the best way to go about setting my project up.

Here's the situation: I have an Excel UserForm that gets it's
information from an Access database on our server. This UserForm, once
completed, will be used by our sales people when they are out quoting jobs.
Obviously, when they aren't connected to the company network, Excel will
give a "network or disk" error and not run the Userform.

My idea: replicate the database onto their laptops and have Excel
perform a network check before trying to open the UserForm and, if it
couldn't find the network database, use the local copy to avoid the errors.

Is that the best way to do it?

Does anyone have another suggestion?

What if I make a change to the DB while a sales person is out? How would
that change get pushed to the replicas?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance!

Hi,

Replication is the way to achieve remote disconnected data access... Never
mind about checking for connectivity, simply set it up to use the local
replicated database. Obviously if they are not connected to the network and
you make a change to the database, this can't be "pushed out", so you would
need to make people aware of that.

Have the replicated database synchronise with the master copy when the user
is connected to the network.

Hope this helps.

Damian.

"Atomic Storm" wrote:

the best way to go about setting my project up.

Here's the situation: I have an Excel UserForm that gets it's
information from an Access database on our server. This UserForm, once
completed, will be used by our sales people when they are out quoting jobs.
Obviously, when they aren't connected to the company network, Excel will
give a "network or disk" error and not run the Userform.

My idea: replicate the database onto their laptops and have Excel
perform a network check before trying to open the UserForm and, if it
couldn't find the network database, use the local copy to avoid the errors.

Is that the best way to do it?

Does anyone have another suggestion?

What if I make a change to the DB while a sales person is out? How would
that change get pushed to the replicas?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance!

Ok, good. My next set of questions would be: is there a way to have Excel
send an update request to the replicated database which would subsequently
check itself against the master database OR must I manually update each
database? I don't think all the sales laptops will have Access loaded on
the machine... only the mdb file.

?B?RGFtaWFuIFM=?= wrote in
:

Hi,

Replication is the way to achieve remote disconnected data access...
Never mind about checking for connectivity, simply set it up to use
the local replicated database. Obviously if they are not connected to
the network and you make a change to the database, this can't be
"pushed out", so you would need to make people aware of that.

Have the replicated database synchronise with the master copy when the
user is connected to the network.

Hope this helps.

Damian.

"Atomic Storm" wrote:

the best way to go about setting my project up.

Here's the situation: I have an Excel UserForm that gets
it's
information from an Access database on our server. This UserForm,
once completed, will be used by our sales people when they are out
quoting jobs. Obviously, when they aren't connected to the company
network, Excel will give a "network or disk" error and not run the
Userform.

My idea: replicate the database onto their laptops and have
Excel
perform a network check before trying to open the UserForm and, if it
couldn't find the network database, use the local copy to avoid the
errors.

Is that the best way to do it?

Does anyone have another suggestion?

What if I make a change to the DB while a sales person is out? How
would that change get pushed to the replicas?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance!

Huh? They have Access on their laptops or they couldn't run the MDBs
they lug around.

HTH
--
-Larry-
--

"Atomic Storm" wrote in message
48.16...
Ok, good. My next set of questions would be: is there a way to have
Excel
send an update request to the replicated database which would
subsequently
check itself against the master database OR must I manually update
each
database? I don't think all the sales laptops will have Access
loaded on
the machine... only the mdb file.

?B?RGFtaWFuIFM=?= wrote
in
:

Hi,

Replication is the way to achieve remote disconnected data
access...
Never mind about checking for connectivity, simply set it up to
use
the local replicated database. Obviously if they are not
connected to
the network and you make a change to the database, this can't be
"pushed out", so you would need to make people aware of that.

Have the replicated database synchronise with the master copy when
the
user is connected to the network.

Hope this helps.

Damian.

"Atomic Storm" wrote:

the best way to go about setting my project up.

Here's the situation: I have an Excel UserForm that gets
it's
information from an Access database on our server. This UserForm,
once completed, will be used by our sales people when they are
out
quoting jobs. Obviously, when they aren't connected to the
company
network, Excel will give a "network or disk" error and not run
the
Userform.

My idea: replicate the database onto their laptops and
have
Excel
perform a network check before trying to open the UserForm and,
if it
couldn't find the network database, use the local copy to avoid
the
errors.

Is that the best way to do it?

Does anyone have another suggestion?

What if I make a change to the DB while a sales person is out?
How
would that change get pushed to the replicas?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and thanks in
advance!

"Larry Daugherty" wrote in
:

Huh? They have Access on their laptops or they couldn't run the MDBs
they lug around.

HTH

Are you saying that excel can not read data from an mdb file if Access
isn't installed on the system?

That doesn't sound right....

Nope, you got me. Excel most certainly can read from an MDB file.

I leapt, without looking further, on the single statement that seemed
wrong. Apologies.

--
-Larry-
--

"Atomic Storm" wrote in message
48.16...
"Larry Daugherty" wrote in
:

Huh? They have Access on their laptops or they couldn't run the
MDBs
they lug around.

HTH

Are you saying that excel can not read data from an mdb file if
Access
isn't installed on the system?

That doesn't sound right....