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thirsty4knowledge

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Automate webpage (table) to update from access db

Afternoon Experts,

I am desparate to find a way of automating a process currently in place of update a table displayed in a webpage.  Currently im exporting table results from Access to excel where i use macros to format the table( remove duplicates, append last column with duplicates) using another macro i create a XML file from formated table.  I then use js code to format the table in a webpage.  This seems like a lengthy process i would love to pull the currents webpage table from the access leaving out a bulk of the steps while still using js code to take care of formatings.  Unfortuneatly i have no idea where to start.  Can anyone ofter any insight?
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miqrogroove
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Typically this would be done by hosting the database on a web server that is running a script processor (such as PHP or ASP) for dynamic output.

If you absolutely had to generate static HTML files, then I think your best bet would be to download the latest free version of Visual Basic and compile an executable program to handle the work.
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thirsty4knowledge

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Ok, it seems to me that i would be able to convert the database in access to the db server (not sure on difficulty).  Then hopefully use the js code as opposed to PHP or ASP to do the scripting of formatting??  I dont know that i need static HTML files?? Why would this be needed can i not refrence table stored on web server using the same html im currently using? Please let me know if im being unclear.  Thanks 4 quick response!
Perhaps we should be clear about what you mean by "automating".  Do you need the table to be updated in real time when someone makes any change in the database?  Or do you just want a click-once solution to manually regenerate your web page when you want to do that?
You would need to do this in ASP or PHP as you need a server-side language to process/display your data.  Here is a link to a prior EE question that shows you how to do this via PHP.

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21357675/Do-PHP-can-read-and-write-data-to-MS-Access-database.html

PHP is a free, open-source processing language.  This allows web hosting companies to offer a web server with PHP installed very cheap.  ASP is usually a bit more expensive to host, but I can find a link for ASP for you as well if you need it.  I would recommend PHP.

To do this, you would load the access database file to your web host and use the PHP script in the above link to access the information that you need.
It seems either way would work so long as when the user opened the page data is shown with an option to update.  Ideally would love a real time reflection of data.  
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Ok, 2 points i think my clearify and lead to a god enough solution.  \

I was using the macro generated XML to display data via the js code but only using XML b/c the js code was designed to read from a XML file.  Thus offered downloading to user since i already was creating one; dosn't need to b the case.  The option for downloading a XML file is not important.

Website currently has pages/ tables utilizing ASP setup.. these page were put into place prior to my working on this project.  I have no experience in ASP but am thinking that tools are in place should convert using ASP since we are current housing ASP pages.  
ASP does have similar ODBC libraries, and I believe you can also make a direct ADO connection to the Jet engine, which is probably preferable for an Access database.  The database file would have to be accessible to your IIS server, and you would need to know some ASP, ADO, and Jet SQL to make it totally seamless.
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Ok, so it looks like I have all the resources i need to update html with ASP code to refrence MS Access DB; for which i thank all contributing parties.  At this point my question lies on the begining stages of getting this task started.  My db (access db) is house on one server  (server 10) and my IIS is house on another (websever 10) must the two be on the same sever or can i use a path for seamless interaction mentioned prior??  Also it looks like ill be using ASP to tackle this problem.  Does anyone know of some good resources on formatting tables via ASP???
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Ok, that makes sense.  

I will award both 'migrogroove' and 'seanstrickland' point since both suggestions will be used to solve my problem.  Thanks guys.. your lifesavers!!
I now have background and information to get this complete.  Thanks!!