Access 2007 Runtime

[Belinda]

Hi everyone

Somewhere back in 2003 I built a simple database for people to record their (nightly) dreams. It was for a website that I belonged to, that focuses on dream analysis. Back then I got Jeff Pritchard to package it with the Access 2000 runtime, and the owner of the website sold it on CD - it was never a major seller or anything but everyone who used it loved it and I never had any support issues to contend with. It worked a treat. If people had Access it didn't install the runtime. If they didn't have Access, the runtime was installed. It was a simple and inexpensive way to release a semi professional program. I'm not a programmer, just an Access enthusiast with a lot of patience.

When Vista came out I wondered if there would be any issues. I then found out it worked on Vista. However, just recently I had to remote in to an end user's machine - she had Access 2007 installed on her laptop, had installed my database program and it threw an error. I then installed it on one of our machines that had Access 2007 - same thing - some sort of object error. End of the story is the 2000 Access program would not work at all and had to be uninstalled.

The end user was severely disappointed and asked me if I was planning to make one that worked in Access 2007. Initially I said no, stating how much work was involved, but insanity took over and I got to thinking I should build a new one. So, thats what I've been doing for the last few months (on weekends and in the wee hours). The new 2007 version is finished. It works okay. I've also built in some new features with this one so that dreamers can work through about 12 questions to analyse each dream (if they want to). I've extended all the reports to include the answers to those questions.

Thinking about how to release this one - I've decided to make it a free download instead of selling it. Microsoft now make the 2007 runtime available as a free download, so my plan is to put the Access file on the web for download and then if users don't have Access 2007 they can download the 2007 runtime.

However, I've discovered another problem. I installed the 2007 runtime on an XP machine that has Access 2003 on it. I opened the 2007 database. Worked fine. Then I went to open a 2003 database that I've created for something else, and it opens in the 2007 runtime. This was easily worked around by right clicking on the db and selecting Open With and choosing Access 2003.

Then I went into the Control Panel in XP to look at the file associations and it appears to me as if the 2007 runtime takes over all of Access's file associations. It was easy enough for me to change them back to 2003 Access, however, I don't want to put myself in a situation where I'm creating conflicts with end users "other databases" in earlier versions of Access.

I've discussed this with the website owner (who will be promoting the new free 2007 version) and another Access savvy end user, and both agree that all we can do is warn people who are using other db's created in earlier versions of Access that the 2007 runtime may create conflicts and that to avoid these issues they should not download and install this.

If anyone out there in Access world has any comments, information, or further warnings about the 2007 runtime that I should be aware of, can you please alert me to any other issues I may face.

Or am I just being overly concerned? My other older version db's certainly did not get corrupted or anything like that, in fact, they worked fine in the 2007 runtime. Mind you, they didn't have any additional VB code or macros either.

Belinda

[Access Guy]

The file association problem has been around since...always. Access always changes the setting to the version last used. Bad if you typically start a db by clicking on the file in Explorer.

You can always get around this by creating shortcuts for each database that specify the correct version to use.

For clients this is always an issue as most client go glassy eyed when you mention 'file associations' or 'shortcuts' - those pretty little pics on the screen - or even 'files'. Believe it or not I have probably heard 'What's a file?' more than 100 times over the years.

Supporting software is always a drama, so it is hard not to be concerned about any potential for numerous calls for help that get very time consuming.

Consider a step-by-step on creating a relevant shortcut for your database, as well as other databases they have, as well as covering the potential issues for clients in very easy to understand language.

[Belinda]

Thanks so much Access Guy - you've presented the perfect solution. Yes, I will be putting some help files on the web, so I can make a step by step instruction file for that issue.

I've never tried to run different versions of Access on the same PC before, so I'll look into how to do this with the shortcuts. I'm pretty sure Microsoft have a write up on this on their Access Help pages. I seem to remember seeing it when I was researching some other issue.

Thanks again - this is great solution. I know what you mean about clients going glassy eyed over file associations...and files....I deal with it everyday. That is why I wanted to avoid anything too technical. I figure if they can't get through a step by step visual of creating a shortcut they're not going to have much hope of putting a record in the database, so we'll see. I'm going to make some video files with Jing to make it easy...will post links to the whole thing when I'm done.

Really appreciate your help.

Belinda

[Robert L. Austin]

I read what AccessGuy posted as a solution, and there are always more than one way to do things, especially in the programming world. So, while I agree with the shortcut solution being one viable option, another might be to write a VBA module that will make the same file association modifications that you manually made, and create a one time 'startup' module that runs the VBA code to modify the file associations. Sounds a bit daunting, and certainly not something that you would want to put too much description into your website/download page, other than to say something like "after you install this, be sure to open the database before running any other Access files running on Access 2003 or older". You could also make a menu item that will run this "file association fix" for the people that download your file, and maybe they happen to download something from another source, and maybe they don't realize it's an Access runtime, and their associations get broke again, they could load up your app and run the fix manually.

I'm kind of surprised that there isn't already some sort of add-in or freebie 'module' out there to download and include in peoples run-time apps. It might be something you can search for, or if you need a hand with putting together a module, I might be able to put something together (of course, curiosity has me going, so I'm going to see if there's a pre-done module out there). I haven't done much in Access for quite some time, having done more VB and SQL Server stuff, but Access is where I got my start and I do like the huge improvements (in my opinion) that came with 2007, even if they did take some getting used to.

[Belinda]

Hi Robert

Thank you for your ideas. I'd be interested to know if you find anything, or can create something that is workable. I'm not a programmer.

In the end I just went with what was within my own capabilities - users can download the Access file and the 2007 Runtime if they don't have Access 2007. I put up a help page on the shortcut issue.

The site is www.dreamsightdiary.com if you want to take a look.

I was also really happy with Access 2007 once I got my mind around the new layout. I congratulate Microsoft on making the Runtime freely available - this made it so much easier for me to do this project myself.

The other thing I did which I think is going to save me a lot of heart ache in the future is that I released the Access file with an .accdr extension which forces the DB to open in Runtime mode if users do have Access 2007. This means they don't see all the design stuff (or get confused by it) if they aren't familiar with it. And they can't accidentally modify anything in Runtime mode.

I know with earlier versions you could make an .mdb or something like that - but this was easier - you just copy the db and change the file extension on the copy. It works brilliantly. I also said on the site that if any Access experts want the .accdb file I'll zip it and email it to them - but so far, no requests for that.

Looking at my website stats - a few people have dowloaded it this month and so far I've had no support requests or issues, but it's still early days.

Thanks for your input!

Belinda