• Several file management interfaces, like:
  • Attachment Manager - manages data file attachment through SmartAttach dialogs using table driven technology. Includes interfaces for Multi-File and Multi-Locations
  • Archive Manager - Copy old or unwanted records and delete them after successfully archiving. Managed through table driven queries and SQL statements
  • File Utilities - Ready-to-run form for Backup, File Repair, File Compression, Compiling, and creating Upgrade databases
  • Compare/Patch Manager - Compares two Access databases and optionally creates a third containing the changed objects. Can be used to update an application that has been modified using the Patch Installer.

• Interfaces that can be called from a developer’s menu system without any code changes
• Functions that are table-driven as much as possible to make the software easy to modify and maintain
• Works as-is with any Access MDB file without any programming yet can be customized to suit a specific application
• Integration into your application in minutes
• An organized method to handle changes to an application and give users control of file attachment, record archiving, compaction, repair, compilation, etc.
• A powerful compare function to find the object differences between two different MDB files

The EZ File Manager consists of a collection of interfaces which provide ready-to-use functions that handle typical file management in an application. There are six interfaces included with the EZ File Manager. Each interface is described in further detail below. Click on any of the small icons to view the image in larger format.

Attachment Manager

It is common practice for application developers to keep data tables in a separate .MDB file from the program. This technique is called having a front end/back end application. The Attachment Manager can help you easily organize, maintain and update attached data links. Managing these links can be somewhat tedious especially if you have many tables and more than one data file that the tables are linked to. You are not limited to one data source so tables could come from several different sources. You may also sometimes lose the links if the data source you are linked to is not available. In this case it may be necessary to refresh your links. In addition, it is not uncommon to want to relink to different data files. This could happen if you have a different set of data files for multiple companies or different projects.

The EZ Attachment Manager is self-contained and handles the functions and interfacing requirements for managing linked tables in an application. There are several modes available with the Attachment Manager depending on the user and the application.

The goal in the design of the Attachment Manager was to make it easy to use for both the end user and the developer. Depending on the application and how the Attachment Manager is set up, the user can be presented with one of several different interfaces. The functionality of each interface depends on how the link information is stored. It can be stored within the source tables only or within both with the source tables and in a special table designed to work with the Attachment Manager.

The Simple End User interface is a simple interface that only requires the user to choose the file attachment location. The Attachment Manager form will display a form with a label describing the category of the various file locations.

This figure displays one of several interfaces available for the EZ Attachment Manager. Click on the picture to view a larger image.To explore all the interfaces, please download the EZ Access Developer Suite demo.

Archive Manager

Create or maintain a separate data file for archived records. Includes a user interface to handle copying records to the archive and deleting archived records from the active data file. Record selection is done via set of SQL statements stored in a table.

File Utilities

This interface provides a ready-to-go form to do backups, file repair, file compression, compiling, and file upgrading. Upgrading is done by a table of append query statements.

Is Compiled

A form called by your application that will only open if your database needs to be compiled. The form displays an option for the user to compile the database.

Compare/Patch Manager

This interface can compare two MDB files to see the changes in the objects then create a MDB file that contains the latest version of the objects that are different along with an installer to install the patches.

Patch Installer

This interface is saved in the file created by the Patch Manager and is a user interface to select the file to update and then copy the new or changed objects to the file and delete the old objects.