How to best serve information from an MS Access database over the web?

[Greg the dogsitter]

I figure there are two ways: programming in DreamWeaver/ASP, or just serving up info from Access' built-in data access pages.

I'm guessing the data access pages might get us to an initial site faster, but ASP will be much more customizable.

Whatcha think?

[SteveJobs]

best way is to convert it to filemaker and serve it.

[mattkime]

does this need to be done the lazy way or the right way?

the right way would be to get the data into MySQL or MS SQL and then pick your proper web programming language.

[JoeM]

Isn't there an M$ solution like .net or a shared "something" that actually can use Access?

[Greg the dogsitter]

[quote mattkime]does this need to be done the lazy way or the right way?

the right way would be to get the data into MySQL or MS SQL and then pick your proper web programming language.
I'd thought about MS SQL. But it's just not that much data.

MySQL would mean changing how people are already storing their info, and I'm not sure if I want to inflict that much change at this point. :-)

[maurycy]

ASP.NET can connect to Access database. Just make sure you put the MDB file in a folder that's not accessible by public. You do not want them to download the whole db.

[M A V I C]

Greg, you asked how "best" to do it

I could switch it from Access to MS SQL in just a few minutes. But the only reason I can do that, is because I pay someone who knows how to do it

So your access to skills plays a big part in this.

[mattkime]

>>I'd thought about MS SQL. But it's just not that much data.

Its not really about the amount of data. Its more about the reliability of the web connection to the data.

Yes, you can serve MS Access data to the web but its not a very trustworthy solution.

[Greg the dogsitter]

[quote mattkime]>>I'd thought about MS SQL. But it's just not that much data.

Its not really about the amount of data. Its more about the reliability of the web connection to the data.

Yes, you can serve MS Access data to the web but its not a very trustworthy solution.
Is the nontrustworthiness dependent on the number of users? This isn't for more than a handful of users, and rarely more than one at a time.

[mattkime]

>>Is the nontrustworthiness dependent on the number of users? This isn't for more than a handful of users, and rarely more than one at a time.

It sounds like you need a "get it done" solution. Some ISPs offer hosting of MS Access files for use with asp/php in addition to the use of MySQL/MS SQL. Given the choice, I'll always take a real database for web programming over access. however, I'm not sure how the options compare in your situation.