MS access databases, MySQL and the internet.

chunter

I put together my small databases in MS Access because it's what I'm used to.

I have put one of these on the internet and it worked fine, but I was the only one using it. My "research" into this method tells me only one user can access the online MS Access database at one time.

My questions are these.
1) is the MS Access limitation for read and write access? How limiting is it?
2) How complicated is it to shift these tables/relationships across to a standard online MySql database.
3) Is there simple software I can use to convert these to Mysql tables i can upload.
I've looked at the formats my webhost's mysql can import and they don't match MS Access 2003/7 output formats (as far as I can see)..

Lakeuk

MS Access originally was never really designed to use on the internet, it can be used and a number of users can concurrently access the database over the internet.

I'm guessing that all you've done is copy the mdb file to a location on the net and when you're saying only one person can use it all that is happening is that it's being downloaded and opened locally. To get what you want you need to write some scripting like php or asp to interact with the online database via odbc

Following link with give you a starter on mysql, step 2 also includes a migration tool:-

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=20595769&postcount=18

damo24

An alternative is to split the database and put the back-end on the net hosting the front end locally on your computer. This might be a bit slow but it will get around the one user problem.

RobTang

the restriction is one user (write access) per row/record.

doesn't really matter what database you use there are issues with allowing 2 users write access to a single row at the same time. these can be solved/mitagated by certain programatical methods but its usually on the BO / client side not the database.

in any case we do need a bit more info as your description is a bit vague.

chunter

Cheers folks. The key bit of information for me is the Write access.
I won't be allowing online write access at all.
As long as I have only a few hundred hits a day I should be able to work away with Access and ASP.
In the meatime LakeUK's will serve as a experiment, because I know I'll need to move to MYSQL.