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harrycamp
04-29-2006, 08:52 AM
I wrote a quiz using Powerpoint 97 and it's on our company's intranet. They are considering doing our company's annual test the same way. We're using IE6 as a browser. I'm actually fairly new to programming and a bit inexperienced. My questions are: 1. Would there be a problem with multiple users accessing the test at the same time? I'm thinking that as a user accesses the test, a copy is made that they are actually working with but I'm not sure. Our company employs about 3,000 but probably not everyone would access it at the same time. 2. If I end up creating the test I'll probably have to create a database to save the information in. I don't think there's a problem creating a database for it but wanted to be sure that using Powerpoint with VB, information can be saved to a database. 3. I'd probably create the database using Access, and was just wondering if there are any limitations? I think I would be fine but just thought I would ask the experts. Thanks for any assistance you are able to give me.

Killian
05-09-2006, 06:40 AM
Hi there :hi:

Some answers...

1) If I remeber correctly, your other quiz worked on the principle that each user opened a r/o copy of the file and when finished, a new pres (1 slide) was saved with their results (or some thing like that). As you suggest, this is fine - you just need to replace the results saving part with a write to the db

2) a database is certainly a good place to store up to 3000 results and connecting from PowerPoint should be quite straight forward

3) Access certainly has limitations (googling "limitations access database" will lead to plenty of interesting reading).
Essentially, with a relatively flat data structure and a LOW number of concurrent users you shouldn't have any problems.

So on the whole, it's do-able. However, if you have a web-server available on the intranet, it sounds like an ASP page and an Access/SQL db would be easier/quicker/more recyclable

harrycamp
05-10-2006, 04:15 AM
Hi Killian,

Thanks for your help. About the first question, I thought that when a user took the quiz and it would ask to save to a temporary internet file, that it was making a copy. I just wanted to make sure so I thought I would come here and check with the experts. I'll have to check out google like you suggested for Access limitations. I'll have to check out ASP and sql. I'm a novice programmer and don't really have a lot of experience integrating any app with a database. I have some ASP and sql books that I got awhile ago but haven't had a chance to check them out much. This may give me the push.

Again, thanks for your help. This site is fantastic and the people are great.