Recipe 14.3 Share an ADP from a Shared Network Folder

14.3.1 Problem

You want to share an ADP on a network. However, the second user who attempts to open the ADP gets an error message.

14.3.2 Solution

This solution involves opening the ADP using the /runtime switch.

Follow these steps to create a shared ADP:

Figure 14-7. Properties for creating a shortcut for a shared ADP

14.3.3 Discussion

ADPs are intended for single-user activity. Using the /runtime switch allows you to get around this limitation by opening the ADP as read-only.

In Access MDB databases, the Jet database engine allows multiple users to share a frontend database containing forms, reports, queries, and code, just as they can share backend databases that contain data. If necessary, the Jet engine can lock resources in the database to prevent multiple users from interfering with each other.

ADPs don't have the benefit of the Jet database engine, so Access has no way to handle multiple users of a single project file. Users can share SQL Server data, but usually each user needs her own ADP. You can get around this by using the /runtime command-line option to force the ADP to be read-only. In this case, Access detects that there is no danger of users interfering with each other because they can't change anything, so it allows multiple users to work with the same ADP.