Jun 18

Taking Over Legacy Microsoft Access Database Applications

There are many, many legacy Microsoft Access databases that need to be supported and enhanced. Often the original developer is long gone and there’s little to no documentation available. Yet, you’re expected to take care of it.

No matter what technology it is, taking over someone else’s work is always challenging. It’s even more challenging if you become responsible for a system that you (and no one else) understands.

FMS President Luke Chung explored this topic during his presentation at the Portland Oregon Microsoft Access User Group Conference. Learn about the issues and techniques we’ve learned over the years to triage, enhance, and support Microsoft Access applications, including migrating and upsizing to SQL Server and other platforms.

Here’s a paper and PowerPoint presentation: Tips and Techniques for Taking Over an Legacy Microsoft Access Database Applications

Aug 19

Speed Up Microsoft Access and Visual SourceSafe Integration

Microsoft Visual SourceSafeMicrosoft AccessUsing Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (VSS) with Microsoft Access for system development is great for tracking old versions, maintaining a professional Access development platform, and multi-developer environments. Being able to quickly see old versions of individual objects, differences over time, and check-in and check-out objects to prevent multiple developers from changing the same object are all wonderful features. Visual Source Safe is part of MSDN. By installing the Office/Access developer extensions/edition or Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO), VSS gets added to your Access menus.

Unfortunately, as Access databases get more objects, VSS slows down and can sometimes take minutes to add a new object to the database. Waiting for VSS to prompt you for every new object not only wastes time (especially if you don't want to add a temporary object to VSS), it disrupts the rhythm of system development. Fortunately, there's an easy way to work around this. Read this paper Speed Up Microsoft Access and Visual SourceSafe Integration for details, including Access 2010.