Total Visual Agent Frequently Asked Questions
Pre-Sale Questions
Installation and Initial Use Questions
Use Questions
Legacy
Pre-Sale Questions
Total Visual Agent 2007
Total Visual Agent 2007 is our latest version supporting:
- Microsoft Access 2007, 2003, 2002, 2000, 97, 95, 2.0,
1.1, and 1.0.
- All Databases and Access Data Projects from Access 2007
format and earlier (ACCDB, MDB, and ADP)
- Jet Engine 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, and 2.0
- Visual Basic 6.0, 5.0, and 4.0
In order to support the ACCDB database format, Total Visual Agent
2007 requires Microsoft Access 2007 to be installed on the computer running
Total Visual Agent 2007.
Fortunately, you don't need to use a Microsoft Access 2007
license to do this if you want to install Total Visual Agent on a machine
without Access 2007. Simply install the
FREE Runtime version of Microsoft Access 2007 from Microsoft's website.
Total Visual Agent 2003
If you cannot install Access 2007 and/or do not need to manage Access
2007 format databases (ACCDB), choose Total Visual Agent 2003.
Total Visual Agent 2003 does not require any version of Access to be
installed, except if you want to run macros or
compact ADPs. Total Visual Agent 2003 supports:
- Microsoft Access 2003, 2002, 2000, 97, 95, 2.0, 1.1, and
1.0.
- Databases and Access Data Projects in Access 2002-2003
format or earlier (MDBs, ADPs, etc.)
- Jet Engine 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, and 2.0
- Visual Basic 6.0, 5.0, and 4.0
Check the
Product Compatibility Chart for version information for all
of our products.
Yes. Download the fully functional
Trial Version of Total Visual
Agent and use it for 30 days.
Also, remember that FMS products come with a 30-day money
back guarantee, so you can
buy with confidence!
Yes. Total Visual Agent 2003 and later include an option to run the
program as a Windows NT Service. An NT service runs even without a user
logged on to the computer, providing increased security and automated
restart if the machine crashes.
Yes. Assuming you have security privileges, Total Visual Agent works with
files in any folder across your network. Depending on the actions and
options you set, you may need read, write, and/or create rights to those
files and folders.
No. Total Visual Agent can successfully launch a macro in your database
if it has workgroup security or doesn't have a password.
However, Microsoft Access does not provide a way to open a
password protected database using command line arguments. Total
Visual Agent only launches Access with your database and
designated macro. It cannot respond to any prompts or other
dialogs that appear as a result of your macro, such as a
database password.
Installation and Initial Use
Questions
There are a few reasons that may prevent Total Visual Agent from properly
installing.
- Do you have rights to install files in the installation
folder? With Windows Vista and XP, you may be prevented from
installing programs in your Program Files folder. If so,
install the program in another folder.
- There may be interference with other programs that are
currently running. Please close the programs you can and try
installing again.
- If you are installing Total Visual Agent 2007, note that
it requires an installation of Microsoft Access 2007 (or the
free Runtime version). See the FAQ
below for details.
If you
want to execute certain tasks, you must have the appropriate version of MS
Access installed:
Total Visual Agent 2007 requires Access 2007, or the free
runtime version of Access 2007, installed prior to installing Total Visual
Agent. Total Visual Agent 2003 and earlier
do not require
Microsoft Access.
See the version information for
details.
To reinstall Total Visual Agent or to upgrade to the latest
version, follow these steps:
- Make a copy of your settings database (TVAGNT12.MDB, TVAGNT11.MDB,
etc.). This file is located in your installation directory or in the
common files location on your computer.
- Uninstall Total Visual Agent, and delete the settings database from
your installation directory (be careful NOT to delete the backup copy
you just made--you'll need it!).
- Install the new version of Total Visual Agent.
- Start the Total Visual Agent Manager, and select Tools, Import Manager
Settings from the Total Visual Agent menu.
- Browse to the copy of your settings database (which you created in
step 1), and press "Import."
This error occurs with older versions of Windows, and means
you do not have the minimum Windows service pack installed.
Total Visual Agent is not supported under Windows NT 3.x. If you
are using Windows NT4, please install Service Pack 6 (or
higher).
This issue can occur for several reasons:
- The user does not have the full permissions needed to do work over the
network, or on specific databases. Please see your Network Administrator
to obtain any needed privileges, or permissions to have full rights to
the database or network.
- You have the executed the Agent Monitor prior to opening the Agent
Manager. Please ensure that you run the Agent Manager at least once
before running the Agent Monitor.
If your organization or email provider offers an
SMTP service that allows relay, configure Total Visual Agent to use that.
Many internet service providers, including gmail, allow access to SMTP
servers.
The following topics on the Total Access Emailer
FAQ page may help you find an SMTP server that is available to you:
If you do not have access to an existing SMTP server that
allows relay, Windows 2000, XP Professional, and 2003 include it for
free. Refer to the help topic "Error Alert Mail Settings" for details
about installing and configuring an SMTP server.
Note that Windows Vista does not include an SMTP service.
Details are provided under this Total Access Emailer FAQ:
Use Questions
Certain events require Total Visual Agent to launch external
programs, including:
Executing these actions from an unattended or a
non-interactive user account, like with the Total Visual Agent Service, is
risky. It can cause the computer to stop responding, leave programs open in
memory, and possibly corrupt data.
If you understand these risks and still determined that you
want to launch external programs using the Service, Microsoft has a few
suggestions. Refer to the following Microsoft KnowledgeBase articles for
more information:
Total Visual Agent lets you create events in disabled mode so they aren't
executed while you set them up. To run your Events, you must enable them.
Simply right click on the Event name in the treeview section of the Total
Visual Agent Manager, and select "Enable" from the menu. The Event should no
longer be grayed out.
This issue can occur for a number of reasons.
- Your database is read-only.
To resolve this, use Windows Explorer to locate the database in
question. Right click on the database, and choose the menu selection
"Properties." Ensure that "Read-Only" is not checked.
-
You have either a database password, or a user ID & password that is not
specified in the Database Settings.
To specify these settings, go to View, Managed Databases (in the Total
Visual Agent Manager). Then, highlight your database, and choose the
Edit button. The "Use Global Default" setting will allow you to set the
database password. The "Specify Workgroup" setting will allow you to
specify the user ID & password. Please keep in mind that with this
setting you must specify an .MDW.
-
This is not a valid Microsoft Access database.
If this file is not an actual Microsoft Access database, but has the .mdb
extension, this error can occur. To ensure that it is a Microsoft Access
database, please try opening the .mdb with your version of Microsoft
Access. If an error is returned saying "Unrecognized database format",
then the database was either created with a newer version of Microsoft
Access than what you have installed, or it is not a Microsoft Access
database at all.
-
The database you are trying to run the compact action on is a replicated
database. Please note that Total Visual Agent will not perform this
action on replicated databases.
You can always tell which event is going to fire next by looking at the
"Next scheduled activity" field on the Monitor or Service Control Manager.
Actions within each event are executed in the order they are listed in
the Manager portion of the application. The actions are listed in the
treeview on the left side of the Manager screen.
Indexes and relationships could interfere with Total Visual Agent's
ability to perform an archive of your table. Total Visual Agent makes a copy
of each table individually. If relationships require certain values to exist
in other tables, it may fail to save your records due to missing records in
the tables it depends upon. By not including indexes and relationships, it
avoids problems associated with the order tables are populated.
You should archiving individual tables when it's not possible
to make a complete database backup (if users are in the
database). The purpose of the table data extract is recovery of
data that was added since the last time a complete copy of the
database was made (with the Archive action).
The recommended backup procedure for databases that are heavily updated
during the day is:
- Perform an Archive Database action one or more times a day at a time
when nobody is using the database, such as the middle of the night.
- Schedule an Archive Table Data action to run several times throughout
the day (e.g. every hour) to extract the data from the most crucial
tables.
If you enter a value in the "Database Password" field of the
Settings dialog, that password is assigned to the compacted database, even
if the database did not originally have a database password.
After Total Visual Agent executes the compact/repair action
with the option "Compact onto Original File," the password you entered is
assigned as the database password.
Here is how this works:
- Agent makes a Temporary copy of your database
- Agent then compacts and repairs that database
- Agent renames the original database
- Agent renames the Temporary database to the original
database file name
- Finally, Agent deletes the original database that was
renamed.
During this process Agent uses the database password the
user entered on the Settings screen as the database password to use when
creating the Temporary database. After the process is completed this
password is now the password of the database you ran the compact/repair
action on.
To change your database back to having no password:
- Open the database with your copy of Microsoft Access in
exclusive mode using the password you entered into the
"Database Password" field in the Agent Setting screen.
- Go to the Tools Menu...Security...Unset Database
Password... You will then be prompted for the password you
used to open the database. Enter that password and then
click OK.
- Open Agent and click on Configure. Choose the database
that has the password that was previously assigned to it and
then click Settings. The value in the Database Password
field (in the bottom right corner) should be deleted. Doing
this will ensure that the database does not have a password
assigned to it again when the compact/repair action is
executed.
This issue can occur in Total Visual Agent if you have two versions of
Microsoft Access installed on your machine, but did not specify the path of
the Microsoft Access .EXE. To resolve this, please do the following:
- Open Total Visual Agent.
- Go to Tools, Options, and select the "Microsoft Access Locations" tab.
- For each version of Access that you have installed, specify the
correct path of the msaccess(version).exe.
- Under "Access System Database" or "Access (version) INI File", specify
the path to the *.MDW or *.INI.
- Set the user ID and password if necessary.
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