[WEB4LIB] Microsoft Web Server Products Questions

[John S. Hambleton]

Thanks to all who replied...
Lots of good suggestions.
Mr. H



At 09:05 AM 2/16/00 -0500, you wrote:

>
> Hi, John
>
> You probably already got lots of answers to your questions. I would just
> offer my suggestion:
>
> If you do not expect heavy traffic to hit your Access database, you can use
> the free Microsoft Personal Web Server. You can downloan it from the
> Microsoft site for free.
>
> I am using PWS as my development server(on NT) and I do invite colleagues to
> visit and comment on products. So far I haven't had any problem with it.
>
> ASP is a good way to publish Access. If you know some VBScript and SQL,
it is
> not difficult at all. Many ASP books deal with how to configure your server
> and create DSN. There is a website called asp101 (don't remember exactly the
> URL)which provides many useful ASP scripts including how to publish a
> database.
>
> Access does have a limit of size. I don't remember the figure but it was
> quite a big one. As long as you don't use it as an OPAC system, I haven't
> seen anyone using it for library purposes run out of space yet. However, the
> desktop version of Access is for single user. You will need to consider if
> Access will be able to handle your traffic.
>
> Good Luck.
>
> Joanne
> ***********************************************************
> Joanne Ren
> Systems Librarian
> Bose Corporation
> Framingham, MA 01701
> Tel: 508-766-6851
> Fax:508-766-6382
> email: joanne_ren at bose.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John S. Hambleton [<mailto:jhamblet at nmu.edu>mailto:jhamblet at nmu.edu]
> Sent: Friday, February 11, 2000 10:45 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: [WEB4LIB] Microsoft Web Server Products Questions
>
> Thanks in adavnce to all who reply--I appreciate it.
>
> My Library wishes to begin publishing Microsoft Access databases to the
Web.
> I have to come up with the best way(s) to do it. I solicit your advice.
>
> 1. I believe that the best way to publish MS Access databases is to use
> Microsoft
>     server products--in particular, Windows 2000 Server (formerly NT), and
> the Internet
>     Information Server (IIS) that comes with.  Would you agree?
>
> 2. The Windows 2000 ADVANCED Server is somewhat pricey, given that we are a
>     Library in a state-funded University. But there's a Windows 2000 Server
> (not ADVANCED)
>     product available. Which is less expensive and should work fine. Do you
> agree,
>     disagree?
>
> 3. As far as the actual PUBLISHING of MS Access databases, research tells
> me that this
>    could be done a number of ways in the IIS Web Server environment:
>    The IIS environment would allow us to use Active Server Pages coding. Is
> this true? Do
>    we need to purchase anything else to make Active Server Pages? I see
> that Macromedia's
>    Drumbeat 2000 product makes ASP code FOR you. Would this be a worthwhile
> tool
>    to invest in?
>    -I suspect we could always write ASP code ourselves with Notepad.
Yes/No?
>    -I suspect I could go the .CGI route in IIS, that is, coding .CGI's in
> Visual Basic or Visual
>     C++. Agree/disagree?
>    -Allaire's COLD FUSION looks like an excellent product, but then again
> we're on a tight
>     budget. Still, would it work well for publishing MS Access databases?
>
> 3. How LARGE are some of your MS Access databases? I got to believe that
> there's a limit
>     to how large these files can be before performance suffers and you need
> to go to
>     MS SQL Server or Oracle. What is the limit?
>
> I administer a NOVELL 3.12 server for local CD-ROM resources, and a
> Linux/Apache web server
> for in-house developed web pages and .cgi's. So, I'm getting into new
> territory with Microsoft
> Web Server products. Thanks again.
> Mr. H
>
> +John S. "Dilbert" Hambleton
> +Olson Library
> +Northern Michigan University
> +Marquette, Michigan 49855
> +LMS 6.5.0, GTO 6.5.0
> +
> +Phone:   906-227-2741
> +E-mail:  jhamblet at nmu.edu
> +
> +Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.





+John S. "Dilbert" Hambleton
+Olson Library
+Northern Michigan University
+Marquette, Michigan 49855
+LMS 6.5.0, GTO 6.5.0
+
+Phone:   906-227-2741
+E-mail:  jhamblet at nmu.edu
+
+Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.