access programming

[wilbasket23]

couple question

is access good for muli-user connection
can muli user connection access at the same time
can each user connect to the same access datbase and update
thank you

[UncaDanno]

Depends on your definition of "good".

Access can handle a few concurrent users. Emphasis on "few". And, yes, they can logically update at the same time. However, no database commits several updates simultaneously. They all wait their turn.

With any database, if you think several users will be looking at/updating the same information, you need to account for this in your application logic.

Access also has a limit to the size of the database itself. You need to research its capabilities (its technical documentation or MSDN online would be a good start) to see if it will foot the bill.

[doctorgonzo]

I have used Access in a multi-user environment. It is not great, but it can work if you keep some things in mind.

First, there is the size limit. The maximum size of the database is 2 GB, IIRC. But I wouldn't worry about that size limit too much. Long before your file reaches that size, Access is unable to deal with the data (you will soon learn that many 'theoretical' limits in Access are far from reality). A more practical limit is 500 MB.

Again, theoretically, Access can have 255 users logged on simultaneously. That's a programming limit; in reality, Access can't handle more than about 15 or 20 at any one time. If you have more users than that, you can forget about it.

If your database has more than a few hundred thousand records, you can also forget about using Access. The Jet Database Engine can't handle that many, and I have heard that it in fact starts corrupting data once you hit that limit.

In general, Access is pretty good about handling concurrent users. The best setup is a file-server setup, where you put the MDB file with the data tables in a shared location on the network and users access it through a front end MDB on their PC. If you have complicated VBA script behind your forms, you are going to need to write some error catching code to deal with the simultaneous connections (default Access dialog boxes aren't useful to the uninitiated user).