[thelist] Form data to office database

[Jason Handby]

Hi Pieter,


> I have a client who wants form data delivered to his database in the  
> office.
> I will discuss this with his IT people cfr which database, etc..
> 
> But before, I want to know ... is there a "general" best way to  
> achieve this kind of things?
> Can anyone point me (designer - non programmer) to the right  
> direction? Or to some tutorials, software, scripts, ...?


If their online database is ODBC-friendly (which I imagine it is) then
you could also consider using Linked Tables in Access. This would give
them an Access database in the office which would act as a "window" onto
the live data.

  http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-9592-1050135.html


Advantages to this approach: the Access database always reflects the
latest live data; it's relatively easy to set up compared to some kind
of FTP malarkey; you also have the possibility of making updates to the
Access database and having them reflected in the live data.

Disadvantages: performance can be sluggish if there's a lot of data
flying about; there are also firewall issues to consider; probably lots
of others that other listees will now remind me of :-)



Jason