Client-Server Applications
Client-Server database applications shift the burden of data storage and manipulation to a dedicated application. In such applications Access provides the interface to the server data.
Some methods for retrieving data from a server are:
- File-server - database is moved to a network server's hard drive. Inefficient due to the data moved across the network to serve queries.
- Linked ODBC tables - User's SQL is translated to a universal SQL dialect and is passed to the ODBC manager running on the client workstation.
- Direct connection using Data Access Objects - The OpenDatabase method is used. The ODBC connection is given information to open a server database directly.
- SQL pass-through (SPT) queries - Used when some advanced feature of the database server is required that ODBC SQL can't understand.
- ODBCDirect - Instead of the query being translated, it is sent directly to the database server.