Access Web Databases and The Access Show

Web Database oh it's great. But what is with:

An intigrated Grid, a Treeview, Schedule-Controls ...

all things that are a go without saying in Dotnet. Usefull Lists, Collections in VBA??? All you do is to integrate more colors. But under the hood there is nothing!

It is a shame to see Access 2010 coming up all Sharepoint again. What a pity. The dearth of news about huron; nothing new re Access and SQL Server; the continued focus on Access as a Sharepoint client; your 'evolution' of Access away from what it's been so good at; are major disappointments. It is really really freaky that Microsoft owned what were the two best database client technologies on the planet and is letting them rot or die. Access is being subverted into a sharepoint client. Foxpro was a marvel and it's gone. Databases rule the earth...but you're doing all you can to eliminate the tools for rapid development of db front ends? It's just so weird. I am sorry to write another complaining post here about Access, but Access has been a big part of my life and I'm sorry to see it skew into something that is of little use. I know writing this has no impact on what the Access team does but it's hard to say nothing.

Michael: I second that. P.S. I miss any vision of Web Services to be used from Access. WS is spreading all over the Internet. SharePoint is just a MS toy for a few people.

While SharePoint may need Access, Access does not need SharePoint.

I am thrilled and excited to see this! A web database with data entry screens is what I want.

My Access database is being used by 8 PC in FE-BE.

Access Web services would make implementation much easier for me. How much does Sharepoint 2010 cost? It would be nice if Sharepoint 2010 LITE version could be included in MS Access 2010 Developer edition. Price should not be more than 1.000 euros! I am a non professional developer - power user of Access.

It is really hard for me to understand the negative comments here. Nothing is being removed or replaced. This is *additional*. You don't have to use it if you don't have a use for it. For myself, I am very excited. Thanks, Access team, for providing us with the opportunity of expanded options in the range of applications that we can build with Access.

I´m really depressed to see, that the stuff that really needs to be changed will not be done. Only one Example: the Listbox-Control has not improved since Access 2.0 - that´s a shame - ACCESS NEEDS A BUILTIN MODERN LISTVIEW-CONTROL.

Negative comments kind of tend to show up when a useful but neglected product finally gets some juice from the parent company; and virtually none of the features needed are added; and the dev team states over and over that they care about what the users want; and they put out another rev that again seems to skip everything that we want. I/we don't mind that they added better integration with sharepoint. What we all really really care about is that virtually none of the crucial features that have been requested for years and years are being added. I don't know yet if they've taken away great Access features with 14 like they did with 12; but they are still morphing Access into something that it moving away from what we need. RAD database front end development is just even more needed than it was 15 years ago, why are you burying the tools that make it possible?

Well, I for one am excited about the way Access is going. Now I see the point of improving the macros in Access 2007, i.e. leading into even more improvements in Access 2010 and their automatic conversion into Javascript in a web database.

When Access 2007 came out, I was less than enthusiastic about it, but have come to really like it. Even if things like the layout view (and the ease of moving controls it brings) and the ease of modifying sorting and grouping in reports was aimed at power users, it has certainly helped me as a developer. Couple that with the new report view in Access 2007 and for me it has turned out to be a big improvement. The security side of things was the only downer for me in the full, i.e. non-runtime, version of Access 2007.

Now in Access 2010 we have a whole new world opening up to us Access developers. We've got web databases and triggers (data macros). If that was all we had been given, I'd be a happy bunny, but we also have improved conditional formatting and one or two other things with think are still not for general disclosure (though maybe that will change this week?). It certainly looks good to me! Alan

Alan:

Worst things in Access 2007:

- incompatibility with previous versions of Access

- Ribbon & buggy QAT

- navigation pane

- poor help system

- old bugs remaining in new versions of Access See www.alis.cz/.../Access2007_bugs.rar. There are a few thing that I like in A2007, but...

Peter:

There are serious bugs in ListBox, see ID 39 in www.alis.cz/.../Access2007_bugs.rar. These bugs are very old. :-(

P.S.

I'm missing name index for ListBox/ComboBox columns.

@Steve Schapel - "It is really hard for me to understand the negative comments here. Nothing is being removed or replaced. This is *additional*. You don't have to use it if you don't have a use for it. For myself, I am very excited. Thanks, Access team, for providing us with the opportunity of expanded options in the range of applications that we can build with Access." I wholeheartedly agree !!! Great job Clint, Ryan & and the rest of the Access Team ! :)

I love it! I was a naysayer once, but not anymore. For years, there was no developer focus and no good way to upsize to SQL nor out to web. That's all changed with 2010. Course I'm a bit puzzled as to how we can turn existing VBA into data macros, but at least there's a path for new work. Now that External Lists, BCS, and Access Web Services are out of the bag at SPC09, can we hear more about where the data goes? Do Access tables become SQL Server tables? Does it use External Content Types and BCS? Or does the data lump into sharepoint userdata as with 2007? I do hope for a 'lite' version of Access web services that will run on Sharepoint Foundation. Access is commonly used in small businesses where Sharepoint Enterprise is an imposible sell. I'm really impressed guys! Just wish I had an x64 dev box to install the beta. Keep info comming! Josh

[SharePoint is just a MS toy for a few people]

Some say that SharePoint has had the fastest adoption of any Microsoft product. Our company can hardly keep up with the client demand to deploy and design sites. I'm an old Access guy. I loved the product in '93 and I still use it today but IT groups everywhere struggle to support hundreds of runaway "mission critical" MDB applications. Taking Access to the enterprise will breath more life into this product. [How much does Sharepoint 2010 cost? It would be nice if Sharepoint 2010 LITE version could be included in MS Access 2010 Developer edition.]

Like Windows SharePoint Services, SharePoint 2010 Foundation (i.e. SharePoint "Lite") is a free download. I don't disagree that it would be nice to see some of the most basic Access desktop functionality modernized & improved but the decision to integrate Access with SharePoint is exciting news.