Importing records into a table

[Baby Face Lee]

Hi everyone,
Can you give some advice on the following.
I've got a database that is used by folk across an office network.
Some folk key records to the database and others use the keyed information
to send faxes to clients. I've been asked about importing some further
records that are within Excel Spreadsheets. In the short term I shall 'dump'
everyone off the database and load the extra records into the relevant tables
but as this looks as though it's going to be a regular occurance I might need
to develop a facility for the user to select the xls file (that's on a
server) and load it to the database (via a command button). I'm happy to do
this but I don't want to start developing anything fancy if this is a BAD
idea anyway!!
So, is it possible to load records to a table whilst the database is open
and users are either keying records (manually) or viewing records? Will this
lead to all manner of 'write conflicts' or errors? Should I avoid going down
this sort of automated route?
Regards,

Lee

 

[Rick Brandt]

Baby Face Lee wrote:
[snip]

So, is it possible to load records to a table whilst the database is
open and users are either keying records (manually) or viewing
records? Will this lead to all manner of 'write conflicts' or
errors? Should I avoid going down this sort of automated route?
Regards,

Lee

It should not be a problem. New insertions rarely cause any sort of
concurrency problems. It is editing existing records in a multi-user
environment where conflicts could arise.

If you use some sort of custom routine to incrementally number your new
records then you might need a "window" of time where no one else is entering
new records, but otherwise I wouldn't expect any problems.

 

[Baby Face Lee]

Thanks for the info Rick. Much appreciated.

Baby Face Lee wrote:
[snip]

So, is it possible to load records to a table whilst the database is
open and users are either keying records (manually) or viewing
records? Will this lead to all manner of 'write conflicts' or
errors? Should I avoid going down this sort of automated route?
Regards,

Lee

It should not be a problem. New insertions rarely cause any sort of
concurrency problems. It is editing existing records in a multi-user
environment where conflicts could arise.

If you use some sort of custom routine to incrementally number your new
records then you might need a "window" of time where no one else is entering
new records, but otherwise I wouldn't expect any problems.