MS Access 2003 - Help understanding the structure of mdb, mde and be

Question

I was just wanting some explanation as to what is going on once you have split your tables out into a back end file, and set an mde out for use.

When a user accesses the mde, is the mdb still required to get to the tabes (or in order to make it work)? Let say I put these access apps on a shared drive for folks to use. If I split the be end on to the shared drive, and placed the mde on the shared drive, would I the mdb have to exist for that version mde to work (communicate with the tables)? Or does the mde sort of speak to the mdb which speaks to the tables?

Hope this question makes sense.

Thanks

EDIT:

One additional question: I have an MDE set up on a network share drive, but I was not certain as to whether or not I had to have the mdb present on the same share drive as my mde and back end (tables)....if not then I would prefer to not have it there because user insist on getting into it, and making copies of it and such.....

But my question is, as I said I put A MDE out on a shared drive, which means there is one that about 10-12 people max, share, and the likelihood that even half these folks would be in there at the same time is very very unrealistic. But I recently read that I should have an MDE for each person? Is that true? What is a good example of distributing one to each person? I have only ever gone with the one on a shared appraoch before, and was unaware that this was, if in fact it is, a bad approach?

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

No the MDE version does not maintain any communication with its original MDB source version. However you want to keep the MDB in a safe place so you can make design changes there, and then create a new version of the MDE from the updated MDB.

The stronger case for an MDE is for the front end application you distribute to your users --- assuming you don't want them changing the design of any database objects. The back end database traditionally contains only tables, relationships, and indexes. You may decide the back end can remain in MDB format.

Edit: Do not allow your users to open the same front end application database, regardless of whether the front end is in MDE or MDB format. Sharing the same front end increases the risk of corruption. They can all still share the same back end with links from the front end to the back end tables.

Tony Toews has made the challenge of giving each user their own local copy of the front end fairly easy. See his useful and free! utility at Auto FE Updater.

Answer 2

@HansUp has done a fine job of answering your actual questions, but I'm posting an answer here just to try to explain what seems to have confused you.

Step back for a moment and consider how Microsoft Word is deployed and programmed.

• When you install Word 2007 on your computer, you don't share it with other users -- each of you installs it on your own PCs.

• When you install it, you're installing the compiled application, not the source code.

• Microsoft keeps and maintains the source code, which you don't need to run Word on your PC.

• The source code for Word is like the front-end MDB.

• The compiled Word EXE and all of its supporting files is like the front-end MDE.

• Just as with the Word application files, you don't share it, but give each user an individual copy of it.

• As with Word, your users don't need the source code to run the compiled application, so all your users need is the MDE.

• Just like Microsoft, you need to take care of your source code MDB so that it doesn't get corrupted or lost, in order that you can continue to update it and produce new compiled versions for your users.

It's not complicated when you understand the function and role of the different parts. It is confusing because of the fact that MS's documentation for Access tends not to promote or explain best practices. I can't quite understand why this is the case after all this time, but it still is.

You're well on the way to doing things properly, though.