Is any one using MS Access?
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Does anyone use it? Yes. Are there valid reasons to use it? Yes, with caveats. I have heard of it being used by individuals working for charitable organizations when the individual is essentially cut off from field support, ie: they are on their own. Think interval Africa.. really, used by people in Africa without access to the internet for support. I have seen it used (badly) in a commercial organization by the accounting group because 'someone' thought they knew how to create a database and the attendant code and couldn't be bothered asking the IT department for help.. that would take to long. So, when the database grew to over 5G and couldn't be shrunk and was tied to a particular machine that couldn't be re-imaged, etc... they refused to admit they had erred years before, but reluctantly asked the IT department for help is moving the functionality to SQL Server.
I was going to say, why don't they use locaDB/sqlexpress instead, but thinking about it, if your in Africa etc, and you're an end user (not a developer), and you have need for a DB, what options do you have? I had a very quick look at access this morning, it does seem to come with ready made templates that an end user could quickly get setup and use. I'm not about to start using it!! :) But for non developer/end users that want a simple DB, what other options do they have? Search for an app already made for the job. As an example, I've just googled 'CD Database software' ... and there where lots of hits
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Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?
I have a difficult time imagining that a developer has no idea what Access is. Perhaps I missed the sarcasm? Since you already have it installed, I'd suggest that you try it and decide for yourself if it might be useful to you...it won't cost you a thing. That said, I use Access 2003 almost every day. Why? Two words: Query Designer :)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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I have a difficult time imagining that a developer has no idea what Access is. Perhaps I missed the sarcasm? Since you already have it installed, I'd suggest that you try it and decide for yourself if it might be useful to you...it won't cost you a thing. That said, I use Access 2003 almost every day. Why? Two words: Query Designer :)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
No Sarcasm, genuine question. I've been aware of Access since windows 3.1 (I think access was available then, anyway along time), just never used it. Just never though/considered it's use, no reason not to. During my early programming life, it was all embedded microcontrollers running C/asm with about 32K of program code. My most of the work is still embedded stuff. I've only really started using DB in the last 6 years. combination of sql compact, express, localDb and MySQL, selecting whichever suited the project/client the best. I'm no DB expert, there's always something to learn!! But I updated office yesterday, noticed access and opened it up to have a look. Which made me wonder if any one currently uses it.
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No Sarcasm, genuine question. I've been aware of Access since windows 3.1 (I think access was available then, anyway along time), just never used it. Just never though/considered it's use, no reason not to. During my early programming life, it was all embedded microcontrollers running C/asm with about 32K of program code. My most of the work is still embedded stuff. I've only really started using DB in the last 6 years. combination of sql compact, express, localDb and MySQL, selecting whichever suited the project/client the best. I'm no DB expert, there's always something to learn!! But I updated office yesterday, noticed access and opened it up to have a look. Which made me wonder if any one currently uses it.
Thank you for reminding me that there is development outside of CRUD which has been my entire career. :) Now, a fair answer to the question about it being used. There are multiple ways Access can be used: 0: Data store for single-user desktop applications (nice because it doesn't even require Access to be present on clients) 1: Developer tool for designing queries used in Access or other sql based rdbm systems 2: Packaged application using VBA and the built-in forms and reports. X| I still see Access as a viable solution for the first 2 use cases. I think the last use case is the one most responsible for Access's bad reputation among developers. I've looked into SQL Compact as a replacement, but can't live without views. :( Anyway, have a great weekend!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?
ACCESS is so good that MS is killing it because is a big competitor of VS. ACCESS is the fastest RAD tool and you can do petty good desktop and web applications for SME or departments almost without code. Access it is simply fantastic. And of course there are millions of people using ACCESS.
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Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?
I also used MSAccess for back-end DB while ago.. But now I'm using LocalDB or sometimes SQLite... :-D
Don't watch the clock; Do what it does. Keep going.....
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Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?
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Many years ago but I don't want to see it again - ever. However, I'd gladly go with dBase III and Clipper again.
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The code I'm working with is 15 years old and we are using an MDB file, compatible only with Access 97. We really don't have the time to change DB format but it's in the TODO... It corrupts. Alone. With a single user. And a fixed set of instructions...
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver "When you have eliminated the JavaScript, whatever remains must be an empty page." -- Mike Hankey
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Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?
Access is a true RAD tool. If you can model data and build SQL Express databases it is perfect. The query builder and reporting is the best in the business. One day, building web databases will use the same techniques to build views as access uses to build forms. (instead of typing in a morass of HTML). Most of the comments here are simply wrong - its a great tool and Microsoft has made (yet another) mistake in not developing it further.
Ray Starkey ACCESSible IT Limited Coventry, UK
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What software you use, to use MDB files, compatible with Access 97? For me it is not possible since Windows 8. Thank you for hints Erhy
We switched form WinXP to Win7 just a few months ago :-D It is control software for industrial machinery so we don't need to change often, it was done oly to comply with a BIG customer that wouldn't buy our machines since the cease of support of XP from Microsoft. The change brought us more pain than else since a bunch of drivers existing only for XP ceased to work - and it is specialized hardware, not off-the-shelf.
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver "When you have eliminated the JavaScript, whatever remains must be an empty page." -- Mike Hankey
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Access is a true RAD tool. If you can model data and build SQL Express databases it is perfect. The query builder and reporting is the best in the business. One day, building web databases will use the same techniques to build views as access uses to build forms. (instead of typing in a morass of HTML). Most of the comments here are simply wrong - its a great tool and Microsoft has made (yet another) mistake in not developing it further.
Ray Starkey ACCESSible IT Limited Coventry, UK
I fully agree with you. MS Access is a very good RAD tool and perfectly fine for smaller, tactical solutions. To throw the entire technology stack at a problem isn't always wise :-) We use it in our company for various purposes.The entry level is relatively low and that maybe explains the image MS Access has. Everybody can crank something out in relative no time but in the wrong hands, the best tool can be disastrous! When we decide MS Access is good enough for the task to solve, we still apply IT best practice in designing, programming, testing etc. We don't have many of those application but they do what they are supposed to do since years very successfully and reliable. Cheers Rene Working at a larger Reinsurance Company
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The problem with Access isn't as much Access itself, but rather its intended audience.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
That's nicely put!:thumbsup:
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It is poison, don't use it, we have so many application written by a lousy programmer in MS Access that i just can tell you STAHP, don't even think about it. Although for home DB stuff where you like to do things clicky shiny fast you might peek into it :)
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}MS Access is for the quick and dirty applications involving less than 100k records. I find it useful keeping track of my CD collection. (Now, which cabinet has that Sonny and Cher album?)
The difficult may take time, the impossible a little longer.
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The software saves hundreds of images and long textual reports daily for years without fail, only the MDB corrupts - probably it is a problem in deletion of records, as usually only the last 30 days are kept in the DB. The fact is that we do nothing wrong... except using the JET engine, that is wrong by definition.
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver "When you have eliminated the JavaScript, whatever remains must be an empty page." -- Mike Hankey
Is the MDB saving the images as blobs, or as references to the image files themselves? IMHO, storage of blobs is tantamount to disaster as they can be spread across data blocks and deletion of a record may stuff the indexing as part of a block still contains active data.
The difficult may take time, the impossible a little longer.
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Is the MDB saving the images as blobs, or as references to the image files themselves? IMHO, storage of blobs is tantamount to disaster as they can be spread across data blocks and deletion of a record may stuff the indexing as part of a block still contains active data.
The difficult may take time, the impossible a little longer.
No no the images are files and no reference is saved: the MDB saves only a chain of events, all text. Everything is saved on files, I was just explaining why it is not a disk I/O failure.
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver "When you have eliminated the JavaScript, whatever remains must be an empty page." -- Mike Hankey
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Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?
It can make a very fast way to play with data with it's import abilities. Last time I used it was for facing a SQL database table in about 20 minutes start to finish - try that with anything else in that time frame 2 years ago.
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Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?
I use it for analyzing millions of records from web server logs with SQL queries about once a quarter. Easy to import the logs, simple to write and apply custom functions for massaging column data. Copy+Paste results into Outlook or Excel. Easy to throw away when you are done! Just purge the table containing the log records and retain the queries and custom functions.
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Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?
There are a ton of apps we dark matter developers need to mantain that are too massive in scale to port to other runtimes. (wheter it be because of scale of the project or because you have a dinosaur boss in the way (such as my case)) I for example, mantain a manufacturing support application that uses access, and for what is worth, it does processing crap really fast with an sql server back end. Too bad it doesn't support sql batch statements or better vb data structures.
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It is poison, don't use it, we have so many application written by a lousy programmer in MS Access that i just can tell you STAHP, don't even think about it. Although for home DB stuff where you like to do things clicky shiny fast you might peek into it :)
if(this.signature != "")
{
MessageBox.Show("This is my signature: " + Environment.NewLine + signature);
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("404-Signature not found");
}Paradox (ex-Borland, now Corel) is a much better database manager: faster, better user interface. Access drives me clicky-crazy! Sadly, that's probably not a choice you have at this point.
