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Hi,
I have been working on an application that has an Access 2016 front end and a SQL Server Backend. This application is used in conjunction with an Inventory Management System that was implemented using dBase Plus 11.
For all inventory items, quantity in stock is stored in both the Access application and in the dBase application. For the Access application to work as it is intended, it relies on the assumption that the quantities in stock stored in Access will match the quantities in stock stored in dBase.
The dBase application has an export to text (.CSV format) file feature that can be called on demand. I have created a subroutine in the Access application that initially zeroes out all quantities in stock in Access and then imports the quantities in stock from the text file. This works fine in an on-demand basis. As long as users are manually initiating the export and the import, they know that during the time the import is taking place until it is complete, inventory information will be an an indeterminate state. I have been asked if I can automate this process so that updates will take place automatically (most likely somewhere between once a minute and once every five minutes). My concern about this is if users are not aware of exactly when these automatic updates are occurring, they might have confusing results if they happen to look at inventory information while an update is taking place.
I am wondering if anyone here knows if Access supports live links to tables in dBase 11. Not being the developer of the dBase 11 application, I'd have to figure out where the data I want is stored, but if linking in this manner is possible, I think I might be able to come up with a more effective way to keep the inventory information in Access in synch with that that in dBase. I did some programming in dBase IV in the early nineties, so if dBase 11 is a continuation of the same product, I will at least have some familiarity.
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Paul
A family of Microsoft relational database management systems designed for ease of use.
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Answer accepted by question author
re:if Access supports live links to tables in dBase
Option 1,with odbc & vba write to a Access temporary table if all database files on same PC.
Option 2,
If odbc supported dBase drviver and network,using asp which publish dbf to a dynamic web table then access link the web page table?
Answer accepted by question author
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There was a time when support for dbf files was dropped, but, by popular demand, it was reinstated.
Answer accepted by question author
dBase is quite different from Access, but if it's just being used to store data (rather than to build an application) you should be all right. You can open Access and use File... Get External Data... Link to link to a dBase "database" as an Access "table"; I've done this some time ago to link to dBase IV but it should work similarly. The linked table should work very much like a local Access table, with the exception that you cannot enforce referential integrity between the dBase file (which Access does not control) and internal Access tables (which it does).
Thank you John, Scott, and peiyezhu,
Now that I know that linking is possible, I will reach out to the developer of the dbase application and see if he is willing to tell me which .DBF files contain the data I am interested in, or if I will have to try to figure it out myself.
I really appreciate your help.
Best regards,
Paul