MS Access (or other DB?) on CD-ROM

[Gert]

Hi,

We want to distribute a cd-rom to all kind of Windows users (Win98 up to XP).
We want to use SQL commands to query an MS Access file on the CD.

SWFKit provides an example on how to connect an MS Access DB using swfKit.(See http://www.swfkit.com/swfkit/samples/database.html#db)

This seems to work well on my PC.

Here's the SWFKit code it uses:

db_name = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=";
db_name += getAdditionalFile("student.mdb");
var conn = new ActiveXObject("ADODB.Connection");

BUT ... :
Will this work on each WIN98 (or higher) PC?

Does anybody know what needs to be installed on the clients PC?
Does it need MS Access? DAO drivers? Other things?
Are there possible version incompatibilities with other software?
Will a restricted user have enough rights to unpack the mdb to a temp folder?

How about licences for MS Access?

Does anybody has a better way on how to work with databases on cd-roms (without installation of third party software)?

Or is this just the very best way to do it?


Thanks a lot!

Gert

[SWFKit]

On win98 you may need to install the Jet driver, if you have the license of microsoft access then maybe you can redistribute the jet driver. However, we are not sure about that. The installation is quite easy, just include the jet driver on your cd-rom and run it.

An alternative way is to use the free db, Firebird, which is easier to install its drives - just copy several files and register one of the files. Because swfkit uses ADO to access dbs, it is very easy to migrate from one type of db to another.

[Gert]

I checked out the tutorial about Firebird and the use of it with swfKit (http://www.swfkit.com/swfkit/tutor/firebird.html).

I have a question about this:

The ODBC driver dlls can be put into any folder, but the 'OdbcJdbcSetup.dll' must be registered (registered by regsvr32.exe, just like registering ActiveX components), or the driver won't be installed properly.

Is it really necessary to put the dll in the windows folder? This means that restricted network users will not have the rights to install the tool :-\

Or can we put the dll anywhere as long as we register it using regsvr32.exe?

If this is possible then we even don't need an installer, but can register it silently each time the tool starts?

I really like the idea to have a database tool without installer - just running from cdrom or copying some files to a temp file would be great

[SWFKit]

Sure, you can choose to put the dll at anywhere you like on local computer, and register it by using the ActiveXObject.register method. However, you would have to put the dlls in a sample place all together.

[Gert]

That's cool!

So I'm able to (silently) copy and register the dll's to the users' temp folder - which every user has write permissions?

I'll try this asap and post my findings here.

Gert

[Gert]

Hmm, I was too optimistic in my previous post ...

I just realised that restricted users are not able to use regsvr32.exe :'(

I can not test it because I have power user rights, but may be someone can confirm?