Member Avatar for LaurieArtesis

I have an MS Access databse which supports a machine health monitoring application. I have the database schema but very little other documentation on how it has been constructed, very little support resource inside our own company to do any new development.
An important client has requested we provide a browsable HTML interface over a corporate intranet. We are considering using PC Anywhere, GOTOMY PC or a similar remote desktop but I am anticipating that this will not sit comfortably with the IT police on this site.
Is there anyone in the Daniweb community who can suggest an alternative solution and help me meet the requirement?

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A short, practical plan for exposing an Access-backed application as browsable HTML on an intranet. A remote-desktop approach only exposes a single desktop and is fragile for production; the correct pattern is a server-side web service that runs SQL against the .mdb/.accdb file and returns HTML. This follows the direction hinted at by and the Apache/Java/PHP options raised by and .

Practical immediate route (lowest friction when Windows/IIS is available): build a small ASP.NET or classic-ASP front end that opens the Access file via OLEDB or an ODBC DSN and renders HTML. Operational gotchas to plan for: place the database on a stable local volume or reliably mounted share, give the web-service account proper NTFS/share permissions, and watch for 32-bit vs 64-bit driver mismatches in the web server process. Minimal C# example:

using System.Data.OleDb;

using(var conn = new OleDbConnection(
  @"Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=C:\inetpub\wwwroot\data\mydb.accdb;"))
{
  conn.Open();
  // run query and render HTML
}

For a robust multi-user intranet, migrate tables to a server RDBMS (SQL Server Express, MySQL, etc.) and let the web app talk to that; keep Access only as an admin/front-end if desired. If Apache+Java is the chosen stack, a JDBC Access driver (for example UCanAccess) lets Java apps query Access files; PHP on Windows can use ODBC. These approaches remove file-locking and scaling limits.

Quick troubleshooting checklist: confirm exact file path and service-account permissions; ensure the web process can open the file and it isn’t opened exclusively by a desktop user; match driver bitness to the web process; start with read-only pages to validate queries; enable basic SQL/error logging. A short proof-of-concept on the intended server will quickly reveal whether keeping Access as the backend is acceptable or if migration is required.

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Member Avatar for BillBrown

I may very well be just missing the bigger picture here but what is a remote desktop type interface going to help with in this case?

You could create some Web content to interact with the Access file but it would require the use of a language such as ASP, rather than just HTML.

Bill

Member Avatar for LaurieArtesis

Bill
Thanks for response, I am no expert in this field hence reason for looking for help.
I was thinking that remote desktop from one PC would access the screen displays of the Access application as if I was sitting at the Access terminal?
problem with this is only single user.
I had further feedback and the line we are going down is an Apache server and Jave code., but Im way out of my depth now.

Laurie

Member Avatar for Stefano Mtangoo

Go to PHP gys in PHP forum. There are google video on issue just find them!
BTW good place to get answers is PHP forum!

Steve

Member Avatar for BillBrown

Hi Laurie,

No matter, really, which language your developer uses to interact with the Access file as long as it work properly to meet your needs. If your developer knows enough to want to use Java within an Apache environment, it sounds like you'll end up being in good shape when it's finished. :-)

Bill

Member Avatar for jbennet

You used to be able to make such pages using wizards in Access but it was removed in Access 2007.

Member Avatar for cjmike

so how do you do it in Access 2003, which wizard does it ?

Member Avatar for jbennet

on the left where there is tables, forms, queries etc... choose pages

Member Avatar for ashiro

i just accept by the Twintech college as a labrian, they ask me to create a database for the labrary, i already finish the database (using Access 2003), now i want to create the interface using HTML but i dont know how to connect the HTML to the database.

Member Avatar for Stefano Mtangoo

i just accept by the Twintech college as a labrian, they ask me to create a database for the labrary, i already finish the database (using Access 2003), now i want to create the interface using HTML but i dont know how to connect the HTML to the database.

Firts you have to know that HTML is *NOT* a language so you cannot definitely connect to database via HTML. It is a markup language with which you can only make UI (Tables, forms et al) No More. You need full fledged language like PHP, ASP,JSP etc.

I advice you go for PHP, learn it and do your job. I suggest PHP with SQLite or MySQL depending on whether you need server/embeded DB app.

http://www.w3schools.com/html/
http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp

EDIT: and start new threads instead of posting on eons old threads

Edited by Stefano Mtangoo because: n/a
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