The Access area of the forum seems to be locked, so why not post this here...

My two questions are:
1..Is there a way to import data from a .mdb file to another .mdb file?
2..How does one update and Access application without loosing data?

Why:
If we have multiple instances of an Access app distributed and there is change(s) to forms, how would you re-distrubute the new version without loosing data which is held in the previous app?

If I import tables of the same name between the two; a new table gets created with an integer appended. So yes it does import the data, however the objective would be to imoprt 'aTableName' data into 'aTableName' destination.

TYIA



Wind is your friend
Matt

__________________
Wind is your friend
Matt

Hi Matt,

If you are working on these on a local machine and simply have 2 instances of a database that you wish to use, it is best done when setting up the databases initially.

If you already have databases working and wish to have one update the other on the fly follow this:

Backup data from tables (into excel for example) in 1 copy of the database that you wish to have importing data from the 2nd database

Now rename those tables adding an integer to the name

In the master database (the one where you renamed the tables) go file>get external data>link tables

Locate the 2nd database, pick the table you want to import from and check it.

Now manually copy in all the backed up data from excel, any future changes to the tables you linked will be reflected in both databases


Hope that makes sense, it's 3am and as a result my grammar/spellings might be a little off.

Thank you for your time

The situration is, we've got several (probably around 80) installations of the Access application DB. But before we roll out this solution, we'd like to make sure that we can readily upgrade the software (e.g. new funtions, new fields) in the future, painlessly and without losing any of their data.

Manually entering data is not an option as it is open to errors, This is the first time I've encountered link tables.. what happens if we want to upgrade again...?

Does Access simply not have these capabilities?

TYIA

Wind is your friend
Matt

Hi Matt,

Linked tables is good for simultaneous data updates, once a table is linked you can only update properties the master database (the one you select when choosing where to link to... not the one you create the link in). You CAN add fields and such to the master database table which will be reflected in the linked tables... i've never tried this on more than a 2 database connection so have a play around and hope it works for you

Mark