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Access is part of about 90% of my development projects. Usually as a RAD front end to MySQL, PostgresSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, and sometimes more than one at the same time. How many dev tools do you know that can connect to SQL Server, MySQL and Oracle at the same time?
The ACE DB Engine is really only good for apps with tables less than 100K records, or so, but Access makes a great desktop front-end. Access != ACE (Access <> ACE for the VB fans).
Yes, it's best use is for desktop apps connected to shared data for 20 or less people (up to 50 with a RDBMS back-end). The Sharepoint/web integration is basically hell, since you can only use macros (no VBA). Using macros is like trying to build a house when the only tool you have is a bag of sporks. Although, the new JavaScript integration in 2016 may help change that.
As I've grown as a coder, it took me a while to understand certain concepts that are now must have features in modern languages/ide's: Managed Code, VBA in Access has always been managed. Lambda Expressions, oh, you mean you can just create a function and call it from anywhere? You know, like a function in an Access module rather than class.
Binding fields in a table to controls on a form is ridiculously easy (built-in sanitizing, character limits that match the field, data-types, a plethora of events to add validations, etc.). Don't worry if this frightens you, its lack of layers scares many.
But, then again, you may not want to listen to me as I am a wildling coder. After some excellent instruction in high school, I did not go the the ivory towers and have spent most of my career on the other side of the wall between IT and everyone else... solving problems as quickly and efficiently as I can, with only the tools I have available to me.
"But then, something happened that the ring did not intend." - Fellowship of the Ring
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Though I wouldn't want to try to support a commercial multi customer app in Access (did that), it's a very useful companion tool to any development and great, especially due to integration with excel, as a tool in data conversions.
I use .NET, node and other modern tools, and cram until my head aches to try to stay up to date, but I also use Access as a flexible utility, data monitor, checker, builder, relater. i can whip up a form to watch or query certain data that i need to look at on the fly when developing.
plus i have a few customers that still use and like access. if it ain't broke, don't fix 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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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.
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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.
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´Mr. A at the next desk is cursing it right now. as it seems, some system variables change their names when the users have different language settings, which breaks the application. Great idea to 'help' programming noobs by translating some variable names.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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There is a Hell sepcifically for the people who thought of it. Not a circle - an entire Hell. Just for them.
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 front end SQL Server back end served me well for years in a large corporate environment. The report creation is a wiz , a lot easier to knock out a report that Reporting Services.
I agree a large user base over a network is a bit iffy which is why I ported from an Access db back end , that said we managed up to 50 users across a network with no issues.
I eventually ported it to SQL and ultimately it was "taken over" by a dot NET app , mostly because the IT dept couldn't cope with an Access App that worked !!
Mike
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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
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Yeah, this pretty much sums me up. 
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I've reviewed the comments and have decided NOT to consider Access for anything, I apologise to everyone for bring it up and will seek counselling to prevent me having these though again. 
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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.
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DanW52 wrote: Power users
Never, ever, give power to a user. Nothing good can result.
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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Microsoft Access is still used in offices that need a simple method to generate a Windows front end along with a database for storage. If you do not use it for that you can use it for importing excel spreadsheets or CSVs into a database, execute queries, gather numbers, modify the query into a SQL statement, connect to a SQL Server and append the information into database.
SQL servers can be connected using ODBC drivers, thus allowing you to extract data for the purpose of gaining statistical information.
Access has it uses in any type of office that has a SQL server or if you need to have a multi-user Windows application but do not have a budget for a programmer or DBA. It is simple to set up and use. You can also interface into almost any Office product (Word , Excel, etc.) to provide a data source for mail merges, letters, etc.
Sure it is a resource hog taking up network bandwidth, disk space but I bet after viewing hundreds of locations there are MS Access Applications in use. You can always visit baronsoftware.com for further information.
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Agreed, that is how I use it, only when it makes sense for a specific purpose.
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Not anymore, but up to 15 years ago, it was da sh*t for database "applications"...
Access itself is not used much anymore, but the database file format can still be found in a lot of .NET applications because it's small, single file and doesn't require the presence of an SQL server instance.
And "NO", you shouldn't use it. That time has passed! You don't even need to install it! 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time
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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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den2k88 wrote: It corrupts. Alone. With a single user. And a fixed set of instructions...
Sounds like a disk IO problem... 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-
I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time
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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
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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.
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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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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
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We switched form WinXP to Win7 just a few months ago 
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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MDB files are compatible up to at least Access 2010, and probably higher.
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