Why was replication discontinued in ACCESS 2007?

In Access 2007 replication still works, but you must use the .MDB file format.

The feature was not included in the new .ACCDB format because it was hard to use correctly (interestingly the scenario you describe is one that is in the not-recommended column), and not many people were using it anyway. Workgroup-level security went the same way.

-Tom. Microsoft Access MVP

I was responding to Graham Seach's statement.

And I inherited this database and the original schema involved a removeable drive.  The notebooks synched to a repllica on a removeable drive and then that drive was synched to the master db. 

That was bad design, since every time you attached the drive to to a different computer the ReplicaID of the database changed.  I'm not sure how many iterations it would take to mess things up.  One of the first things I did was change the synchronization method so they were using network connections to do the synchronization.

John Spencer Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007-2010 The Hilltop Institute University of Maryland Baltimore County

That is not what I understand the OP was doing, which was that his replicants were emailing the db back to him.

Replication is for "occasionally-connected" situations, like the one you describe.

-Tom. Microsoft Access MVP

Well, I must have been lucky.  I have a customer that has been using replication for many years (since 1999) and aside from very occassional data conflicts it has worked very well.  In every case, we were able to resolve the data synchronization conflicts.

The scenario is that the users have laptops and go out to multiple sites to conduct reviews.  Then on a weekly basis they return to the office and synchronize the data to the master database.  In the office they all use desktop computers to use the database.

John Spencer Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007-2010 The Hilltop Institute University of Maryland Baltimore County

>>Why was replication discontinued in ACCESS 2007?

Because it was incredibly buggy! You were just lucky with the the process you were using. There are a bunch of technical problems with Jet replication that would eventually have led to your database falling over.

Seriously though, Jet replication never did work properly and professional developers avoided it like the plague. Microsoft has moved to a different replication architecture now; one which is much more stable and scalable. That architecture is SharePoint. Aside from writing your own synchronisation engine, the only way you can get it working in 2007 or 2010 is to push all your data to SharePoint, and use the native synchronisation. Then you just distribute a copy of your Access database, which will then be in 'offline mode'. When you get it back, it will automatically sync with SharePoint, and everybody's happy.

Another option is to make SharePoint available to all your remote users. That way, you don't need to distribute copies of your database. They just use the copies they have, and it becomes a wide-area multi-user system.

I know that's going to cost you since you'd then have to either purchase and install SharePoint, or pay for SharePoint hosting, but there's no other (easy) way.

"stantonka" wrote in message news:*** Email address is removed for privacy *** .com...

I managed program documentation for non profits--in the past i would send them a replicated copy --they would enter data--i would get it back and synchronize--it worked very well.  What are the options in 2007 to do this same function?   will i have to move the data manually when using 2007 through cut and paste or continue to do a save as to 2003 to maintain replication options and lose the other access 2007 functionality like multiple choices in a drop down.  thanks for any help

Regards, Graham R Seach Microsoft Access MVP Sydney, Australia