Web access to Access Database

[Walter Lewis]

In HALINET we use Access as the back end of a series of databases 
(http://www.hhpl.on.ca), the largest of which joins three tables and has 
in excess of 150,000 records.

The key for us is a product called ColdFusion from Allaire 
(http://www.allaire.com) which uses the ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity) 
standard. ODBC drivers are appearing for a wide range of products 
(including Paradox, dBase, Foxpro, Excel)  I have personally used 
ColdFusion with dBase IV and FoxPro 2.5/2.6, but prefer the speed of 
Access (remember guys, this is an outside program searching the table, it 
has *nothing* tmk to do with the desktop user interface.

We tested ColdFusion against dbWeb (a competing product since acquired by 
Microsoft) last fall.  Sinced then CF has developed some Wizards that 
allowed me to demonstrate publishing a database last week in less than 15 
minutes, complete with setting up the ODBC, creating the search form, 
summary page, details page, and joining two tables.  I would normally 
spend a little time tuning the resulting HTML (not personally a fan of 
<pre> ) but you get the idea.

The Access Internet Assistant creates a succession of static pages (or the 
sort that a good merge into html will also accomplish. When Microsoft gets 
son-of-dbWeb tuned up, things should improve again.

I just received email from someone promoting his dbf to html conversion 
program for generating static pages.

On the side of something to read, I also just received Brian Jepson, 
_World Wide Web Database Programming for Windows NT_, from Wiley complete 
with CD-ROM which uses a combination of Perl and IODBC to connect/manage 
databases.

Hope this helps.

Walter Lewis
Halton Hills Public Library