FE & BE Updating

[mastromb]

Forgive me if this has been covered in the past but I couldn't find any threads when I searched the forum.

The root of my question is how do Access Developers update their published frontend and backend databases from their development databases?

The stituation I am in is that I have my published and semi-functional database that has live data that I am using and continually adding records to but I still have alot of work to do to get this database to where I want it. So I do all my experimenting and development to a separate development database, frontend and backend, so I don't corrupt any of my live data records. But this involves, obviously changing the frontend code, forms, and queries which are not too difficult to update by cut and pasting, importing or an all out replacement of the frontend. However I sometimes find small mistakes or changes that need to be made to the backend or tables that need to be added and with my live data I am not sure how to keep things in sync.

Thanks for any advice or comments.

[llkhoutx]

Merely over-write the FE with a new FE, because all the code is, generally, but not absolutely always, in one file.

If the BE changes
(1) Over-write the BE with the new BE.
(2) If the new BE has a new table, manually link that BE to the FE.
(3) If a BE table has been modified, refresh that link.

[mastromb]

What if something in the development BE table structure has changed and needs to be updated in the published BE but the published BE has live data records that can't be overwritten by the development BE? Can you only overwrite the BE structure? Is there an application that can compare the structure of the two backends and either alert you to what needs to be changed or changes it for you?

[llkhoutx]

You can't over-write the BE structure. You have to manually change the BE or write FE VBA code to change it. The latter requires exclusive use of the BE.

I believe FMS (www.fmsinc.com) makes a tool which will compare databases. I recall that it's very expensive. You could write a VBA module to make the comparison.

[mastromb]

Thats too bad. I gues I will just have to keep good notes of the things I change in the BE. The website that you recommended seems to have some really cool applications but but for a novice just trying to create a database that streamlines my workflow they are way out of my price range. Thats for all the help.

[llkhoutx]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Access.

I keep a 3 ring binder with alphabetical tabs to keep tricks I seldom use. It's now about 5" thick.