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  3. Is any one using MS Access?

Is any one using MS Access?

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  • J Jorgen Andersson

    The problem with Access isn't as much Access itself, but rather its intended audience.

    Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

    S Offline
    S Offline
    sir_download_alot
    wrote on last edited by
    #36

    That's nicely put!:thumbsup:

    1 Reply Last reply
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    • H HobbyProggy

      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 :)

      Rules for the FOSW ![^]

      if(this.signature != "")
      {
      MessageBox.Show("This is my signature: " + Environment.NewLine + signature);
      }
      else
      {
      MessageBox.Show("404-Signature not found");
      }

      M Offline
      M Offline
      Member 10707677
      wrote on last edited by
      #37

      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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      • D den2k88

        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

        M Offline
        M Offline
        Member 10707677
        wrote on last edited by
        #38

        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.

        D 1 Reply Last reply
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        • M Member 10707677

          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.

          D Offline
          D Offline
          den2k88
          wrote on last edited by
          #39

          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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          • S SPoss

            Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?

            U Offline
            U Offline
            User 11701742
            wrote on last edited by
            #40

            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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            • S SPoss

              Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?

              E Offline
              E Offline
              englebart
              wrote on last edited by
              #41

              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.

              D 1 Reply Last reply
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              • S SPoss

                Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?

                J Offline
                J Offline
                Jose Gomez
                wrote on last edited by
                #42

                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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                • H HobbyProggy

                  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 :)

                  Rules for the FOSW ![^]

                  if(this.signature != "")
                  {
                  MessageBox.Show("This is my signature: " + Environment.NewLine + signature);
                  }
                  else
                  {
                  MessageBox.Show("404-Signature not found");
                  }

                  H Offline
                  H Offline
                  Harrison Pratt
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #43

                  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.

                  1 Reply Last reply
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                  • S SPoss

                    Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?

                    U Offline
                    U Offline
                    User 10311954
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #44

                    Yes, and Access can work quite well in small office settings. Many things work very well, but it also does have downsides (particularly handling memo fields). It you need a lot of control over keyed inputs for forms, etc., it is going to be more difficult to accomplish with access as a front-end, but most items can be done fairly quickly and work quite well.

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                    • S SPoss

                      Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?

                      W Offline
                      W Offline
                      wifiadhoc
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #45

                      I am a developer of business applications with MS Access version (97) for small businesses and professional firms. Develop programs with MsAccess is a guaranteed investment over time. The programs were converted in later versions of MsAccess (2000/2003/2010/2013) with SO Xp. Win 7, Win 8 and finally with Win 10. Queries, Forms, Reports and VBA are more than enough to satisfy monoutenze and multiuser with 10 users. With accesshosting.com also work remotely.

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                      • S SPoss

                        Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?

                        M Offline
                        M Offline
                        Member 11273627
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #46

                        Yup. I made over $200k last year developing in MS Access. And in ever case, it was just the right tool. If you are good at it, it's a great product. Not without flaws like every tool, and limiting compared to some, of course. But if used in the right situation by someone that knows what they are doing, it's simply a great tool. I build complex applications that save tremendous amounts of time. Multi user environments are just fine. Lots of data. Lots of calculations and automation. Like anything, it sucks in the wrong hands.

                        1 Reply Last reply
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                        • S SPoss

                          Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?

                          U Offline
                          U Offline
                          User 10395164
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #47

                          You will find that MS Access is used widely in banks and trading companies. They use it because it is a great tool, along with Excel for modelling and reporting data sets from a wide range of sources such as SAP, Endur, Reuters, Bloomberg, Oracle, SQL Server and so on. Up-to Access 2010 Microsoft had a great feature where you could remove the Jet database engine and replace it with SQL Server (this was called Microsoft Access Project). This would provide you with the enterprise features, security and scalability, of SQL Server with forms and reports built in. I use this feature a lot. My current project at a global trading firm is for a price risk tool that is used globally with 200+ users, hundreds of millions of records and is used to make mulit-million dollar decisions. The forms and reports editor in Access is still a league ahead of the clunky tools available in .NET for desktop applications, although Access does lack all the fancy 3rd party add-in's you can get for .NET. Unfortunately Microsoft has neglected the tool over the years and the last good version of the tool was MS Access 2010. I know VBA gets a bad rap as a programming language as there are a lot of bad Access databases out there but it is actually quite powerful when used correctly. You can write bad applications in any language - i have seen enough poorly written C# applications over the years. Also the best thing about MS Access development is the pay - it is at least 50-100% higher then the top rated day rates you can get with any other programming tool available. You do need to have a trading background though to understand the models - it is that knowledge you are getting paid for, rather then your skill with VBA

                          S 1 Reply Last reply
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                          • U User 10395164

                            You will find that MS Access is used widely in banks and trading companies. They use it because it is a great tool, along with Excel for modelling and reporting data sets from a wide range of sources such as SAP, Endur, Reuters, Bloomberg, Oracle, SQL Server and so on. Up-to Access 2010 Microsoft had a great feature where you could remove the Jet database engine and replace it with SQL Server (this was called Microsoft Access Project). This would provide you with the enterprise features, security and scalability, of SQL Server with forms and reports built in. I use this feature a lot. My current project at a global trading firm is for a price risk tool that is used globally with 200+ users, hundreds of millions of records and is used to make mulit-million dollar decisions. The forms and reports editor in Access is still a league ahead of the clunky tools available in .NET for desktop applications, although Access does lack all the fancy 3rd party add-in's you can get for .NET. Unfortunately Microsoft has neglected the tool over the years and the last good version of the tool was MS Access 2010. I know VBA gets a bad rap as a programming language as there are a lot of bad Access databases out there but it is actually quite powerful when used correctly. You can write bad applications in any language - i have seen enough poorly written C# applications over the years. Also the best thing about MS Access development is the pay - it is at least 50-100% higher then the top rated day rates you can get with any other programming tool available. You do need to have a trading background though to understand the models - it is that knowledge you are getting paid for, rather then your skill with VBA

                            S Offline
                            S Offline
                            SPoss
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #48

                            Good to here for everyone, sounds like its still very much alive and I didn't know, which is why I asked the question. I was always led to believe that access was 'evil' and something for hobby use only, So I never got involved. Your right, you can use any language to write bad code/projects. I think its time we had a survey!! Top 10? but which ones, I'm sure this will divide the community, and possible the world ;)

                            1 Reply Last reply
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                            • S SPoss

                              Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?

                              G Offline
                              G Offline
                              georani
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #49

                              YES, I use MS-Access. There is no other choice if you need a multi-user database shared over a network, and you can not install SQL Server or any other database server. And you cannot achieve this with SQLite or SqlServer Compact Edition. ___

                              1 Reply Last reply
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                              • S SPoss

                                Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?

                                C Offline
                                C Offline
                                Codeman the Barbarian
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #50

                                Yes, it is used... actually quite a bit. Generally, not by developers, but by users. It is used in commercial software (e.g. gINT) Should you use it? Probably not. Should gINT use it? Probably not. When should you use it? If you have to give a database to a non-programmer who has Access installed on their machine or some other rare use case where is makes sense. I've actually use (yes present tense) an Access front end to process some SQLite files and it does what I need no fuss no muss.

                                1 Reply Last reply
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                                • S SPoss

                                  Professionally I use SQL Express, LocalDB and MySQL and couldn't think of any reason to use Access. Just though it was a hang over from another era, and looking at the comments, looks like it is. So why is it still shipped? MS has dropped other technologies over the years? I guess it still has a large user base

                                  G Offline
                                  G Offline
                                  georani
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #51

                                  I use MS-Access. There is no other choice if you need a multi-user database shared over a network, and you can not install SQL Server or any other database server. You cannot achieve this with SQLite or SqlServer Compact Edition.

                                  M 1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • S SPoss

                                    Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?

                                    C Offline
                                    C Offline
                                    carlospc1970
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #52

                                    I have seen in use by businesses that have poor IT skills and got sold incredibly expensive applications biult with Access. Please, DON'T use it or recommend it. There are lots of free tools that do much more and are better supported.

                                    G 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • S SPoss

                                      Just updated office 365 and along with it Access 2016. I've never used it. Does anyone use it? What for? and should I?

                                      L Offline
                                      L Offline
                                      lmaycock
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #53

                                      We're still using it, although after the best part of a year of inexplicable crashes and corruption errors we're in the process of replacing our main database for another one. There's still loads of cheap crappy databases floating about though (some of which are now also developing random bugs even though the source code hasn't changed in months.) I'd agree with others that it has its place, but its place isn't in a corporate environment. As a rule, it only ever seems to be used in a multi-user setting out of either necessity or cost. Avoid in all other cases.

                                      M 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • H HobbyProggy

                                        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 :)

                                        Rules for the FOSW ![^]

                                        if(this.signature != "")
                                        {
                                        MessageBox.Show("This is my signature: " + Environment.NewLine + signature);
                                        }
                                        else
                                        {
                                        MessageBox.Show("404-Signature not found");
                                        }

                                        D Offline
                                        D Offline
                                        DanW52
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #54

                                        Programming a large application in Access is really difficult. But MS lets people get started with Access with no programming knowledge threshold. Access works if you know how to make it work - but people with the skills to do that are programming something else.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • D den2k88

                                          SPoss wrote:

                                          Does anyone use it?

                                          Yes.

                                          SPoss wrote:

                                          What for?

                                          Gods know.

                                          SPoss wrote:

                                          I've never used it.

                                          SPoss wrote:

                                          and should I?

                                          No, if you're sane and have a good karma. It should be a local DBMS, it is... we never discovered.

                                          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

                                          D Offline
                                          D Offline
                                          DanW52
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #55

                                          Power users can make good use of Access if they limit themselves to what they know, and they don't try to make it a multi-user application.

                                          D H 2 Replies Last reply
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