Unable to view read-only files

[Servant]

EA 7.2 reports a Jet Engine Database (or user permissions) error when a read-only EAP file is opened in Windows. Setting the read-only attribute is the common way in Windows for indicating that a file can be viewed but not modified. Is there a way to configure EA (or JET) to behave this way?

[Eve]

No, EA requires write permission on an eap file.  If you only want to read, you will need to use the lite version of EA.

PS. Are you talking about EA 7.1?  EA 7.2 doesn't exist and wouldn't fit with the normal version numbering.

[Servant]

Thanks for the quick reply. Sorry, 7.1, not 7.2. I'll report this as a feature request, as I can't think of another other Windows application that behaves this way.

[Damo]

Sorry to piggy-back this post but I have a sort of similar issue where some of the guys here, every so often gets the error message:
"An error has Occurred: The Microsoft Jet database engine cannot open the file 'File path and name'.  It is already opened exclusively by another user, or you need permission to view its data."

Everyone has drive access, there's no version control in place and we're using 7.1.  Have you any ideas?

[«Midnight»]

If any of your users has the Jet engine installed for use with another product (MS Access being the most common), perhaps they have a setting that opens files for exclusive access (no pun intended) by default. That's all it would take.

Does any use have an older EA Desktop Edition? They used to open files exclusively (thought that might have been changed).

[Damo]

Thanks.  How can we change our Jet engine settings to stop the exclusivity?

[«Midnight»]

[edit]Before you go through the following, check this...

Make sure that all your EA users have the same setting for the Jet version. You'll find it on the main Tools | Options (control-F9) dialog. You don't need to open any project to change this setting. I strongly suggest that you use Jet 4.0, particularly if you share models.

Note that you must exit EA and start it again for this to take effect.

Unfortunately this is (still) not the default when EA is first installed, so you must change this setting for each machine and (windows) user individually.[/edit]

Depends on the applications involved and how they are used.

If EA Desktop still opens exclusively - I really don't know the current situation - then you might have to upgrade, or see below.

If you are using something like MS Access, there used to be an Options setting that handled this. Where it is and what it's called changes from version to version of Access. If you hunt around you'll see it. Ensure that MS Access (or whatever product) opens files for shared access - it is not enough to allow others to read the database, it must be fully shared.

Note that while older Access versions might have been native to Jet 3.51 they could easily use Jet 4.0 if it is installed on your system. Check for version information as well.

Finally, if you have any automation clients, make sure you have not opened the file for exclusive write access in ODBC or OLEDB. That is easy to do. By default EA will set up connection strings for shared access, but it is easy to miss that when building your own connection strings.

HTH, David

[Damo]

Thank you very much David.  After all the messing around and getting everybody's Jet 4.0 installations up to date, and general faffing around and testing, it turns out it was simply the analyst didn't have read/write access to the directory where the EAP file is stored.

Doh!!!!  

Thought I would update this so the same silly thing doesn't happen to others.  Thanks for all your help.

Damian

[«Midnight»]

Mom always said there'd be those days...

That sort of thing can come out of nowhere, and we all get blindsided from time to time.