We have an application that appends data into our Access 97 database from a
table in an external Access 97 database using an SQL statement of the
format:

INSERT INTO MyLocalTableName (myFieldNames) SELECT myFieldNames FROM
MyExternalTableName IN 'ExternalPathAndDatabase'

This works fine on our inhouse test machines but when we deployed the
application to the client, we get an Error on this statement saying "syntax
error in From clause".  The client's machines are Windows 98 and we have
installed DCOM 98 and MDAC 2.5 prior to running Setup.  We are using the Jet
4.0 provider for OLEDB.

Thanks for any help.

Bob

When you say "external", how external? On another network? Across the
internet?

Steven Bras, MCSD
Microsoft Developer Support/Visual Basic WebData
This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties, and confers no rights.
You assume all risk for your use. ? 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights
reserved.

No.  Just in a different database file (mdb) on the same server.  Since I
posted my original message, I've pasted the SQL statement into the Access 97
query designer SQL view and get the same error message in Access on our
client's machine.  Again this works fine on our systems.  Apparently it is
somehow related to the MS Access setup on our client's systems.  Any idea
what might be causing this?

Bob

I think the problem may be in how you're specifying the path to the
external database; you should be using the UNC path (ie
\\machinename\foldername\databasename.mdb) unless you are certain the user
has a drive letter mapped to the database path.

The error is due to the fact that the path cannot be found to the external
database. This can also be due to the user of the database not having the
necessary permissions to access that database. You should bear in mind
that, in order to open a database, a user needs to have the ability to
read/write/create and delete files in that folder on the external machine.

This is due to the Jet engine's need to write to the LDB (locking) file in
the same folder as the Access database. Most likely this is what is
lacking; once those permissions are granted, I'll bet this works for you!

Steven Bras, MCSD
Microsoft Developer Support/Visual Basic WebData
This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties, and confers no rights.
You assume all risk for your use. ? 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights
reserved.

Steven:

Yes, I had thought of that as I had had the same problem before, so we had
them copy it down to their local machine and had the same problem.  We
finally tracked down the true cause.  The client had placed the external
database in a folder with an imbedded apostrophe which, of course, caused a
conflict with those used in the SQL statement as delimiters.  Felt pretty
stupid that we didn't figure this out more quickly.  Thanks for your
assitance anyway.

Bob

My pleasure; I'm glad you found the problem!

Steven Bras, MCSD
Microsoft Developer Support/Visual Basic WebData
This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties, and confers no rights.
You assume all risk for your use. ? 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights
reserved.