Sharing a Database

When a limited number of people are working on a local area network (LAN), sharing a database is easy. You simply place the database file in a folder that everyone can access, and then limit who can do what to the database by using the same network security you use to protect other information on the network. The number of people who can share a database in this manner depends on how many access it at the same time and what they want to do.

Access manages multiple users fairly well, but you will want to take precautions to prevent multiple users from attempting to update the same record at the same time. For example, if more than one employee at The Garden Company tried to change the same record in the Products table at exactly the same time, the results would be unpredictable if no precautions were in place. For small groups of people, you might want to implement pessimistic locking, which locks a record for the entire time it is being edited. For larger groups, you might want to implement optimistic locking, which locks a record only for the brief time that Access is saving the changes.

Important

When sharing a database on a LAN, each workstation on which the database will be opened must have a copy of Access installed.

In this exercise, you will explore several options that are designed to ensure that a database can be shared without any problem.

USE the GardenCo database in the practice file folder for this topic. This practice file is located in the My DocumentsMicrosoft PressAccess 2003 SBSSecureShare folder and can also be accessed by clicking Start/All Programs/Microsoft Press/Access 2003 Step by Step.

OPEN the GardenCo database and acknowledge the safety warning, if necessary.

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options to display the Options dialog box.

  2. Click the Advanced tab.

    Important

  3. In the Default open mode area, make sure that the Shared option is selected.

    If the Exclusive option is selected, only one person at a time can open the database. If Shared is selected, more than one person can have the database open. (The Shared option can be overridden by selecting Open Exclusive in the Open dialog box.)

  4. In the Default record locking area, select the Edited record option.

    Only the record that is being edited will be locked.

  5. Make sure the Open database using record-level locking check box is selected.

  6. Confirm that the following properties are still set to their default values, which should be appropriate for most situations:

    Property

    Setting

    Refresh interval (sec)

    60

    Number of update retries

    2

    ODBC refresh interval (sec)

    1500

    Update retry interval (msec)

    250

    Tip

    These properties work together to determine what happens when two users attempt to update a record at the same time. For more information about these properties, click the Help button (?) in the upper-right corner of the dialog box, and then click the box containing a setting.

  7. Click OK to close the dialog box.

    Now when someone is editing a record in this shared database, no one else will be able to make a change to a record that is currently in use.

  8. Close the database.

CLOSE the GardenCo database.

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