Multi-user App Accessing Database

I have a VB application that will be accessing an MSAccess database. The database will be on a server and I want to have my application on a number of machines. What is the best way to do this? Should I have my application installed on each of the machines and have each installation establish a connection to the database?

Someone also suggested that I package the database with the VB application and install that on the server, then create shortcuts to the application on each client machine.

What should I do?

Any useful suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Tesita

Deployment is always as important as development itself. If number of end users isn't high (dozen or so) and they are all local to you then installing your app on each workstaion wouldn't give you much of a problem at all. On the other hand if your users community is large (or eventually become large) then Server deployment is highly recommended. In any case you will need to initially install your package on each workstation to make sure that all runtime files are distributed. With Server deployment it will be much easier for you to maintain your app - only one EXE file to replace. Database will have to be on the server as well.

What about the connection? What's the easiest way to have a connection established for each user? when the app is opened? Or should I hard code the connection string ?

Tesita,

Use the Jet Engines or an ODBC connection. In both you will need to know the location of the datbase.

It's not an ordinary question. Regardles of your DB type - ODBC is not the best way to connect to a database at all. If you ARE NOT planning to upgrade to more robust RDBMS such Oracle, SQL Server, etc then using DAO object library would be a very good choice as it's based on Jet engine which is what MS Access is using. On the other hand if you ARE planning to migrate then ADO object library with OLE DB provider is much more better choice as it allows you to recycle majority of your code except for some minor stuff like Connection String and some others. So, it's entirely UPTO you or whoever is in charge of the design of your app.