Lessons

Resources

Questions?

Please feel free to post your questions or comments below. If you have questions about a specific lesson, please specify the lesson number and the time index in the lesson where the issue occurs. Thank you!

Subscribe for Updates

If you would like to be notified whenever changes are made to this page, new lessons are posted, or comments are made, click on the subscribe button.

Subscribe to Web Sync Seminar Lessons
Get notifications when this page is updated

Intro

In this seminar, you will learn how to synchronize your Microsoft Access databases with web data. We will cover how to pull information like weather and stock quotes from websites into your Access database, collect data from website forms and copy it to Access, and update your website content directly from Access with tools like Microsoft Expression Web or Front Page. Topics include using the web browser control in Access, saving web data to tables, programming timer events, creating forms for web data input, and posting updates from Access back to your site. Prerequisites and recommended skills are also discussed.

Transcript

Welcome to the Access Web Synchronization Seminar brought to you by AccessLearningZone.com. I am your instructor, Richard Rost.

This Web Seminar has three goals: one, to read information from websites and pull that information down into your local Access database. We'll show you how to read temperature information from a popular weather site and how to pull stock information down from different stock websites. The tools we show you in this seminar can be used to pull any information off any website and import it into your Access database.

Next, we'll teach you how to collect data on your website using a web form and then copy that information down to your Access database over the web. This technique is useful for gathering customer information, email signups, and lots more data.

Finally, we'll teach you how to post data from your local Access database up to the web. You can use this technique to update page information like sales bulletins or news. You can also see how you can keep a local product database with product names, pricing, and quantity on hand, and then post that information up to your website as well. The benefit, of course, is that someone who has absolutely no experience with Access or web design can automatically update your website with the click of one button.

In the first lesson, you'll learn about the web browser control, how to insert it into your Access forms, and how to use it to create your own little web browser right inside of Access. We'll add some functionality like a URL address bar and the ability to tell whether or not the web browser control is currently navigating.

Next, we'll actually learn how to analyze that web page and read the HTML code from it, as well as read all the page text that comes from that web page. This is how we can get data off the web page later.

We'll actually use our little web browser to find the current temperature using a popular mobile site. We'll read the page data that comes down and pick out the temperature information.

We'll learn how to take all that temperature data and save it to a table, so every time we run it, it saves a history of all those temperatures. I'll teach you how to program a record set to save data to your table. For those of you who haven't already taken my Access 320 to 329 classes, I'll spend a few minutes showing you how to create a record set in code.

I'll show you how to program a timer event so that we can launch an event every, let's say, 10 seconds. We'll create a table that'll store a list of zip codes, and then our event timer will run down that list of zip codes every 10 seconds and gather up the temperature data from the website automatically. That's how we can run multiple events in our web forms.

Now, getting weather data like temperature is handy, but checking stock quotes is a lot more useful. Next, we're going to turn our web form into something that we can use to check stock quotes off the Internet. We'll get information such as trades, opens, highs, volumes, last price, and all that stuff. We'll make a table that will have all the stocks in it that we want to check. This example just shows Microsoft and IBM. We'll make the timer form able to check temperature and/or stock quotes, and we'll set the interval for the number of seconds between checks.

This way, you can make your database go out to the web, check your stocks every, let's say, 10 minutes, maybe even sound an alarm if you want, and record the stock name, last price, change, volume, and all that stuff.

Next, we're going to learn how to collect data on your website. I'm going to use Microsoft Expression Web, but these lessons are the same whether you're using Expression Web or Front Page, going all the way back to Front Page 2000. You can use a different web editor if you want. You won't get as much out of the lesson, but you'll see how to set this up.

We'll create a form on our website to collect user email signups, first name, last name, and email address. I'll show you a neat feature in Expression Web and Front Page that lets Front Page create the database for you to save this data on your website. Then you'll see how to submit that data to the database on your web.

Now, the Form Confirmation page that Front Page has for you isn't very interesting looking. I'll show you how to take some ASP code and make your own confirmation page that the user sees when they submit their data. You can also check and validate the information to make sure it's correct before submitting it.

Now that we know how to collect data on our website from our users, we're going to create a page to actually display that information back in a format that our Access database can read. Now that we know how to display that information on our web page, we can use the same techniques in the earlier lessons to read that web page from our Access database, parse all the information out, and save that information into our table. That's how we get the information from the web down into our Access database. Of course, once you pull the data down from the web server, we'll have to delete it from the server so our server database doesn't fill up.

Next, we're going to learn how to feed your website with data so you can have live content on your website that is database-fed. This is great, for example, if you want people who aren't familiar with web design to be able to update your website. We'll create two bits of information in a table on our website: a news page and a sales page. We'll put some content in each of those pages, for example, the news page just says "today is the first day of our summer sale."

We'll throw in a database connection and a little ASP code, and then, voila, your web pages are fed with data from a database. Now, this example here, as you can see and explore, isn't that pretty, but you can make this page as pretty as you want with tables, graphics, colors, and all that stuff. My goal is to show you how to take data from the database and display it on your web page for the viewers.

Now, my goal here is to control the content on my website from my local Access database. That way the secretary can just update information in her little Access database, click a button, and post all that information up to the website using the techniques we've learned earlier. This way she can update web contents such as news and information like that, or you can update product information, customer details, and all that stuff can be posted straight up to the website from your local Access database.

Here it is: one simple form, one button click, update all changed pages, and your website is instantly updated.

Next, we'll learn how to get data onto our website using a web form, but we're not going to be posting the information in the web form ourselves. I'm going to teach the Access database to fill in the web form fields and hit submit. This way you can use secure pages to transfer information to your website securely.

Now, what we're going to do is make an actual product form in our Access database and make it so with one click I can update this information to my website and generate a nice product list. Here's the final product: I click one button in my Access database, it uploads all this product information directly to my website's database, and then we made an ASP page with a little bit of HTML, some table stuff in there, where it displays the picture, the product name, the price, the quantity on hand, and all that.

The benefit here is that someone who knows nothing about databases, nothing about websites, can instantly update your product list on your website with one button click.

Let's talk about the prerequisites for this course. You should have taken my Microsoft Access 100 and 200 level series courses before taking this seminar. The 100 series covers all the basics, how to make tables and forms. The 200 series gets into relational databases and talks a lot more about advanced queries and things of that nature. Even if you've been using Access for a couple of years and you're pretty confident with it, I'm sure you'll pick up a couple of new things in these classes.

I covered Visual Basic programming for Access in my 300 series, and the last 10 classes, 320 to 329, cover record sets, which we will be going over in this seminar briefly for those of you who have not taken those courses. Again, they're optional but highly recommended.

I also recommend that you have taken my Microsoft Front Page 101 through 202 classes. Again, if you're familiar with how to build web pages using Front Page, you might not need these classes; they're optional but highly recommended. I will be showing you pretty much everything you need to know in order to build a website using Front Page in this class. However, I cover a lot more with Front Page in these classes.

As of the time of this seminar, I do not have any classes available yet for Expression Web, but if you're familiar with Front Page, you shouldn't have any problems using Expression Web.

Finally, I strongly recommend my HTML 101 class so you understand the basics of HTML, and my ASP Active Server Pages Classes 101 through 304. Again, I cover a lot of ASP in these courses that you do not necessarily need for today. However, having a good understanding of ASP before taking this class will really help you out. The last couple of classes, 301 through 304, in fact, cover the database portion of the course I'll be covering today.

I'll show you everything you need to know in today's seminar, but of course ASP 301 through 304 covers a lot more detail.

Do you have to have taken all these classes? Are they really prerequisites? Are they required? No, not really. Again, optional, but strongly recommended.

Why a seminar? Why didn't I just make this course part of my regular classes? The prerequisites should have told you, this seminar is going to cover a little bit of Microsoft Access, a little bit of Front Page or Expression Web for web design, a little bit of HTML, and a little bit of ASP, so I really couldn't put it together with the regular courses. So I made it a seminar.

Versions used: In this class, I will be using Access 2007. However, I will also show you 2000 and 2003. So all the examples in today's class will pretty much be usable by everybody using Access 2000 and up. There are some slight differences, some slight changes in 2000 and in 2003, and I will show you those differences in the videos.

As far as your web page editor goes, I will be using Microsoft's Expression Web 1.0. If you have 2.0, that's fine. Also, if you're using Front Page versions 2000 to 2003, those are fine as well. Again, I will show you the differences where they exist in the video.

If you are using a web page editor other than Front Page or Expression Web, you might not get the most out of this video because I'm going to show you a shortcut where we can use Front Page or Expression to create the database for us on the web server. So if you're using something else, you might not have that capability.

As far as HTML and ASP go, I'll be using classic HTML and ASP. You won't need to have ASP.NET or any of the future extensions.

As with all of my classes, I strongly recommend you sit back and relax, watch each lesson through once, and then watch a second time following along with my examples. If you actually take the time to build the examples in class as I'm building them, you'll get a lot more out of this.

Don't try to apply what you learn immediately to a project that you're working on. Wait until you finish the entire course, then go back through and start on your project.

If you've purchased the optional handbook that comes along with this course, you will find a copy of all the source code for Access and for the web, the ASP and HTML code, at the end of that handbook. While you certainly can just copy and paste all the source code, you'll get more out of it if you type it in yourself. Why? Because your brain tends to remember it better if you type it in for some reason. It is kind of like making flashcards. If you buy flashcards from the store, you don't remember it as well as if you make the flashcards yourself. For some reason, the act of actually typing it in makes it stick in your brain more.

I do that myself whenever I'm learning something new from a book. I always try to type in the source code instead of popping in the CD in my drive. So if you have the handbook, read it, but type in the code yourself; you'll get more out of it.

The sample database files that I build in class are available online. Go to accesslearningzone.com/accessweb. You'll find in that folder a page that has the database files both in Access 2000 and in 2007 format. If you're using 2003, you'll use the 2000 version.

If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the student interaction forums, that little window that you'll find next to the video player if you're watching the seminar online. You'll see comments from other students, and if you post your questions there, I can answer them there as well. As you're watching these videos, if you have any questions, post them in the student forums.

Quiz

Q1. What is the first major goal of the Access Web Synchronization Seminar?
A. To create a website from scratch using Access
B. To read and import information from websites into Access databases
C. To link databases between different computers on a local network
D. To secure Access databases from web threats

Q2. Which of the following is NOT a task covered in the seminar?
A. Collecting user data from a web form and saving it to Access
B. Creating dynamic charts within Access reports
C. Posting data from Access up to a web server
D. Reading and parsing HTML from web pages into Access

Q3. Why is using a timer event in Access useful in the context described in the seminar?
A. It helps perform automatic backups of the Access database
B. It allows scheduling of web data retrieval at fixed intervals
C. It automatically formats Access reports for web publishing
D. It enables real-time collaboration between Access users

Q4. What is the benefit of using the web browser control inside of Access, as taught in this seminar?
A. It allows Access forms to update automatically
B. It enables running macros directly on a website
C. It creates an integrated web browsing experience in Access forms to interact with web pages
D. It secures Access databases against malware

Q5. When gathering stock quotes, which method does the seminar propose?
A. Exporting Access data to Excel and uploading it manually
B. Using Access to read and parse stock information directly from web pages
C. Writing a macro to email stock data to users
D. Printing out stock information for manual entry

Q6. Why does Richard suggest creating and using web forms to collect data?
A. Because web forms are the only way to collect any data online
B. To allow users to provide data remotely and store it in a web-accessible database
C. To block any automated data collection scripts
D. To improve Access database graphic design

Q7. What does the seminar teach about displaying web-collected data for Access to import?
A. The importance of printing data for manual transcription
B. How to create web pages that display user-submitted data for Access to read and parse
C. How to use Excel as an intermediary between the web and Access
D. How to email collected data to Access users

Q8. How can Access users feed live data to their website, according to the seminar?
A. By exporting data to a text file and uploading manually
B. By posting data from Access directly to the website database using custom forms and ASP pages
C. By using third-party software for data transfer
D. By saving data to USB drives and uploading

Q9. Which prerequisite knowledge is encouraged, but not absolutely required, for this seminar?
A. Microsoft Access 100, 200, and 300 series, HTML 101, and ASP classes
B. SQL Server and C# development
C. Advanced networking and security
D. Photoshop and graphic design

Q10. Which versions of Microsoft Access are demonstrated in the seminar?
A. Only Access 2010 and 2013
B. Access 2007, 2003, and 2000
C. Access 365 only
D. Access 95 and 97

Q11. What kind of ASP technology does the seminar require?
A. ASP.NET Core only
B. Classic ASP (not requiring future ASP.NET extensions)
C. PHP scripting
D. JSP (Java Server Pages)

Q12. Why does Richard recommend typing source code yourself instead of copying and pasting it?
A. Typing is faster than copying
B. The act of typing the code helps you remember it better
C. Copying and pasting could introduce errors
D. It is required to activate the seminar files

Q13. What should students do if they have questions during the seminar?
A. Email Richard directly
B. Post them in the student interaction forums next to the video player
C. Call support services for immediate help
D. Use the web browser control to search for answers

Q14. For which web editors does the seminar show how to automate database creation on the web server?
A. WordPress and Wix
B. Microsoft Front Page and Expression Web
C. Dreamweaver CC
D. Notepad and Sublime Text

Q15. Why was the material in this seminar not included as part of the regular course series?
A. It only covers obsolete technologies
B. The seminar spans topics from Access, Front Page/Expression Web, HTML, and ASP, making it unsuitable for a single regular course
C. The material is too basic for regular classes
D. It was intended for web designers only

Answers: 1-B; 2-B; 3-B; 4-C; 5-B; 6-B; 7-B; 8-B; 9-A; 10-B; 11-B; 12-B; 13-B; 14-B; 15-B

DISCLAIMER: Quiz questions are AI generated. If you find any that are wrong, don't make sense, or aren't related to the video topic at hand, then please post a comment and let me know. Thanks.

Summary

Today's video from Access Learning Zone covers Access Web Synchronization. In this seminar, my main objective is to show you how to connect your Microsoft Access database with the web, both to download and upload data. This includes techniques for pulling information from websites—such as current temperatures from a weather site or stock prices from various online sources—directly into your Access database. The methods you'll learn will not only help you with these examples but will also provide you with the foundation to collect almost any data you might find online.

Another important focus of the seminar is teaching you how to gather data on your own website using a web form. This is particularly handy for collecting things like customer contact details or email subscriptions and then bringing that data down to your Access database.

Beyond just collecting information, I will show you how to post data from your local Access database back up to your website. This allows you to update things like news or sales bulletins on your site. You will see how to manage a product table locally, edit your product details or pricing in Access, and then update your website's display with the push of a button. This means those without technical knowledge in Access or web design can update your website quickly and efficiently.

In the opening lesson, you'll learn about the web browser control in Access. I will show you how to add it to your forms, giving you a mini web browser right inside Access. We add useful features such as a URL bar as well as indicators to show when a page is loading.

We move forward to analyzing web pages and reading HTML source code from them. This step is crucial because it lets us grab the precise information we want from any page—whether it be temperature data, stock quotes, or more. I will demonstrate how to extract the temperature from a popular mobile weather website, then show you how to save that data to a table in Access so you maintain a history each time you collect new values.

You will also learn to create record sets using VBA code to automate the saving process. For those who have not taken my Access 320 to 329 series, I will spend extra time showing you the basics of record sets right in the seminar.

Next, I introduce programming a timer event, which lets your Access application perform automated actions at regular intervals—say, every ten seconds. For example, by setting up a table of zip codes, the timer can fetch and save the weather data for each code automatically as the program cycles through your list.

While collecting weather information is useful, tracking stocks is even more common. We convert our form into a stock quote tracker, pulling in trading data from the web for each stock you care to monitor. You will learn how to assemble a table of stock symbols, collect all kinds of trading information (like open, high, low, volume), and schedule the process to run every few minutes. It's even possible to sound an alert and record each result for later review.

The seminar then covers building data collection forms for your own website. I demonstrate this using Microsoft Expression Web, but the approach also works for users of Front Page, even older versions. The lessons are broadly applicable even if you use a different web editor, though you may miss out on some of the more automated features.

You will learn to create a website form capturing user details. I'll also show you special features in Expression Web and Front Page for creating an online database behind the scenes. Once the data is being submitted to your website, I explain how to customize the confirmation page users see after submission using ASP code, providing more control over the user experience and input validation.

With data collection in place, the next step is learning how to display that user-submitted data in a format accessible by Access. After displaying the collected information online, I show you how to fetch it using Access, parse it, and add it to your tables—fully automating the transfer from web to database. To keep your web database clean, you will see how to remove items from the server after they are downloaded.

You'll also learn how to supply your website with live, database-driven content. Even if your colleagues have no programming experience, they can update web content like news or promotions via Access. We'll set up sample news and sales pages in the website's database, add a bit of ASP and HTML code, and have the site load its data directly from your Access-managed tables. You have total control over the presentation, making your site as attractive as you want with your own design touches.

The goal is simple: control your web content directly from your Access database. Administrative staff can update news, product data, prices, and more, then instantly push those changes live to the website with just one button click.

There is another powerful scenario I'll cover—the ability for your Access database to interact with forms on your website. I teach you how to program Access to fill out web forms and submit them automatically. This opens up secure data transfer capabilities between your desktop database and your website.

By the end of the seminar, you will have walked through building a product management system in Access, sending those updates to the web, and rendering them using custom web pages that list photos, names, prices, and quantities.

I recommend that you first complete the Microsoft Access 100 and 200 level series before taking this seminar. The 100 series goes over tables and forms, and the 200 series dives into relational databases and advanced queries. Even experienced users will find useful information in these lessons.

I discuss Visual Basic programming for Access in the 300 level classes, and especially in 320 to 329, where I cover record sets in detail—a topic we'll review in this seminar for those not already familiar with it. As for website design, my Microsoft Front Page 101 through 202 courses will help you if you are new to web design, though familiarity with web editors is not strictly required. For Expression Web, there are no classes at the time of this seminar, but the material is close enough to Front Page that you should not have trouble following along.

A solid grasp of HTML is helpful, so I suggest my HTML 101 class. My ASP Active Server Pages courses 101 through 304 are also recommended for extra detail, especially for those who want to go deeper into integrating Access with the web. The final classes in that ASP series explore many advanced database techniques you'll see demonstrated here.

Are any of these courses strictly required before taking this seminar? No, but they are strongly recommended to get the most from the lessons.

You may wonder why I've chosen the seminar format. Since the material blends Access, web design using Front Page or Expression Web, HTML, and ASP, it did not really fit into the core 100-300 Access or web design courses—it requires a little knowledge from each of those subject areas.

For this seminar, I use Access 2007, but I also demonstrate using Access 2000 and 2003 so that you can follow along no matter which version you have. I will specifically point out any differences. The same idea applies to the web page editor: whether you use Expression Web 1.0 or 2.0, or Front Page 2000-2003, you will be able to follow the examples, and I highlight any relevant differences as needed.

If you use another web editor, such as Dreamweaver or a plain text editor, you will be able to build the general functionality, but will miss certain shortcuts that Expression Web or Front Page provide—like automatically creating web databases.

For the purposes of this seminar, everything is based on classic HTML and classic ASP. You do not need ASP.NET or any more modern frameworks.

As always, I suggest that you watch each lesson through once without interruption, then watch a second time while building the examples yourself. You will retain much more if you practice as you learn, rather than trying to immediately apply these ideas to your own projects before seeing all the steps involved.

If you purchased the optional handbook for the seminar, that will include all the sample source code for both Access and the web pages. While it can be tempting to copy and paste, I highly recommend typing the code out yourself. This practice helps your brain retain the knowledge more effectively, much like making your own flashcards as you study.

You can also download the sample database files I create in class from my website. Both Access 2000 and 2007 versions are available, and if you have Access 2003, you should use the 2000 version.

If you run into any questions while watching the lessons, you can always ask for help in the student interaction forums located beside the video player if you are watching online. Other students may have similar questions, and I will answer them there as well.

A complete video tutorial, including step-by-step instructions on all the topics discussed here, is available on my website at the link below. Live long and prosper, my friends.

Topic List

Using the web browser control in Access forms
Creating a custom web browser inside Access
Adding a URL address bar to Access forms
Detecting navigation status in web browser control
Reading and analyzing HTML code from web pages
Extracting text and data from web pages in Access
Pulling temperature data from weather websites
Saving web data to Access tables with record sets
Programming record sets in Access VBA
Setting up form timer events in Access
Automating data collection on an interval
Managing multiple zip codes for batch web queries
Automatically gathering and logging weather data
Fetching stock quote data from the web in Access
Building tables to store stock information
Automating stock price checks with timers
Collecting website data via web forms
Designing web forms for data collection
Using Expression Web and FrontPage for web forms
Storing web form submissions in a web database
Customizing form confirmation pages with ASP code
Validating web form data before submission
Displaying website-collected data for Access import
Parsing website-displayed data into Access tables
Deleting processed data from the web server
Feeding website content from a database
Connecting web pages to a database with ASP
Displaying dynamic news and sales pages on websites
Updating website content from Access with one click
Uploading and posting product data to the web
Generating product lists dynamically from Access
Filling web forms programmatically from Access
Submitting secure web forms from Access
Building ASP pages to display database-driven content
Displaying images and product info from a database