Comments

# Sam Caro said on July 26, 2008 3:53 PM:

Ryanm and Clintc:

I liked reading the article you mentioned. I am a MD cardiologist and not a professional developer and MS ACCESS has helped me a lot in my work. MS Access is not at all popular with IT people in Hospitals.

My databases work in small workgroups. I always get scared that someone by mistake may delete the backend file of these databases. I would suggest that the next version could have the possibility of “hiding” the backend file without any help from the IT department. Thanks a lot for this blog.

Sam Caro.

# erwin leyes said on July 28, 2008 12:03 AM:

sam caro;I always get scared that someone by mistake may delete the backend file of these databases.

Read Gary Robinson's book about MS Access Security Strategy? You can get a lot of tips and idea on how to secure your backend mdb. It's not a superior security strategies but "Late is better than absent"

Why IT pros hate Access? because they might loss some if not all of their jobs.

Why Ms Access Developers will hate Access? Because MS Access Team of MS is dumb to developers need.

erwin Leyes

# Tally Vickory said on July 28, 2008 12:31 PM:

I have built over 535 Custom Access databases,  From Inventory barcoding to sales forecasting and everything in between.  

No other tool can match the features per dollar investment ratio that Access has (in the right hands).

As long as you move your backend to SQL Server when your data size or user count starts to grow, IT can recover the data if needed.

No other tool can match it speed of delivery for work group business applications.

But thats just my opinion,

Tally

# Ken Hockley said on July 28, 2008 10:18 PM:

At least 50% of my work is re-writing Access DB's that have become unstable or unusable. In all of those cases the IT department is angry and they blame Access.

Invariably the DB autor has moved on and they cant blame them - they certainly wont blame themselves for not doing their job properly

There is a simple way to get the IT folk on side

1) show them a schematic of the DB you intend to build with table structures, naming convention etc

2) set up a traditional Development, Test,  Production environment to work in AND THEN USE IT

3) get UAT on every module completed and keep IT informed of this - be very careful here that "project creep" doesn't set in at this stage - make sure that out of scope items remain that way

4) get sign-off once the DB goes into production - inform IT

Forest Gumps mama said Stupid is as Stupid does - if we act professionally we'll be treated professionally

# Saravanan said on July 29, 2008 7:51 AM:

Access has helped me to develop programs for many children home projects and other management projects including projects related to rural development. It is easy for every user create custom form and reports and write certain vba codes that are very easy to locate and use.

Programmer beginning with access can easily understand and move to next level in programming carrier.

# Wale Ilori said on July 29, 2008 11:10 AM:

Just like the article mentions, I have thought of Access as MS Office's best kept secret. I cannot imagine how people can get along without it and have been amused at many IT departments that have already or have plans to retire support for the application.

I think IT departments drop it because they know it would require programming knowledge to support it and how many programmers do you know in an IT support office??

# Sam Caro said on July 29, 2008 12:32 PM:

Erwin Leyes: Thank you for your suggestions.

I love Access . I did not find any other better product to make frontends for databases for small workgroups.

For the next version, I feel that Access team should concentrate on improving its implementation and make it more network friendly like for example Alpha Five v9. More important , they should not add any more features . For example I do not believe that Sharepoint will be useful for me because of price and lack of relational features.

Sam Caro

# Jim said on July 29, 2008 4:14 PM:

Like Dr. Caro, I have used Access extensively in healthcare.  I am chagrined to find all the other departments in my workplace using Excel  as everything from a "database manager" to a "desktop publisher" or "report writer".  Access is only minimally supported by IT; nobody in IT is an "apps guy" and those of us who use Access are pretty much "on our own".  

But I find Access most useful, can in minutes answer questions that others must take days of flipping through paper records to answer, and, using Minitab, Excel and other programs, can slice and dice my data any way I need to.

That said, the good news about Access is that it's easy to build a database.  The bad news is that it's easy to build a "database".  People who've had to clean up after an enthusiastic but clueless "user" of Access will know exactly what I mean by that statement.

# clintc said on July 29, 2008 10:02 PM:

Sam,

I'm curious... What if we added relational features and lowered the price of SharePoint--would it be useful to you?

# erwin leyes said on July 30, 2008 6:53 AM:

clinc,

That is a good improvement also. But few of the developers wanted it.

Majority wants access to be/have:

1. Compiled to a standalone exe to avoid conflicts and much secure frontEnd.

2. Link table technology to SQL server (not ODBC link), just like in Alpha Five.

3. Integrated web frameworks just like Alpha Five Again.

Its obvious Alpha Software has a small budget compare to your company the Giant MS. Why they can design features which are ahead of yours? (ms access team)

We again hope Access 14 is not a repacked Access 12!

# Craig Alexander Morrison said on July 30, 2008 9:54 AM:

Sorry but Access 14 is a bug fixed Access 12 and little more according to those who have seen the recent internal demos.

Much as Windows 7 is a fix of Vista.

More money for old rope.

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