A very complex idea ... is it feasible ?

[stocki_stev]

Is the below narrative feasible ?



1. Person A goes upto computer station with an I.D card.
2. I.D card has values stating for example his security level ( 1 , 2 , 3 )
3. I.D Card is then scanned. His security level is then placed in a table in Microsoft Access .
4. The computer station then updates an external server. Which will then take the values from the I.D card swiped and display them on the servers website.

My questions are:

How can I place values on an I.D card, that when scanned can be placed into Microsoft access depending on what table they belong to.

How can microsoft access continuously update a remote server to display the results of the I.D card swiped on ann external website ?

Thank you.

[June7]

I am sure can be done. Just as everytime I go to the gym, they scan my membership card and my picture pops up on monitor. They have system to print barcoded cards and then some scanning and db apps. How to interface with Access and website, no idea, never done it. I have seen threads in forums where posters discuss their barcode scanning into Access table, usually for property or stock inventory.

[rpeare]

By 'external server' do you mean a server that's within your system but the user doesn't necessarily have mapped as a network drive? or is this truly external, not on your site, on servers you don't control?

Assuming you can get your scanning working correctly and assuming you have access to the server where the main information is stored you can build code into access to update external databases with VB code for instance with a person's log in time at a particular work station, etc.

[obiron]

1) you need to be able to read a string of data off the card. The simplest way is with a bar code printed on the card and a barcode Wedge (this is a barcode reader that sits between the keyboard and the workstation and effectively types the barcode into the input box). This barcode could either just contain a reference to an access table that holds the login details or could be constructed to contain the information required (e.g. SC03DP07EX0714) = Security Level 3, Department 7 expires 07/2014. - The former is more secure as there is no way to decipher the details without access to the database. If you want more secuirty, you need to go for magnetic swipe/Chip cards which hold the card ID in the security device. You would need to store this token value against the user to validate their clearance levels.

4) Access can be used as the backend database for a website, but a better alternative would be for the website to use ODBC connections to the access database and periodically poll the table for new data. Another alternative would be for Access to generate a message into a message queue that the remote server can pick up. It depends on how important it is for the web site to show logged in users in real time.