Attaching geographical data to a MS Access database is in my mind doomed to fail at some time.
The problem is that there is access to the alfa numerical data from two applications, but only one of these also has access to the geographical data. So if the alfanumerical part of a record is deleted, there is - as far as I know - no way to retrieve the geographical part again. If the geographical data is point data, these can be stored in the MS Access databasae, and MapInfo can, if connecting to the database using ODBC, automatically create the points when opening the table. If the geographical data is not point data, I would prefer to create a separate table for the geographical data and then join these two tables if necessary. Separating the tables into two will give you some benefits, but of course also a problem. The benefits are that you will not have "lost" records in the tables, and that you'll be able to find the alfanumerical records that not have a geographical record assigned and geographical records that not has alfanumerical records assigned. The setback is that you need to add a record to both tables to create a new record. This can of course very easily be done with a MapBasic application. The ultimate solution would be to use either Oracle Spatial/Locator or MS SQL Server with MapInfo SpatialWare, where you can store both the geographical data and the alfanumerical data in the same table and access it from other applications than just MapInfo. Just my few cents Peter Horsb�ll M�ller GIS Developer Geographical Information & IT COWI A/S Odensevej 95 DK-5260 Odense S. Denmark Tel +45 6311 4900 Direct +45 6311 4908 Mob +45 5156 1045 Fax +45 6311 4949 E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cowi.dk/gis -----Original Message----- From: Steve King [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 7:32 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: MI-L Coordinating Access with MapInfo Bill I've been using Mapinfo intercatively with Access on a project for mapping the geology of an open cut mine. Some things are much more easily entered in Mapinfo whilst other queries and data updates are better handled by Access. The Access data is also used by other mining software. I have the two applications open at the same time - Mapinfo has mappable tables opened directly from the same Access database. I can enter data by drawing into the mapper into mapinfo to create a new record and add a couple of key data elements into the associated browser and save the table - then I switch to forms in the Access database which have a series of buttons that add related data to the new records. This all works fine and there is no trouble with either program keeping up if you use the refresh option in Access. The only problems I've had are when graphic polylines and polygons in Mapinfo get out of sync with the data in Access database - this seems to occur if you mix deleting records using Access with deleting other records in Mapinfo. Trouble then occurs with packing. Packing the Aceess database does not remove the greyed out records in Mapinfo. If the Mapinfo file is then packed things get out of whack. Problems also occur if you change the Access table structure and have to regenerate the Tab file - I've had to edit the Tab manually to keep things in sync. I can't see that there would be any trouble if the tables are not mappable. I am still very interested in talking to people who use Aceess databases which have associated polyline or ploygon data. Steve King ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Thoen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "MapInfo-L" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2005 7:59 AM Subject: MI-L Coordinating Access with MapInfo > I've got several large Access databases that I want to use in a MapInfo > application, but I was wondering if I need to take any special steps to > keep them coordinated. In this case there is no mappable data associated > with the Access tables, and they are opened and modified in Access and > also in MapInfo, but never at the same time. > > Will MapInfo keep up with changes made in Access, and will changes made in > MapInfo be reflected next time the tables are opened in Access? > > - Bill Thoen > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Message number: 16571 > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message number: 16574 --------------------------------------------------------------------- List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message number: 16582 --------------------------------------------------------------------- List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message number: 16586
