid,

I’m a little confused. Splitting the Access database into a front end and back end is all well and good, but how does this help Athena access the back-end remotely. If I’m understanding this correctly Athena wants to access it remotely with HTTP or FTP protocol and have in open in Access locally without downloading. I tried “linking” to a table stored remotely on an ftp server but Access just wouldn’t have it. It tells me “ftp://xx.xx.xx.xx isn’t a proper c:\heresmyfile”. What am I missing?

Athena,

Designing web pages that pull and view/edit information out of a database would require knowledge of ASP/VBScript (if the webserver is running Windows/IIS), PHP (if the webserver is running Unix/PHP) or something along those lines and HTML. These are not difficult things to learn but would probably require significant learning/development time.

I believe there are capabilities that are native to MS Access that can accomplish what you need. Try here and here for starters. The only tricky part is the settings for the ODBC driver, since it is a remote server. If it is just you and one other person, you may be better off setting up IIS or win98’s personal web server on a machine that is local to you. Or is the whole point being able to access this while away from the office?

Athena, sorry that I can’t point you in the right direction (we’re in full Hurricane Isabel mode), but check out M$ knowledge base on accessing Access via the internet, via Frontpage or any other .html or .asp service. It’s really quite simple, IIRC. Sorry I can’t fully elaborate, as soon as I send this, I’ve got to put my development and production server down, then crawl into my bomb shelter. Ta-ta…

OOPS!

Sorry, I missed the fact that you needed to use FTP or HTML.
My solution only works if you have the server mapped as a network drive.