Which technology to use?

[CAVESTER]

Hi guy's,

 

At present the people I work for use an Access database to store client information in, as well as what products they have etc.

 

What we are wanting is to integrate this into our website so that the customer can log in and view their details etc.

 

However...the Access DB is inside the companies firewall and we cant put it on the web server as this is located within the demilitarized zone and thus direct connection over TCP/IP to further enable us to work with the data is not possible.

 

What I am wanting to know is what is the best technology to use to get round this problem. I am thinking along the lines of a .NET XML Web Service enabling me to both access the DB via the web service for displaying info on the site to the customers and also enabling access via HTTP from a desktop VB.NET application in order to mimic what we have currently in our Access DB.

 

Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions that I havn't contemplated, or indeed does anyone have any experience with Web services? the possibilities look pretty good from what I can read!

 

Cheers all,

 

Lee.

[Robby]

Your approach seems best.

[Derek Stone]

Configuring IPSec and port-forwarding on the database server and internal router would be far more appropriate. You're going to need to set up port-forwarding to enable Web services over TCP/IP anyway, so I see no point in taking a round-about solution to an otherwise simple problem.

[CAVESTER]

Not sure if I understand fully what you are saying but I cant get access to the DMZ where the web server is located via TCP/IP unless accessed via FTP with appropriate cridentials. I am therefor unable to access the Web/DB server through a normal TCP/IP connection in order to interogate the DB. Hence the only way around it I can think of is with XML web services?

 

:confused:

 

L.

[Derek Stone]

Web Services aren't going to be very flexible when it comes to general access to the database server. Web methods are best used for specific tasks, and really weren't intended for use as general re-route proxies to the underlying data. If you're limiting yourself to specific tasks (adding/removing customers, shipments, etc.) then Web services are exactly what you're looking for, but I couldn't imagine developing a database application without direct access to the database server for testing, security and ease-of-development.

[divil]

Bear in mind this is Access however, and there really is no database server. Web services sound like the best option to me.