Split Database...Development is now horribly slow

Question

Hi all!

I split a database and now development on the front end is horribly slow.  It is taking many seconds to get into anything on the front end.  I am working on a copy of the front end that is on a network drive.  The end users are using a copy of the front end that has been placed on the C: drive of their computer.  The production data tables are on a folder on the network drive.  The users have their front end linked to the data tables.

I also have the production data tables linked to my copy of the front end.  Is this what is causing the slowness?  Should I be linking the tables to some other place?  Should I be linking the tables at all in the development folder?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

When developing most of us use dev tables and when we are ready to deploy a new front end we relink to the production tables.

One of the things that is slowing you down is having your dev FE on the server. Think of it like this:

Access on your local drive has to go over the network to get the forms, queries, reports, etc and then run them on your local drive in memory, but is still has to do all that fetching to get data on the network.

Put your dev FE on your local drive. It should speed up things quite a bit.

One more thing...I don't know how you are deploying your prod FEs but you might find my technique useful. Sample and article are at http://thatlldoit.com/howtosarticles.aspx#fe_updater

Answer 2

Your copy of the front-end should not be on the server: it should be on your hard drive, just like all the other users. When the front-end is on the server, you have to drag all the program elements (forms, reports, macros, modules) across the LAN to your workstation for them to execute.

And, to be safe, you really shouldn't be linked to the production data. What happens if you're making a change that happens to accidentally delete all of the data? Best off having a copy of the back-end tables on your hard drive as well.

Answer 3

That's a good idea, Bill, for what I call volume testing.

However, assuming you've got code that has to take different action depending on certain indicative information, I like to make sure that the back-end I'm testing against has data for each possible case, something that Production may not always have. I'd hate to find out once I've moved the application to Production that it doesn't handle "special cases" properly (especially since many of the "special cases" are caused by senior management!)

Answer 4

Something else you might do...

I make a copy of the latest production back end and use it for dev. Just make sure which one you are linking to when running any action queries.

Answer 5

Hi and thanks very much for your answer!  I gotta tell you I was not comfortable linking the development front end to the Production tables.  I'll put everything on my local drive and make sure it is backed up every day.