Some deep thoughts regarding Access .. (with the caveat that this is from someone
with limited experience with the product .. in other words, I may not know what the
heck I'm talking about)
In the "olden days" you needed to have the access data running on a special server
(provided by Microsoft, naturally) .. now with Access 2002 you have more flexibility
(somewhat, you may STILL need to use a windows server such as NT to host the data ..
I'm a bit uncertain about this) .. one of the many problems (obviously not a fan of
Access!) .. is even with Access 2002 (which is NOT inexpensive, BTW) the web visitor
needs to be using a 5.0 or higher version of Explorer (which according to my stats,
about 90% have) ..
You "can" use Macromedia products to create/maintain access databases .. one handy
link to info is included below.
As Star Meyer pointed out, generating logical and useful multi-field quesries can be
very tricky .. although there are utilities to help create the query forms (coded in
VB I believe, but don't quote me on that) .. the learning curve may be steep ..
there are many tutorials available online that will provide greater assistance than
I can.
Final biased thought .. consider CGI using PERL to program .. that's what I do, it's
my "specialty" .. learned it the hard way by trial and error (emphasis on the error)
.. but it's what I use to run my MuseumStuff.com site .. able to tolerate 1000's of
visitors and quesries a day, and using flattext files to boot .. (the right way
would be PHP and MySQL .. but leave that for another day) .. If you'd like some help
determining if CGI/PERL might be appropriate just send me a personal note and I'll
do my best.
Final final thought .. the recent worm problems that have attacked Microsoft servers
should put the fear of SQL and Access into anyone .. UNIX is much more tolerant to
attack .. but that can of "worms" is definately another topic altogether.
NOTE - I'm guessing you've already done a Google (or other) search for relevant
resources .. but for your convenience, some ready links below:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/access/default.asp
http://www.fgcu.edu/support/office2000/access/
http://www.functionx.com/access/
http://www.macromedia.com/software/ultradev/resources/access/
--
Roy Hemmat
Director, Discovery Media
http://www.MuseumStuff.com
** 1000's of museums and educational links
now available through our award-winning gateway
>I've been asked to help create a public inquiry database for a local
>museum using Microsoft Access. Are there publicly available tools or
>resources (templates, guides, websites, books, etc.) that can be of
>specific use? Or are there any general Access books that have examples
>that are similar to this type of database?
> We use Access in our museum for our databases. Two severe handicaps are:
>
> 1) not being able to enter the same record in more than one category; duplicate
> records have to be created if one item/person falls in more than one category
>
> 2) searching is possible only on the first word in the field (so, for example, if
> you search on Austen House Museum, instead of Jane Austen House Museum, you will
> get a negative answer).
>
> Has any one out there been able to overcome these problems? Is at least the first
> problem due more to how the database was structured than to the program, itself?
> We'd sure like to know, thanks!
>
> best regards,
>
> Star Meyer
> Bagatti Valsecchi Museum
> http://www.museobagattivalsecchi.org
> home: [log in to unmask]
> work: [log in to unmask]
>
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