What’s not to like about Access
Microsoft Access is fun, powerful and more importantly, it has a place in the development community, and in the real world of production applications.
What follows are some good reasons why I believe this is still the case.
When I started developing a neonatal patient management system for a major public hospital nearly 10 years ago, the IT manager could not believe that I would use Access. Now I must admit to some reservations myself, as this would be an enterprise wide application, and it would be required to interface with two other hospital systems. So whilst the IT “experts” were busy laughing behind their hands, and waiting for the project to fall over, I set about developing the application. Access proved it’s worth, the neonatal database was put into production in May 2004 and is still going strong!
Access is cost effective
Access is freely available to anyone who has Microsoft Office Professional. This philosophy is what got my career as an Access developer launched. A good friend of mine, who also developed software applications, saw the rising dominance of Microsoft back in the mid 90’s and he suggested I learn Access. His reasoning was that Access comes with MS Office, and since Office was a top selling product, it would only be a matter of time before Access programmers would be in great demand. It proved true in the 90’s and the reasoning is still valid today.
Furthermore, the Access run-time version is completely free!
Rapid Application Development (RAD)
The speed in which an Access application can be developed is one of it’s great strengths. I’ve had clients who aren’t quite sure exactly how they want their application to look and function. With Access, I can build something quickly to show the client and then refine the design to their liking. They may even want to test drive it first. As developers, we sometimes need to “guess” what the client wants and Access is the perfect tool to develop a prototype. This gives us the ability to be agile and removes the uncertainty and cost associated with long development lead times.
Training Resources
When I first started learning Microsoft Access, I checked many books until I found one that suited my level of experience. I read the book from cover to cover and completed all the practical examples. After a while, my confidence grew and I started developing small applications and this was quite a change from programming in “green screen” Pick. Not much has changed today, except that there are even more books in the library, and an infinite number of online resources to assist anyone who wants to become an Access developer.
Access – the database
Over the years I have watched people attempt to build a database using Microsoft Excel. For many users, this is a natural choice because Excel displays raw data as most people like to see it … a series of columns and rows. So does Access but you need to design a table first. Excel is fine for storing data and even though Microsoft keeps increasing the row limit, inevitably you will find that a spreadsheet is not a true database and there a many limitations. Enter Access, with it’s ability to import data in a variety of formats, link to other databases (including Excel) and export data.
Access is a great tool for manipulating data sets beyond the capabilities of a spreadsheet and then give you the ability to easily query that data without knowledge of the SQL language. The reporting tool with it’s easy to use wizards, will allow you to create almost any kind of report you could imagine.
Upsizing Access
At some point you may find that you have outgrown your Access database, perhaps you’ve reached the database size limit. No need to throw the baby out with the bath water when you can migrate your database tables and queries to SQL Server. You can keep all your Forms, Reports and code in Access whilst utilizing SQL Server as the “database”. For added performance, you may even want to convert your code or queries into SQL Server stored procedures.
I could find more reasons why Access is a great application builder and database but I think you are get the thrust of my message. Access is a tool that will often “punch above it’s weight” and it has rightfully earned it’s place in the development hall of fame. Whilst it’s flexibility and ease of use can sometimes be it’s downfall, Access will allow the competent developer to build a user friendly and functionally rich software solution.
Keep in mind that software development is all about providing your client with a solution … you don’t need to deliver a Rolls-Royce if your client only needs a Holden.
Long live Access!
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Cheers!
I will do some more posts as time permits.