distribution (2k on NT and Windows2k)

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I have an application which due to the nature of the business requires updating to reports and calcualtions depending on contract structure on a fairly routine basis. I update about 1 to 2 times a month. I tried to distribute the front end via a .bat file through email. I used one for the NT structure and one for the Windows 2k structure. I tried to make the .bat file copy the front end from the network to the users desktop automatically. I got mised results. Depending on the permissions of the users it was successfull only sometimes. It seems that on some of the machines (so far the NT machines), the .bat file did not run correctly. Is there an easier way to distribute this front end? Keep in mind, for security reasons, our management has configured outlook to strip off any attachments with the .mdb extension. So directly emailing the front end is not an option. Not to mention it is about 7 megs big. Thanks for any help anyone can give me on this issue.

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How many users is your front-end being deployed to? One technique is to simply have something in the login script that downloads the front-end if it has changed. If you have more complex needs, FMS has a product that will do the trick for you, and we also have one you can read about on our website. By the way, if your management is worried about sending .mdb files as attachments, they should worry lots more about .bat files. One of those can wipe your hard drive in seconds.

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Hi, thanks,
there are about 25 users total. The log on script sounds interesting. Management has also scrubbed .bat files as an attachment, but i learned that a link to one will work just fine. I would also like to read about the process on the WEB site. Is that a matter of just searching on the topic?

THanks
Kevin

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Wendell’s company ‘Access Experts’ has a tool for deploying databases: DBLauncher.

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Wendell’s company ‘Access Experts’ has a tool for deploying databases: DBLauncher.

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In addition to Hans’ comments, the FMS product Access Startup is available. It is a more sophisticated product in that it lets you start whatever version of Access is required for a given database. Our product is more limited, but will also update such things as .mdw files, DLLs and OCX ActiveX controls. I don’t know of a good web resource to read about the problem in a more general way – ours grew out of the need to deploy complex front-ends to from 80 to 200 workstations without making everyone logout of the database at once. Your batch file should be able to do much the same thing, and by putting it in the login script, it would update whenever it detected a newer version – we typically deploy an MDE version of the front-end. Hope this helps – if you specific questions I’ll try to answer them as best I can.

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In addition to Hans’ comments, the FMS product Access Startup is available. It is a more sophisticated product in that it lets you start whatever version of Access is required for a given database. Our product is more limited, but will also update such things as .mdw files, DLLs and OCX ActiveX controls. I don’t know of a good web resource to read about the problem in a more general way – ours grew out of the need to deploy complex front-ends to from 80 to 200 workstations without making everyone logout of the database at once. Your batch file should be able to do much the same thing, and by putting it in the login script, it would update whenever it detected a newer version – we typically deploy an MDE version of the front-end. Hope this helps – if you specific questions I’ll try to answer them as best I can.

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Hi, thanks,
there are about 25 users total. The log on script sounds interesting. Management has also scrubbed .bat files as an attachment, but i learned that a link to one will work just fine. I would also like to read about the process on the WEB site. Is that a matter of just searching on the topic?

THanks
Kevin

Reply | Quote

How many users is your front-end being deployed to? One technique is to simply have something in the login script that downloads the front-end if it has changed. If you have more complex needs, FMS has a product that will do the trick for you, and we also have one you can read about on our website. By the way, if your management is worried about sending .mdb files as attachments, they should worry lots more about .bat files. One of those can wipe your hard drive in seconds.

Reply | Quote