[thelist] Synchronising online~offline databases - ideas?

[Michael Galvin]

Hi

We have an accountancy package at work which we've written ourselves.  It
uses foxpro, and once the boss found out about this "web thing", he decided
it was important that we offer an online version of the same details as are
available offline (ie., in the accountancy package).

So we've written a few programs to extract the data out of Foxpro into
Access tables, and we've written the necessary ASP to process the MDB files
on the web.  All well and good.

However, we're having a little difficulty working out how/when/etc to
synchronise the information.  Most users will be using the standard package
to enter orders, update customer accounts, etc.  Then we need to transfer
these details to the web.  To do this, I assume we need to make sure nobody
is using the MDB file on the web, but how on earth do we implement that?  It
would be best if this could all happen automatically, but the mechanics of
the whole thing are beyond me.  Can ASP "down" itself for a period?  Would
it be better to use just updates and APPEND from the new tables, rather than
overwriting each time?

Has anyone else on the list had to do this sort of offline/online synching
before, and how did you manage it?

TIA
Michael