Hi,

I was wondering if anybody knew anything about posting Microsoft Access databases on the internet?

I've created a database, and found that Access has an option to save it as a .html file, which would work great, and when I upload it to my site, it doesn't work, because in the source, there is an absolute address.

I was wondering if anybody could give me a lot of help on this, cause this is new to me unfortunately... ha

I've been told I need ASP, I've been told i need SQL (both I know little about), I've also been told I only need IIS which comes with Windows XP I'm using.

If somebody could really clarify this for me, and lend me a hand on it, I would REALLY appreciate it!

Thank you VERY much,
Dan

Yes, you need IIS (which comes with XP Pro Ed) and ASP to display and manipulate your data in the Access database. If you have MS Interdev so much the better. That's the programming environment for ASP. You don't need SQL anymore since you are using Access database.

Or you can do the same darned thing by putting the website on a hosting-company who will provide the necessary glue for you... IIS if you want to use that, Apache if you don't; Access [drivers] if you want to use that format, MS-SQL or MySQL or whatever if you don't.

Usually, imho, putting a web-site on "your own" computer is not the best approach; hosting companies (and btw, we're not one!) are there for a reason. You can spend quite a lot of money on "pro editions" of this-or-that before coming to that conclusion. Hosting companies not only provide the software you need, but they commit to keeping the site up 24/7, on very fast computers with good internet links.

So basically the easiest way for me to get my Access Database up and running on the internet for whoever I want to view it, is to upload it to my website that I have with a hosting company? And just get them to help me with it?

There are many other options too, but they require more experience.

If your users need to change the data on the internet and they prefer to use a gui (a bit like access) then you can use the remote explorer functionality of adoanywhere browser and REX.

Your ISP will be required to host REX server for you.

They are both currently FREE if you register at www.adoanywhere.com

Mike

Here is something I put together about ASP that hopefully might help somehow.

You and others can have access to a database hosted on the Web from any location that has a browser with an Internet connection.

The Web database concept makes sense if you and your people want to do work in various locations in or outside the office and still be "plugged" in.

For example you could have employees enter timesheets or have sales reps log their contacts. Or perhaps you'd like customers to be able to check the status of their orders online without having to call the company.

If you want a Web database, typically what would happen is that a database such as Access or MySQL (basically just consisting of tables) would be put on the Web.

Then "dynamic" Web pages (actually ASP pages which include VBScript, HTML, and/or JavaScript) would be created acting like the old desktop database's queries, forms, and reports to access the database - all hosted on a Web Server.

Dynamic Web pages are similar in many ways to regular HTML pages. But they are "live" because the user can read from and write to information in the database. An example where you can login and add, edit, or view fictional customers and invoices is at http://www.bullschmidt.com/login.asp

Not all Web hosts will handle dynamic Web pages but many do. The Web hosts that can handle ASP pages usually have a Windows 2000 operating system running an IIS Web server.

Here are a few good ASP sites:
o ASP101 Samples - http://www.asp101.com/samples
o W3Schools ASP Tutorial - http://www.w3schools.com/asp
o Microsoft VBScript Language Reference - http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting/...bscripttoc.htm

And the following newsgroup is good:
microsoft.public.inetserver.asp.general

Or for a "quick and dirty" generic ASP open source solution to putting databases on the Web that just requires setting up a configuration page for each table or query and uploading the database to the Web as long as there is an autonumber field in each table (and you'll probably also separately want to create login capabilities), perhaps try something like this:
GenericDB by Eli Robillard
http://www.genericdb.com and then click on the Tips link to see an example