Best Practices for handling Access-based application users who don"talways follow the rules
Best Practices for handling Access-based application users who don"talways follow the rules
am 05.01.2008 01:27:34 von Bob Alston
I have an application with about 30 users, most of whom use the
application on laptops that they take with them. The system is split
into FE and BE. The BE on each laptop is a replica. The system
automatically syncs with the server at their office location each time
they start up the application and they are connected to the LAN and
again when they shut down.
I have experienced occasional database corruption. Having difficulty
tracking down the cause.
Unlikely that it is network connectivity type issues since the database
they access is local to their laptop.
But they could:
...Be closing their laptop without first closing out the
application "gracefully"
...Trying to access the BE database directly
Do others do things like:
...Putting an auto run macro in the BE that shuts down immediately if
opened (without holding down the shift key)?
...Log when users start and normally shutdown an application so you can
tell if the user is not shutting down the application properly
Any other things you standardly do?
My users expect the system to work flawlessly but don't want to spend
any time helping me figure out what caused a problem. sometimes I don't
hear about problems til days later.
Bob
Re: Best Practices for handling Access-based application users who don"t always follow the rules
am 05.01.2008 05:57:14 von Tom van Stiphout
On Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:27:34 -0600, Bob Alston
wrote:
If users don't communicate, you have to collect the information
yourself. I like the crash detection, and you should for sure have an
error handler that logs errors to a table so you can easily review
them. A simple AutoExec macro in the BE ("Yo, you're not supposed to
be here!") is a must.
Also try some of the scenarios like ungraceful shutdown, and rework
your code so it is more forgiving in those scenarios.
How about a rotating "Tip of the day" at startup time? Users have
nothing better to do than read that message while the rest of the app
starts up.
-Tom.
>I have an application with about 30 users, most of whom use the
>application on laptops that they take with them. The system is split
>into FE and BE. The BE on each laptop is a replica. The system
>automatically syncs with the server at their office location each time
>they start up the application and they are connected to the LAN and
>again when they shut down.
>
>I have experienced occasional database corruption. Having difficulty
>tracking down the cause.
>
>Unlikely that it is network connectivity type issues since the database
>they access is local to their laptop.
>
>But they could:
>
>..Be closing their laptop without first closing out the
>application "gracefully"
>
>..Trying to access the BE database directly
>
>Do others do things like:
>
>..Putting an auto run macro in the BE that shuts down immediately if
>opened (without holding down the shift key)?
>
>..Log when users start and normally shutdown an application so you can
>tell if the user is not shutting down the application properly
>
>Any other things you standardly do?
>
>My users expect the system to work flawlessly but don't want to spend
>any time helping me figure out what caused a problem. sometimes I don't
>hear about problems til days later.
>
>Bob
Re: Best Practices for handling Access-based application users who don"t always follow the rules
am 06.01.2008 01:42:45 von XXXusenet
Bob Alston wrote in
news:K9Afj.92$fD1.50@newsfe05.lga:
> I have an application with about 30 users, most of whom use the
> application on laptops that they take with them. The system is
> split into FE and BE. The BE on each laptop is a replica. The
> system automatically syncs with the server at their office
> location each time they start up the application and they are
> connected to the LAN and again when they shut down.
>
> I have experienced occasional database corruption. Having
> difficulty tracking down the cause.
>
> Unlikely that it is network connectivity type issues since the
> database they access is local to their laptop.
I would want them working on the LAN copy when connected to the
network. If they didn't shut down properly, they wouldn't have any
of their edits from the office in their replica when they used the
app outside the office. This would quickly teach them to do it
right, seems to me. And you could set up indirect replication over
VPN in order that they could synch from remote if they didn't do it
properly before leaving the office.
> But they could:
>
> ..Be closing their laptop without first closing out the
> application "gracefully"
Then setting the laptops to hibernate or go to sleep should fix the
problem, though they still wouldn't have synched their data. If the
laptops are set to shut down when closed, then that would be a
problem.
> ..Trying to access the BE database directly
>
> Do others do things like:
>
> ..Putting an auto run macro in the BE that shuts down immediately
> if opened (without holding down the shift key)?
Set it up to not allow the bypass key. When you need to work in the
back end, you can change it to allow it. I'm pretty sure that's not
going to be a replicated property, so you don't have to worry about
it in your work copies.
> ..Log when users start and normally shutdown an application so you
> can tell if the user is not shutting down the application properly
This is a good diagnostic tool. I've used it in apps where people's
computers kept reverting to bad versions of Access (without service
packs) that were dangerous, and the log table allowed me to diagnose
where the problem was, and also inform users if they were running
with a bad version of Access.
> Any other things you standardly do?
>
> My users expect the system to work flawlessly but don't want to
> spend any time helping me figure out what caused a problem.
> sometimes I don't hear about problems til days later.
This is not a technological problem. It's a management problem. Talk
to your supervisor and get the supervisors of the offenders to whip
them into line.
--
David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/
Re: Best Practices for handling Access-based application users who don"t always follow the rules
am 06.01.2008 01:43:39 von XXXusenet
Tom van Stiphout wrote in
news:6a3un31t268uhhsmcghigrjp0erb95l2kq@4ax.com:
> How about a rotating "Tip of the day" at startup time? Users have
> nothing better to do than read that message while the rest of the
> app starts up.
But the problem sounds to me as though it's with *shutdown*, not
startup, and that's a hardware/OS issue, and not likely addressable
from Access.
--
David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/
Re: Best Practices for handling Access-based application users who don"t always follow the rules
am 06.01.2008 02:57:41 von Tom van Stiphout
On 06 Jan 2008 00:43:39 GMT, "David W. Fenton"
wrote:
True, but these tips can promote "best practices".
-Tom.
>Tom van Stiphout wrote in
>news:6a3un31t268uhhsmcghigrjp0erb95l2kq@4ax.com:
>
>> How about a rotating "Tip of the day" at startup time? Users have
>> nothing better to do than read that message while the rest of the
>> app starts up.
>
>But the problem sounds to me as though it's with *shutdown*, not
>startup, and that's a hardware/OS issue, and not likely addressable
>from Access.
Re: Best Practices for handling Access-based application users who
am 06.01.2008 03:25:55 von lyle
On Jan 4, 7:27 pm, Bob Alston wrote:
> ..Be closing their laptop without first closing out the
> application "gracefully"
I can't do that with my laptop because it has a battery. No matter how
I try to "turn it off" it has power. And while it has power Windows
attends to closing any running program such as Access "properly". If I
physically close the lid of the laptop it goes into sleep mode, and
Windows handles that well too.
Am I missing something?
Re: Best Practices for handling Access-based application users who don"t always follow the rules
am 06.01.2008 21:49:27 von Tony Toews
lyle wrote:
>> ..Be closing their laptop without first closing out the
>> application "gracefully"
>
>I can't do that with my laptop because it has a battery. No matter how
>I try to "turn it off" it has power. And while it has power Windows
>attends to closing any running program such as Access "properly". If I
>physically close the lid of the laptop it goes into sleep mode, and
>Windows handles that well too.
>Am I missing something?
Going to sleep or hibernating in a laptop or other computer does not close Access
down gracefully. Access is suspended which can cause some troubles.
BTW a somewhat similar problem can occur with hard drives that stop spinning after so
many minutes.
Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/
Re: Best Practices for handling Access-based application users who don"t always follow the rules
am 06.01.2008 22:53:51 von Lyle Fairfield
"Tony Toews [MVP]" wrote in
news:djf2o3hjrgljhcq8nrokvhcvj5kkubp037@4ax.com:
> lyle wrote:
>
>>> ..Be closing their laptop without first closing out the
>>> application "gracefully"
>>
>>I can't do that with my laptop because it has a battery. No matter how
>>I try to "turn it off" it has power. And while it has power Windows
>>attends to closing any running program such as Access "properly". If I
>>physically close the lid of the laptop it goes into sleep mode, and
>>Windows handles that well too.
>>Am I missing something?
>
> Going to sleep or hibernating in a laptop or other computer does not
> close Access down gracefully. Access is suspended which can cause
> some troubles.
>
> BTW a somewhat similar problem can occur with hard drives that stop
> spinning after so many minutes.
>
> Tony
TTBOMR I've never experienced a corrupted Access file. The closest I've
come is a SELECT DISTINCT TOP 1 query (stupid I know but it was person "a"
editing person "b"'s query and not paying much attention) which trashed a
particular video card; the error was replicable.
So I've just assumed that things have been shut down properly as I've put
my laptop to sleep many times with Access running.
I guess I'm lucky or charmed.
Re: Best Practices for handling Access-based application users who don"t always follow the rules
am 06.01.2008 23:42:21 von XXXusenet
Tom van Stiphout wrote in
news:qbd0o391joa3pvv056re4krinj18mr6d1l@4ax.com:
> On 06 Jan 2008 00:43:39 GMT, "David W. Fenton"
> wrote:
>>Tom van Stiphout wrote in
>>news:6a3un31t268uhhsmcghigrjp0erb95l2kq@4ax.com:
>>
>>> How about a rotating "Tip of the day" at startup time? Users
>>> have nothing better to do than read that message while the rest
>>> of the app starts up.
>>
>>But the problem sounds to me as though it's with *shutdown*, not
>>startup, and that's a hardware/OS issue, and not likely
>>addressable from Access.
>
> True, but these tips can promote "best practices".
And they won't be read by anybody but the people who would already
be doing things correctly.
--
David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/
Re: Best Practices for handling Access-based application users who don"t always follow the rules
am 06.01.2008 23:47:06 von XXXusenet
"Tony Toews [MVP]" wrote in
news:djf2o3hjrgljhcq8nrokvhcvj5kkubp037@4ax.com:
> lyle wrote:
>
>>> ..Be closing their laptop without first closing out the
>>> application "gracefully"
>>
>>I can't do that with my laptop because it has a battery. No matter
>>how I try to "turn it off" it has power. And while it has power
>>Windows attends to closing any running program such as Access
>>"properly". If I physically close the lid of the laptop it goes
>>into sleep mode, and Windows handles that well too.
>>Am I missing something?
>
> Going to sleep or hibernating in a laptop or other computer does
> not close Access down gracefully. Access is suspended which can
> cause some troubles.
I've been doing exactly that on a 2-year-old Lenovo laptop and on a
7-year-old Dell desktop, leaving Access apps open, both in
programming and in running mode, and have had not a single problem.
Both machines do a LOCK WORKSTATION for SLEEP and then turn off hard
drives and video, and for hibernation, do the same but write the
memory image to disk.
I can't see how LOCK WORKSTATION can ever cause problems with
running Access apps.
> BTW a somewhat similar problem can occur with hard drives that
> stop spinning after so many minutes.
That makes no sense to me, except for defective hardware.
Sleep and hibernate *can* cause problems with certain peripherals
(the sound card in my desktop sometimes doesn't wake up entirely,
but it's a pre-Win2K sound card and not really fully compatible with
the OS it's running under, so I expect such problems), but I've had
very few such problems, including wired or wireless networking,
which seem to work just fine.
I used to recommend never using sleep and/or hibernate, but now I
use it daily. Before that, I used to use LOCK WORKSTATION for years
and years, leaving my desktop on 24/7. This never caused any
problems at all, so I'm surprised that anyone would be having
problems, given how incredibly old my desktop is.
--
David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/
Re: Best Practices for handling Access-based application users who don"t always follow the rules
am 07.01.2008 07:48:48 von Tony Toews
"David W. Fenton" wrote:
>I've been doing exactly that on a 2-year-old Lenovo laptop and on a
>7-year-old Dell desktop, leaving Access apps open, both in
>programming and in running mode, and have had not a single problem.
I forgot to add "while the Access app is linked to a data MDB on a server."
>> BTW a somewhat similar problem can occur with hard drives that
>> stop spinning after so many minutes.
>
>That makes no sense to me, except for defective hardware.
I've seen Access come up with a Disk or Network Error because the hard drive took
longer to respond than Access was expecting. It didn't cause any corruptions. Just
rather interesting when I saw that.
Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/