I have run into a similar situation as well. I no longer do cf and windows unless the customer has to have it. Anyway, a recent client has a retail store with POS (point of sale) software. We export all the info into a comma delimited text file. I built a interface so the customer uploads the file to the server, i then have cfhttp decipher the text file and put it into mysql DB. Your customer could do the same thing with access. Or they could use the MyODBC driver (http://www.mysql.com/products/myodbc/index.html) to do the trick. Of course you may not want your client to have access to the DB on the server that easily. Maybe option #1 would work better? Either way, these are two options that work well.
Brett At 09:06 AM 10/9/02 -0700, you wrote: >There is a situation that I encounter & I wonder how others handle it > >It is fairly common (almost a given), that a new client will have some >or all of his data available in offline MS-Access databases. > >It is usually necessary to manipulate this data (validate, normalize, >etc) to convert it into a usable online database (storing it in a more >robust RDBMS). > >I have found that CF is an excellent tool for this. > >I normally just upload the MS-Access mdb file to the hosting service. >Then I write CF programs that convert the data from MS-Access to, say >SQL-Server, or Oracle. > >No problem, as long as the host service is running on a windows >platform -- MS-Access is usually supported. > >But what happens if the Host uses a non-windows platform? > >How do you read a MS-Access database on, say a Linux Box. > >I guess you could capture the Access database into SQL-Server, >offline, if you had: > > 1) a windows machine > 2) MSDE or SQL-Server > 3) MS-Office > >This extra step gives you a mirror of the client's MS-Access db on >SQL-Server -- you still need to manipulate it for validation, >normalization, conversion to online, etc. > >What do you do if you need to go to some other (not SQL-Server) RDBMS, >that doesn't have the ability to capture Access databases? > >The problem gets compounded if the client requests periodic creation of >an offline copy of the online database >-- for offline analysis, etc. > >Is this an issue that any of you run into with any frequency? > >How do you handle it? > >(Of course the easy out is just host on windows platforms that support >Ms-Access -- but that is totall the wrong reason to make a hosting >decision). > >TIA > >Dick > > > > > > ______________________________________________________________________ Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-linux%40houseoffusion.com/ To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists&body=lists/cf_linux or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
