Read Only Access Problem

[Basscyst]

Hello,

Not sure if this is the right category for this but . . .I have a program set up that runs entirely on the clientside using an ODBC connection and javascript and a network drive. I have the end users set up with read only access and a db administrator who has write access to the database. The db is updated once or twice a week. Problem is that whenever a user is connected that has only read access it will not open as writable for the administrator. The read\write permissions are set through windows. Does anyone know of a way that I can allow the admin to write to the db while other users are connected? It doesn't seem to be an issue if 2 users are connected that both have write access.

Thanks,
Basscyst

[Spookster]

Call me crazy but the DBA is the one who should be handling who has what permissions on the database. What database are you using?

[Basscyst]

I'm using ACCESS, I wrote the whole program. So technically I am the DB administrator. However I am not the one who puts the info into the DB. I have an HTML interface that the admin uses to input the data. I do not have the permissions set through ACCESS, I have them set through windows.- For security reasons there is no authentication beyond the access level to the folder as the user interface is done in javascript\HTML there would be no way to have a truly secure log-in. <-- Enlighten me if that is not the case. I've been using text files to run this for the past year and just converted it to ACCESS this week. I'll add that this is designed in a very unorthodox fashion as I have 0 access to a webserver. Yet there are a good 600-700 people using this which is why I don't have ACCESS as the front end. I will admit I am still new to DB programming. Perhaps it is in fact an error in my code, if any one is willing to have a look or if it would help in resolving my problem, I can post the code. It is rather large though 800 lines of JS alone. Just reply if you are willing to have a look.

Thanks,
Basscyst

[Spookster]

I see your predicament. 600-700 people using a single access database not being served through a database server is just a problem waiting to happen.

You said you don't have access to a webserver. If you are on an company intranet(which I assume you are since people are able to access the files locally) then you can set up a webserver right on your computer or maybe a spare computer. You can install Apache, MySQL and PHP and then you wouldn't have these problems. All three are free and there are several packages available that already have them configured. You just have to install the package.

[Basscyst]

My if it were only that easy. Unfortunatly, do to internal politics. I don't have the ability to just set-up a server. I'd have done it long ago if that were the case. Our company web-servers can only house HTML pages that have been created using our CMS (Red Dot). Which is incredibly limiting as we end developers do not have the ability to create templates. Therefore no JS\ASP\PHP\SQL can be utilized which is why I reverted to using the shared drive. The end users do not write to the DB, there entries are documented using ACTIVEX to write a text file to the drive for later retrieval. What problems might I face with this set-up? .There are 600-700 possible users but probably no more than 50-100 at any given time.
The program is an overtime sign-up list. All I pull from the DB is the available shifts for the day selected. I haven't experienced any issues in regards to the retrieval and submission of shifts. Just the ability to enter new ones.

I may have a workaround for my issue: If I just change the datasource back and forth between 2 DB's whenever new shifts are loaded, in theory it should work fine. Does however leave a margin of human error as the girl who loads the shifts is not so technically inclined. But being that this is all clientside I guess I could just have a link that will re-write the js file to specify which DB has the most current shifts.

Just to vent - It's totally ridiculous the way I've gone about making all the things I've made for these people. They have a business need for all these programs that need a SSL to work properly. Yet they (The Man) don't provide the resources to allow you to make solutions. If my department needs somthing made, they have to put in a request to have it built by "The Company" Then the development team will quote them like 400 hours (once they get to it) for somthing that should take 3-4 days. Try getting budget approval for a 400 hour project to sign up for overtime or check 600 peoples status coming back from break and lunch.
Basscyst

[oracleguy]

I believe Access won't allow more than 10 con-current connections to the database at a time. So if I'm correct and you are going to have 50+ users at once using it, you'll have to use a more robust database solution.

[Basscyst]

But I only open the connection grab the shifts and then close it again. That would mean 10 people would have to press submit all at once, right? If I have a html page call the function to open the connection, grab my data and close the connection. Does it not actually close it if the webpage remains open?