Refreshing grids

Hi everyone, I have a number of flex grids on a form that display a number of different lists of information. The user can drag things from list to list, double click on itemn in lists, etc to perform different actions.

This all works very well, my only challenge is that if someone sits in this screen all day, they don't see other users updates. I have tried putting a timer on the form and refreshing the lists every x seconds. This kind of works, except that every time the timer kicks in, I get the hourglass (regardless of which app screen I'm in in the program), and the program halts while the queries and refresh are working.

If anyone has any suggestions, I would be really gratefull.

Thanks in advance,

Al.

Questions...

Type of database?

Size of operation - number of users - all same building, etc?

Size of query data being returns - 10 rows, 10000 rows??

It's a SQL 2000 database, about thirty users max (all in the same building). The query returns a couple of thousand rows at the moment (max) on the largest grid, and the function takes about 5-10 seconds to run.

Hope this helps,

Al.

We normally do not auto-refresh data grids - the nature of SQL SERVER 2000 is much more client-server than ACCESS was. Since BOUND controls are evil - getting a refresh of that much data is difficult.

We prefer to have an INQUIRE button the user can press to get an update. Maybe show a textbox with the last time a record was change on the server. Or make that "last time" info push the automatic update of grids.

I have concerns about the 10 second timing you mention for processing - that seems excessive.

If the queries come from STORED PROCEDURES - which would be already compiled on the SERVER, and index relationships exist in the proper places, that number of rows should return in less then 1 second.

Sorry, I explained that badly, the query runs very quicklly, it's the processing of the information returned (finding the relevant row in the grid, formatting the row to suit the new data, etc) that takes the majority of the functions time.

I currently have a refresh button on the form, I was just hoping that there might be another way that would not have to rely on the person using the program having to remember to refresh every so often.

Unless I get any flashes of inspiration in the very near future, I'll go with your suggestion for having the last time the database was updated forcing an update every so often, I think.

Thanks for your help , really appreciated.

Al.