shared mdb, record visibility isse

[linneaw]

Hi...

A very simple database is shared by 2 users. 1 table. 1 form. 10 or so queries, 10 or so reports.
The form is used for entering records, and auto-opens when the database opens.

Database was originally created and used in Access 2000 on W2k.
Currently, both use Access 2003, David has moved up to XP.

Basically, Sally, on her workstation, enters records, and after closing the database and re-opening can see the records she entered (the records are definitely getting in to the table).
David, on his workstation, cannot see the records entered by Sally.

Looking at the actual table (not at the form), Sally's record count is 181, David's is 153.

The database file is on a shared Netware drive. Windows logins are local workstation accounts.

Didn't check yet to see if records created by David are invisible to Sally.
Didn't check yet to see if records created by Sally are visible to another Windows account on Sally's workstation.

Again, originally they both could see each other's records. Don't know if it started up after the XP upgrade of David, or the 2003 upgrade of both (they originally reported in April - cow-orker who got the assignment reinstalled Office, and when that didn't fix it, shrugged his shoulders and walked away...)

Anyone know what's going on here? There's no question whatsoever that they're both looking at the same file - I made sure of that, at least...

TIA - Linnea

[Moon_Dawg]

Hiya,

Your problem here isn't anything to do with MS Office. Your problem lies in the refreshing of your data between the submission of records. Imagine this scenario; Dave and Sally both open the database at the same time - at the minute they both see an identical number of records. Sally starts her data entry duties and enters a dozen records. Dave in the meantime hasn't - he's been busy with something else, but still has the main form open. Sally will now have a record count greater than Dave's - this is because the main form in your system is based on a 'snapshot' of data. This means that Dave's form doesn't know when another user has submitted a record, because his form hasn't REQUERIED the database. If he closed the form (not the database) and re-opened it, you'd find that his recordset was suddenly up to date.
This could be a design question for your system: Do users need to see records added by other users straight away? If so, then you might want to add a [EVENT PROCEDURE] to your form's [AFTER UPDATE] event that says:

Sub MyForm_AfterUpdate()

Me.Requery

End Sub

That's one solution - another would be to add a command button to the form that does the same thing [Me.Requery]. And finally, if you want to create a form that refreshes at a timer interval, you can the same code to the [ON_TIMER] event...but doing that could start causing you network traffic problems if the number of records is large.

Hope that helps!

[linneaw]

Hi Moon_Dawg

I wish that were it. Don't think so, though...

In my test, I had Sally enter a record while Dave had the database closed. When he subsequently opened the database, Sally's most recent entry was not there.

Also, they report that Dave cannot see any records Sally has entered since this started, a few months back.

That said, any further thoughts?

In trying to find info on this, I've come across "database splitting". All I got so far, though, is that not splitting a shared db is bad - no specifics on the dangers. Would the unsplitness of this db maybe be at the root of the problem? (I can't imagine why, though...)

I'll probably have a go at splitting it today - too many other things on the plate the last couple of days to have gotten back to this yet...

Thanks,
Linnea

[MasterBlaster]

I'm just guessing here but if you didn't actually upgrade the database from 2000 to 2003 then I see no reason why it still shouldn't work, I would guess its from the OS/Office upgrade on their computers, with 2003 I know for sure there are many new security settings which could be conflicting with this.

[taurus]

Would deleting the linked table and then re-linking help?