The configuration page recommends against Access Web Wiz Forums users turning on the Active Users function.  Is it a problem with ALL Access forums, or is it only a problem with lots of users? 

My site is a very specialized site, not of interest to the general public, so I don't get a lots of people on the forum at one time.  So, if it is a problem only for forums (and Access databases) when there are a lot of users, I would like to turn it on.

Whadda you say?  Thanks.

Borg, just reading this message made be think of something. Why not add an option to compact the access database? It'd solve one of the many problems with using Access databases.  I have a script to compact them using MSDAC & ASP, so, if you want some info on how it's done then just ask

I have already added this in the admin section for the next version of the forum.

The only problem is that if the database is corrupted then you won't be able to enter the admin section in order to use this function, but it will be useful for shrinking the zsize of the db online.

Ok, I guess I was a lil slow at thinking of it

Is this applicable to v6.34 too?  As far as the active users.....I didn't start seeing talk about it until v7 came out.  Is the DB structure differently?  Or is this just as much a problem in v6.34

Kita

It is just as much a problem in version 6.34 but there is no option to disable it in version 6.x

The option to disable it was placed in version 7 after many people where having problems with version 6.x with corrupted databases and overly large access database sizes.

-boRg-,

A corrupted database is reason enough for me to not enable that function, although it sure is a 'nice to have.'  What corrupts the database?  Is the only solution to get away from Access?

Thanks for the as-always great advice.

That wouldn't improve it.

The problem is not how in the access database the data is stored, one table is as good as another, the problem is that access can't cope with the amount of updates required, also each time a delete or update happens access keeps a copy of the old data slowly making the database grow to an unacceptiable size.

Just imagine if just 5 poeple are on the board at once, each click in the forum would require a database update, if they each only look at 5 posts in 5 minutes this would require at least 10 updates, if there are constently 5 people on the site over an hour this would be well over 100 database updates and thats not including the main page and pages listing the topics.

The only way to make it work for access is to move the tracking for the active users away from the database, using something like application level variables, this then would add quite a bit of overhead to the server, most hosts don't like the use of application level veriables becuase of the amount of server resources used (this is why many ban chat room software as most work in this way) this could lead to many web hosts banning Web Wiz Forums from their servers.

Very smart!

If your server does let you use application level variables like mine ( http://www.kistech.com - http://www.kistech.com ), you can display the active users on your whole website by using the following code:

Insert this into your html where you want it to show up on the page:

There are <% =application("activevisitors") %>users on this site.

Insert this into your global.asa file at the root directory of your site:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBScript" RUNAT="Server">

Sub Application_OnStart
application("activevisitors")=0
End Sub

Sub Application_OnEnd
End Sub

Sub Session_OnStart
application.lock
application("activevisitors")=application("activevisitors")+1
application.unlock
End Sub

Sub Session_OnEnd
application.lock
application("activevisitors")=application("activevisitors")-1
application.unlock
End Sub

</SCRIPT>

What about using a separate access db just for the active user?

Then you would not have to worry about corrupting the main db.

Although I'm sure the chance of database corruption is real, I doubt if it is a very frequent problem. I have the forum installed at my website with just over 80 members (it's closed to new registrations) using an Access database. There are anywhere between 5 and 20 concurrent active members and they have posted about 40,000 posts in the last four months, although I keep the database trimmed to the most recent 10,000 posts. I have had the active users function enabled this entire time without a problem. About once a month I have run 'compact and repair' on the database.

I keep a daily backup of the database just in case, but the forums seem to work very well even with Access as the backend.

Thanks, -boRg-, for the great work.