Using the Access 2007 run-time with a split database

Philip Herlihy · External Since: Sep 01, 2009 Posts: 6

A friend is developing a database for a medical charity, so needs to
keep costs down. We've been wondering to what extent we can use the
free Access 2007 runtime to reduce licensing costs for Access. I
understand (although I've never tried it) that a database which is a
self-contained application can be installed with only the run-time
present on the target machine, but how does this work if you want to
maintain a back-end database on a separate machine? Or will we need a
full Access license?

Phil, London

Douglas J. Steele · External Since: Jan 12, 2009 Posts: 165

You don't actually need Access at all in order to have a back-end database
on a separate machine.

You'll obviously need at least one copy of Access in order to be able to
design and build the application, but that's it (and that copy does not have
to be present in the office where the database is being used)

--
Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP
http://I.Am/DougSteele
(no e-mails, please!)

"Philip Herlihy" <me@localhost> wrote in message
news:e9Km13vKKHA.3708@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>A friend is developing a database for a medical charity, so needs to keep
>costs down. We've been wondering to what extent we can use the free Access
>2007 runtime to reduce licensing costs for Access. I understand (although
>I've never tried it) that a database which is a self-contained application
>can be installed with only the run-time present on the target machine, but
>how does this work if you want to maintain a back-end database on a
>separate machine? Or will we need a full Access license?
>
> Phil, London

NG · External Since: Aug 07, 2009 Posts: 5

Hi,

you can ship the app with the runtime version, but take care that you design
a window that allows to handle the links because the regular Access menu's
and ribbons are not available in the runtime version. You can try it out on
your machine by creating a shortcut on your desktop and add the option
/runtime in the target line. This forces the app to open with the runtime
version. More info you can find on
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb501030.aspx

--
Kind regards
Noëlla

"Philip Herlihy" wrote:

> A friend is developing a database for a medical charity, so needs to
> keep costs down. We've been wondering to what extent we can use the
> free Access 2007 runtime to reduce licensing costs for Access. I
> understand (although I've never tried it) that a database which is a
> self-contained application can be installed with only the run-time
> present on the target machine, but how does this work if you want to
> maintain a back-end database on a separate machine? Or will we need a
> full Access license?
>
> Phil, London
>

Philip Herlihy · External Since: Sep 01, 2009 Posts: 6

Douglas J. Steele wrote:
> You don't actually need Access at all in order to have a back-end database
> on a separate machine.
>
> You'll obviously need at least one copy of Access in order to be able to
> design and build the application, but that's it (and that copy does not have
> to be present in the office where the database is being used)
>

Thanks Douglas!

Phil

Philip Herlihy · External Since: Sep 01, 2009 Posts: 6

NG wrote:
> Hi,
>
> you can ship the app with the runtime version, but take care that you design
> a window that allows to handle the links because the regular Access menu's
> and ribbons are not available in the runtime version. You can try it out on
> your machine by creating a shortcut on your desktop and add the option
> /runtime in the target line. This forces the app to open with the runtime
> version. More info you can find on
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb501030.aspx
>

Thanks Noella! Obviously I need to look into this carefully - thanks
for the link. Before I've studied it I'm wondering if it will be
sufficient to hard-code the front-end to look for a specific share on
the "server"? I'm also wondering if the runtime is needed at all on the
server - I can envisage alternative architectures where interaction to
the back-end file is mediated by an Access process, or where all the
front-end needs is access to the containing folder, doing file
operations (like creating the .ldb file) itself. Now I need to find a
machine without Access installed to test it out!

Best wishes,

Phil

Philip Herlihy · External Since: Sep 01, 2009 Posts: 6

Philip Herlihy wrote:
> NG wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> you can ship the app with the runtime version, but take care that you
>> design a window that allows to handle the links because the regular
>> Access menu's and ribbons are not available in the runtime version.
>> You can try it out on your machine by creating a shortcut on your
>> desktop and add the option /runtime in the target line. This forces
>> the app to open with the runtime version. More info you can find on
>> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb501030.aspx
>>
>
> Thanks Noella! Obviously I need to look into this carefully - thanks
> for the link. Before I've studied it I'm wondering if it will be
> sufficient to hard-code the front-end to look for a specific share on
> the "server"? I'm also wondering if the runtime is needed at all on the
> server - I can envisage alternative architectures where interaction to
> the back-end file is mediated by an Access process, or where all the
> front-end needs is access to the containing folder, doing file
> operations (like creating the .ldb file) itself. Now I need to find a
> machine without Access installed to test it out!
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Phil

Just to report the test result - I found a machine without any version
of Access installed. Copied a database and split it. Moved the
back-end to a share on the test machine, and re-linked. Worked
perfectly. This shows that there is no need for any sort of Access
runtime on a back-end machine. I guess it needn't even be a Windows
machine, if sharing is appropriately set up (e.g. Samba).

Phil