The Daddy wrote:

Is there any vba going on in the background?

Probably; how would I check??

acemuzzy wrote:

There's like a DB Connection thing somewhere isn't there? God so long since I've used it tho. Literally my first ever coding job back in the 90s lol.

I can get it to pop up a dialog where it tells me what the name of the SQL DB it's looking for is, but it's literally in the format XYZABCSQL01; I've got no idea how to tell where that is?  I don't seem to have any entries in the ODBC data sources thing I found in control panel that refer to SQL servers.

I'll get this open tomorrow and try that, see if I can make any sense of it.

There will be a connect string somewhere in the Access DB. There may be an external data tab when you open Access?

davyK wrote:

There will be a connect string somewhere in the Access DB. There may be an external data tab when you open Access?

Going to the External Data tab in the ribbon and selecting Linked Table Manager gives me a tiny clue; just that there's an SQL data source, but it just gives me SERVER=XYZABCSQL01 again, with no info of where the heck that lives.

That's the name of the SQL Server instance, it sounds like it expects that to be running on your local machine (or the machine/cluster you're working on if remote). Download (or open) SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) and it should be able to connect to the same server instance, and under that there will be the databases and then the tables

edit: though there's a part of my brain nagging me that all Access data structures are stored in a simplified SQL db, so all relevant data might still be included in whatever info you have there already. Do any of the backup files have a file extension of .mdf or .ldf as they'll be the SQL backup files?

I don't have any experince with MS Access but I'm a database administrator, primarily on SQL Server.  Have you found any information about a connection string?

Access will just connect to SQL via the ODBC driver and a connection string. In my IIS website experience there's usually a config file in the website folder structure that points to the location of the connection strings and then the string itself will look something like this.  If you're lucky it won't be encrypyted.

<add name="ConnectionStringName" connectionString="data source=SERVER_NAME;database=DATABASE_NAME;Integrated Security=SSPI;persist security info=True;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />

What you can see could potentially be an alias, which would also show as the data source in the string.  Could be worth checking cliconfg on the server hosting things for alias information.


But like I said, I don't have any Access experience.

Oh also can you see an application called SQL Server Configuration Manager?  That will give you info on whether the SQL instance is named or default.  You can also see Aliases here.

XYZABCSQL01

That will be the name of the server hosting the sqlserver service.

@Subbax gave an example of a typical ODBC connection string which will have that server name substituted into the SERVER_NAME placeholder.

You need access to that server and you might even need your credentials to be changed to have access to it if general access to it is not granted to your active directory security group.

It may be an alias as Subbax says too. Your ICT admins will know that.

Wild qu. We haven't had a home phone plugged in for a year despite having one. Where's the cheapest goodest phone to sort us out, given we have baby coming.

It goes in at the top of the wall and comes out further down though. I'll try using the existing bell wire to start with.

Subbax wrote:

It goes in at the top of the wall and comes out further down though. I'll try using the existing bell wire to start with.

I've got a Ring Video doorbell. I just connected it to the original doorbell's wires and it works fine.

My question time - Why is meta used by gamers to mean "the optimum strategy/load-out/tactics"?  I've only heard it recently, but I don't get the connection.

Ah, I didn't realise it was an acronym. Thanks

GurtTractor wrote:

Most Effective Tactic Available IIRC.

Pretty sure thats a backronym.

Subbax wrote:

Yeah, I think it's an alias.  If not then I'm pretty sure it'd need the full network name, which would be something like LT123456/SQL16.  That's my own local DB, for example.

Yup.  And if it was linked to sqlserver installed on the PC you would probably just have "localhost" in the connect string.  unless you have a local symbol for that of course..