I'm trying to evaluate the life span of my MS Access Security program as it relies on MS Access versions 2003 and older. Then I can add a new feature or not.
With the introduction of MS Access 2007 everything changed and therefore my program lives as long as MS Access 2003.
So are you still older versions of MS Access? why?
Has version 2007 not been taken up by database professionals?
What advice can you give me?
by JM
As it happens I've just started using Access 2007. I've never previously used Access except for playing around with. I thought ADO.Net was good so I'm using it for an update I'm doing.
ReplyDeleteOut of interest I happened to save in 2003 format and found that the tools like Repair and Compact wouldn't work anymore. This might be a barrier to people buying new Access working with old DBs.
There might be an even larger question about the future of Access itself now that SQL Server Express is around. People I work with have found that deployment of SQL Server anything is a nightmare (too BIG for desktop apps really) but even then Access is not thought of as an alternative. XML is most often floated as an alternative and failing that something lightweight like SQLLite.
After saying all this I'm not really saying that 2003 is dead (even though it's 6 years old now) as it will still be used by a lot of existing apps BUT I'm not too sure there's a compelling reason to use it with new apps for which security issues etc. have yet to be designed/ resolved.
At GE we still have a few sites / applications which run MS Access 2000, however stuff like this is gradually being phased out and replaced with the likes of Oracle, MS SQL or even MYSQL.
ReplyDeleteThat said I can't recall many companies I have worked at in the past who needed to secure MS Access further than the default stuff which comes standard with Access I think the main reason is because
the server environment is already secure and protected from the outside world, and internal misuse is fairly easy to trace.
I personally used to like using MS Access to design a draft DB Schema for use in MYSQL or MS SQL, although a new project I am working on I have started to use SQL Express Studio Manager which seems
just as good.
I guess the bottom line is people / companies will have ageing database out there. Also there will be people with older ms access skills.
ReplyDeleteI guess these people could be developing new database. But those older database won't be touched much.
People have bought the program so I guess there is some need for it.
The program itself doesn't do anything special it just saves time, if those people want to add the securing easily.
I've just had a quick glance at my code, something I've not done for months. I had thought that the DLL I had developed might have turned on some security at the end of the process, but I'm doing it
in code myself.
So I guess it should be possible for me to add security for object and create new users etc myself. Maybe it wouldn't take me too long to develop this extra functionality.
I guess it would need to have a reasonably high priority on my ToDo list as time is running out...
Hmmmm
Well I thought I'd have a look at developing an extra screen.
ReplyDeleteSo I opened MS Access and had a look at the screens I'd need to reproduce :(
So I decided to allow people to open MS Acces before my final securing routine.
So all done :)
I mean, this way I know it will all work and hopefully it will keep people happy too.
Wish I'd thought of it sooner.