Copying Production ACCDE to All User's Desktop

[CPGDeveloper]

Hi All~

I have a DB Application using an MS Access Front End/Azure SQL Back End -- each user has a copy of the .accde on their desktop. Every time there's an update to the front end, and the user elects to upgrade, I have a batch script that copies the new front end from a shared server onto their desktop, replacing their old version.

It works well -- we have about 25 users, but really only 10 or so hardcore users. As the application grows, however, the number of users is increasing rapidly.

My concern is, what happens when several people upgrade at the exact same time? I ask because today during an upgrade, for two users, it didn't take -- their new version on their desktop was inexplicably corrupt. Not a huge deal -- I manually replaced it for them.

I realize there could be many reasons for this -- but my guess is it happened because several users were upgrading at the same time. We kicked everyone out for 10 minutes and then sent out an email, letting them know a new version is ready, so I suspect at least 5 people upgraded at approximately the same time.

Any ideas?

 

[Joe4]

I guess it really depends on exactly how your batch script works. If it is simply copying a file from the network to their PCs, it shouldn't really be an issue, unless you are in the middle of editing/updating the copy they are trying to copy.

The way I have always handled this is similar, but like this:
- I put copy of the front-end I want them to copy down on the network
- The version that I update is different, and in a spot that they cannot access. If I need to make any updates to this fron-end database, I make it to this original copy first, and when I am finished, I copy it over to the network accessible version (so that version they are copying from is NEVER being edited)
- What I have my batch file do is the following:
1. Check to see if they have a particular folder on their hard-drive. If not, create it.
2. Delete anything in this folder (old copies of the front-end).
3. Copy the front-end from the network accessible folder to this folder on their hard drive.
4. Open the front-end from their hard-drive.

What I actually do, is instead of giving them a shortcut to the database, I put this batch file on their computer, and create a shortcut on their Desktop to run this batch file. This is what they use to open the database. So really, what is happening is that every time they click on this shortcut to open the database, they are really downloading a "fresh" version every single time, and opening that. This ensures that they are always on the latest version, without you or them having to do anything manually.

This method has served me very well over the years. Can't say that I ever really had any problems with it. If for any reason the copy on their hard-drive becomes corrupt, all they have to do is close the database, and click on the shortcut again, which will copy down a fresh copy for them.

 

[CPGDeveloper]

That helps. Thanks.

 

[Joe4]

You are welcome.

 

[JonXL]

That helps. Thanks.

For what it's worth, I use @Joe4's approach exactly as described but with an additional validation in the FE to ensure users are opening the file from the batch launcher instead of, say, a taskbar pin - which would prevent them from getting the newest version.

You can pass a parameter from your batch file to the FE and use VBA to read it and close the file automatically if it's not a match.