How to set up Access database as a back-end only - excel

I plan on using Excel as the front-end and Access as the back-end only. (all queries and forms are in Excel). A single Access database will be queried from multiple Excel files that will be located on the share drive (Linux server). Access tables contain memo, text and number fields.
Data will be sent to Access tables and records will be appended/deleted; all via Excel.
There will be multiple users interacting with a single Access database via multiple Excel files located on the shared drive. Users will be interacting from different workstations with Windows 7, all have Access 2010 and Excel 2010 installed.
This process works for me from my workstation but I’m not sure what will happen when other 4 people will be sending/appending/deleting records to the same Database?
How do I make this work? What settings do I need to check in Access to make this possible?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated since I’m fairly new to Access.
Thank you!

Access is a file-server, and not a data-server.
That's means when you do a query on an Access database, all the data are going to the client part, who process the query.
Let a query "get the books written by Kernighan" in your Excel. Excel will ask to Access (throught the ADO or DAO) : "send me all the books". Access will send ALL the books, and Excel will find the book written by Kernighan.
In the same way, if Excel (still with ADO / DAO) want to make an update, it does it localy. The Access database will just set up a flag to prevent conflicts. (btw, this flag is stored in the .laccdb file)
In your case, all that are done by the ADO/DAO layer, which will
send all the data
set a flag to prevent the conflicts if one data is in Edit mode
So, to be short : yes, you can do it ;)

Related

AS400 - Data downloading to Excel from AS400 table with multiple members

I recently started a job at a company that still uses AS400 and need some help!
So currently we do not have any BI tool to access system data files directly, so I'm trying to connect AS400 to excel using ODBC and download/display AS400 data directly to excel.
So I accomplished to make the connection and I am able to access schema, table, views from Excel using data connection. But the problem is that some tables have multiple members in it and the excel's pulling data from what I am guessing as the first member that excel sees when all the important data are in other member files...
Is there anyway I could select specific members and download data of that specific member directly to excel?
I can do this when I use IBM's data transfer program, but I would like to find out if it's possible to do directly with excel..
Thanks!
Matt
No.
Multi-membered files are generally not supported by any SQL tool.
However
You can always CREATE ALIAS myname FOR MYLIB/MYTABLE(MYMBR)
Then use myname to access from Excel.
Download a file multiple members to excel
create a logical file over the physical file with all members. Download the logical file with excel data connection.
Hope this helps.
you can access the data in multi-member files via FTP. For example /QSYS.LIB/your_library.LIB/your_file.FILE will be considered a directly by FTP. Depending on the data structure you may be able to do it directly from Excel.

SQL Server and Excel

I want to link an excel file to SQL Server 2014 whereby I can edit the file and the data gets updated on the server automatically.
Similar to what happens when you link sql server to Access whereas you can edit the data and the changes take effect in the server.
Thanks in advance
There is no out of the box solution for this. You can do this either of two ways:
Write a C# code which has a file watcher attached to the Excel file which uploads the Excel file using SSIS job to the database.
Create a scheduled SSIS job which imports the Excel file periodically.
Understanding the purpose would allow for greater elaboration.
This depends on the type of data you wish to edit.
For master data, if you have the Enterprise or Business Intelligence edition of SQL Server and Master Data Services set up, there is a plug-in for Excel:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh231024(v=sql.120).aspx
For transactional data, I would strongly advise against using Excel as a front-end and would recommend you to consider alternatives.
However, if you are compelled to go down this route, you can achieve this using VBA scripting and linking via a DAL (Data Access Layer) such as ADO.NET. Be aware that giving such power to your users could open up your system to sql injection attacks - only proceed so if you trust the users 100%. Another thing to take into consideration is validation checks - validation checks should be applied to every cell where data can be entered. More information can be found here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/316934

Connections with the Excel and Access Database are preventing me from getting exclusive database

I have an access database that users are connecting to with excel files. I have way of managing people who are logged on using Access. However, I do not have a way to manage people who are connected to the database using excel. It is my front in so I am not worried about the Data I just want to be able to edit forms and add features.
Splitting your database will help...https://support.office.com/en-ca/article/Split-an-Access-database-3015ad18-a3a1-4e9c-a7f3-51b1d73498cc
But you can also look into making the FE you release to users as an mde or accde file. These will compile your VBA code and not allow users to enter design mode to change anything so these files are slightly smaller and more secure.
Then you can make changes to the regular FE mdb or accdb files that you have, test those changes and then when you are ready to release a new version, publish them as mde or accde files and copy it over the old version (or make back ups first, and then replace).

MS Access 2010: get (Windows) user who blocks database

in a Windows Company network environment we have several users who access MS Access Databases via MS Excel VBA Programms.
For updating the Database we´re bound to a legacy system. For entering data we use normal Access Forms and normalized tables. The Excel VBA don´t query the normalized tables directly but use a different Access Database which containes non-normalized records. The latter is deleted (via the Kill Command) and newly created after each "session" for entering new datas in the forms.
So, if any user queries the database via an Excel Programm while the other programms wants to delete and re-create it, the deletion fails with the error 70 - access denied.
(I guess in the Excel Programms there are some bugs and not all connections are closed, that´s why a user who keeps the programm open for a long time will block the deletion for a long time - but i´m not in charge of those programms O_o ).
So, I´d like to get the windows login (or any other information) of the user who currently blocks the database when the error is thrown. Is there any way to do this??
Alternatively I´d like kick any blocking user out of the database when it´s supposed to be deleted - is there a way to set some kind of priority for the kill command??
Thanks a lot!
To find out who has a file open use PsFile with the path to the file being blocked.
In terms of your architecture, if the non-normalized records are generated by queries which are (or can be) stored in your Access database, you should consider pointing the Excel file to a query, rather than generating a whole separate file for this purpose. You use the "Get External Data" section of the "DATA" ribbon to insert refresh-able tables in your Excel workbook.

Lotus Notes auto export

I am doing trend analysis of data from lotus notes. I need to manually export data from lotus notes and import it into excel. Is there a way to automate this? I can even work with Access. I tried to create an agent and I do not have access to do so.
There are many ways to do this, depending on your skills and your access to the Notes database.
First of all, when you say "I do not have access to [create an agent]", are you saying that you don't have designer access to the database where the data lives?
If that is the case, simply build a separate Notes application, and write your export agent there. Put that application on the same server, and you can set the export to run every night 8or whenever you like).
Another option is to use COM in Access and pull the data over that way. You have all the COM classes documnented in the Domino Designer help, and the code should be very similar to what you would writ in Lotusscript.
A third option, if the database is web enabled, is to use HTTP to pull the data out of views. You can read it using ?ReadViewEntries, either as XML or as JSON. This requires that all the data you need is exposed in the view, though.
I think the first option is the best, though. However, if you have been tasked with creating this export, you should be able to ask for proper access to the database...
I know this is a past posting, but someone may need the latest answers get to Domino Data.
You can export any view in Notes. File -> Export -> Select CSV as the option.
Then there is the IBM ODBC driver. There are two versions. One for 8.5.3 and another for 9.x. Download here http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/toolkits.html
Instructions on how to install here http://xpagesbeast.com/uxdesign/dont-forget-about-the-notessql-driver/
Using DomSQL which is a true JDBC driver for Notes Domino data. Non Notes environments can execute SQL SELECT queries using this JDBC driver.
http://www.openntf.org/main.nsf/blog.xsp?permaLink=NHEF-8Q7AW3
Using the Domino REST Services. You can access DominoData through a URL and it returns JSON. There are URLs to get all database instances on the server, then you can get all views in the server, and you can then access documents in the views.
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf/xpAPIViewer.xsp?lookupName=IBM+Domino+Access+Services+9.0.1#action=openDocument&content=catcontent&ct=api
If you cannot create an agent (no designer access) you can try to install NotesSQL (ODBC driver) besides your Notes Client and access with Excel, MsQuery, etc. with your user id.
You can find more information here: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/products/notesdomino/notessql/

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