Should I be using Access?

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  13 years ago

  by infernojericho

  infernojericho

  , United States

  Joined 15 years ago

  Hi there.

  I am currently writing a website for my school project. One of the parts involved in the site is to store the information of members.

  I reckon the total number of members wouldn't exceed 1000.

  So can Access be able to handle the job? I like Access because....well....it's simple, just upload the mdb file and voila.

  However some had warned me if 2 people updated the same part of the mdb at the exact same time there will be a heavy price to pay. Others told me there is some kind of concurrent control within Access, so I shouldn't have to worry on this.

  Can anyone vouch for this?

  Thanks and looking forward to any replies!!!

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  13 years ago

  by jefftullin

  Jeff Tullin

  , United Kingdom

  Joined 13 years ago

  "Heavy price to pay" is good advice in the commercial sector.

  Here, how critical is it. exactly? 

  There are two issues about multiple users trying to update the same record.

  Either you can set the Access database so that only one person at at time can use it. (Not shared) This way, the problem does not arise.

  Or, what happens is that the second person to save changes 'gets the prize'.

  (The first set of changes are lost)

  What exactly is at risk? Names and addresses? If so, the chances of concurrency are small, and it is to be hoped that the changes would both be to the 'correct' new values'.

  If its a list of (say) books read, then the items you are writing should be additions to a linked table, and wont clash.

   

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  13 years ago

  by TimL

  Tim Leung

  Berkshire, United Kingdom

  Joined 13 years ago

  With multiple users, Access will handle the concurrency issues for you. It does this by saving the 'lock' details in an ldb file in the same directory as the mdb file.

  When using Access itself, you can set it up to either lock on either a page or row basis. This is done through tools > options. 
  For a school project of this type, you'll be fine with Access.
  

  Tim
  
  

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  13 years ago

  by JC IRVIN

  JC IRVIN CALDZ

  bacolod, Philippines

  Joined 13 years ago
  hi ...
  
  Please be aware that there is a there is limit for a MDB. From my experience i cannot exceed 1GB file size...please check at 1000 records, what the file size is..
  
  If the MDB file contains multiple tables this could decrease your capacity.
  
  I was advised by a fellow member to use SQL...
  
  JC
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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