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To simplify your work and help you understand how to create and use Web databases, the Web database you will create in this appendix will contain only the Rep and Customer tables from the Premiere Products database, along with several form objects based on the Rep and Customer tables. The Web database will also contain a form object, called a navigation form, as shown in Figure E-1. A navigation form is a form that contains a navigation control that lets the user access different objects in a database. As shown in Figure E-1, the form contains tabs. Clicking a tab displays the corresponding object; the current tab in Figure E-1 displays the data in the Customer table. Access includes different templates for arranging the tabs in the navigation form. In Figure E-1, the tabs are displayed across the top of the navigation form.

After publishing the Web database, you can access the Web database using a browser. Figure E-2 shows the navigation form in Microsoft Internet Explorer. You can use a browser to access the Web database just as you would using Access. You can update the data in the Web database. If you open the Web database later using Access, you will see the updates you made using your browser. Likewise, any updates you make while accessing the Web database in Access will be visible to someone using it through the Internet.

Tabs for other objects in the Web database

Fields and data in the Customer table in a datasheet form Customer tab

is the currently selected tab

URL for the Web database

FIGURE E-2 Navigation form in a browser for the Reps and Customers Web database Tabs for other

objects in the Web database Object tab for

the Main Menu navigation form

Fields and data in the Customer

table Customer tab is the currently

displayed tab

FIGURE E-1 Navigation form in Access for the Reps and Customers Web database

When the navigation form first opens, the Customer tab is selected. Although the Customer tab appears to display the data in the Customer table in a table datasheet, the data is actually displayed using a datasheet form, which is a form layout that displays data in a datasheet format. Because you can only include forms and reports—but not tables and queries—in a navigation form, you must display table and query datasheets using a datasheet form. To display the record for a specific customer, click the ID field for the desired record to display a pop-up form with the details for that record. Figure E-3 shows the pop-up form for the customer with ID 4. The pop-up form displays the data for the current record, but the settings for this form do not allow you to move to any other record in the Customer datasheet form, nor do they allow you to update the data for the displayed record. To close the pop-up form, click the Close button in the upper-right corner of the form.

To display another object, click its tab on the navigation form. For example, clicking the Rep tab displays the datasheet form for the Rep table, as shown in Figure E-4.

Pop-up form displays data for the

selected customer Close button for

the pop-up form Selected

customer record

FIGURE E-3 Pop-up form for customer with ID 4

Rep tab is selected Fields and data in the Rep table 371

Clicking the ID field for a record in the Rep datasheet form opens a pop-up form with details for that rep, as shown in Figure E-5.

Clicking the Customer-Rep Query tab displays the query results, as shown in Figure E-6, in a datasheet form. The Customer-Rep query joins the Customer and Rep tables, and displays the CustomerNum,

CustomerName, and RepNum fields from the Customer table and the FirstName and LastName fields from the Rep table. These tables are related using the RepNum field. In a Web database, however, you do not create relationships as you do in a regular database. Instead, you create the relationships using lookup fields. Thus, as you add the fields to the tables in a Web database, you must also create the required lookup fields to relate the tables. You’ll learn how to relate tables in a Web database later in this appendix.

Pop-up form displays data for the selected rep

Selected rep record

FIGURE E-5 Pop-up form for rep with ID 2

Query results displayed in a datasheet form

FIGURE E-6 Customer-Rep Query tab selected

Clicking the Customer Details tab displays the Customer Details form, as shown in Figure E-7. Unlike the pop-up form shown in Figure E-3, which displays a record in the Customer table that you cannot update or use to navigate to other records in the Customer table, the settings for this form let you use it to navigate to other records in the Customer table and to update the data. The Customer Details form is an example of a single-item form, which displays one record at a time in the object on which it is a based.

Clicking the Rep Details tab displays the Rep Details form, as shown in Figure E-8. You can use this form to navigate between and update records in the Rep table.

FIGURE E-7 Customer Details tab selected

Because you will create tables that contain the same fields as the Rep and Customer tables in the Premiere Products database, you will use the Premiere Products database and Access to create templates that you can use to create the fields in these same tables in the Web database. This template is called a data type part; when you create a data type part from an existing field or collection of fields, you are creating a user-defined data type. Creating a user-defined data type saves time because you can create a collection of fields in a single step, instead of creating all of the fields individually.

After creating the data type parts for the Customer and Rep tables, you will use Access to create a blank Web database from a template. You’ll create the Customer and Rep tables using the data type parts. After you add the fields to the tables, you will create the lookup field to relate the tables. You’ll import the data for the tables using text files that are provided with the Data Files for this text.

After creating the tables and importing data into them, you will create the navigation form. To use a navigation form in a database, you need to set the properties for the database to display the navigation form automatically when a user opens the database in Access or accesses the Web database using a Web browser, so it is the first form displayed and provides a method for the user to navigate the objects in the database.

Before publishing the Web database to a SharePoint Server running Access Services, you will run the compatibility checker to verify that the database is compatible with the Web. Web databases have certain limitations; not every Access database can be published to the Internet.