Alex & Access

New Office 2010 movie

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:50:56 PDT

Old movie was replaced with new one:

You can also look as one more movie from Access MVP Albert Kallal, I like this one!

Why Fixed Bid Software Projects Are a Bad Idea

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:21:03 PDT

A very good article by Armen Stein, Access MVP

exportSQL

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:10:55 PDT

More code on conversion Access database to other database types:

exportSQL is a Microsoft Access module which exports Access Database into MySQL, mSQL and PostgreSQL. It's based on work of Pedro Freire. [fm] [CVS]
There is also a GUI version, kindly donated by Marc Breneiser <mbreneiser(at)whgrp(dot)com> which is especially useful if your Access database is already converted to .mde files. Zip Conversion.zip includes .exe and source in VB.

Quoted from *SQL-ish projects page of Dobrica Pavlinusic.

SQL Server Publishing Wizard

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:53:21 PDT

Microsoft SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard 1.1 – scripts your database, schema and data, into single text file, so you can recreate it on remote server where only web-based panel available.

Smart Access Is Back!

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:59:04 PDT

Thanks to Garry Robinson, Access MVP, who made Smart Access available again!

BTW, some articles are available at MSDN site.

Office 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Thu, 14 May 2009 01:08:11 PDT

Here the movie. No control or no Ctrl+Alt+Delete?

Northwind.NET

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:37:47 PDT

Northwind sample database, shipped with any Access version, shows different programming techniques, so Access developer can take look at sample code and quickly learn it. Northwind.NET does the same for .NET framework – it is a set of sample applications demonstrating various modern technologies and development practices used within .NET Framework and Visual Studio 2008. If you once need to make something in .NET – just look at this project, find a type of form or report you want to build and check how you can build it using different .NET development techniques.

Plus - there is a sample of calling .NET web service from Access (or wrapping any .NET class into COM)!

Access - a gaming platform?

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:57:18 PDT

Sounds strange? Not a all :)

Just look at two games build on Access.

BTW, Excel too, look at Pacman for Excel!

Thanks for Albert D. Kallal for these links!

Registration-free COM

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:41:04 PDT

If you are building applications with ActiveX controls, then you can have problems distributing it, because of Admin privileges required to install ActiveX controls. There is a new COM activation model called Registration-free COM introduced in Windows XP, which can help you in this case. Read this article to find more about Reg-Free COM.

Update. One more link to read on this topic.

Access will export reports to Excel … again!

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:13:29 PDT

Service Pack 2 for the 2007 Microsoft Office System will bring back export to Excel feature for Access reports, finally! Thanks to Bob Larson, Access MVP, who pointed me to this link! Check out other SP2 improvements.

MS Access SQL Injection

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 05:46:58 PDT

MS Access SQL Injection Cheat Sheet, it is not so dangerous like for SQL Server, but still – if you are using Access database for your web site – be aware of it!

Access x64?

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 02:22:49 PDT

According to Ed Bott research next Access version, Access 14, will be also on x64 platform. Don’t know if we get performance improvement, but some problems can arise with external libraries and controls. 64-bit activex controls?? Looking forward to try see x64 version….

MVP Summit 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 10:13:34 PST

This summit was great! We met some new MVPs, but also missed old good friends. We met product team and learned about their plans, they are working hard on a new version of Access. We missed salmon this time (still can't understand it), as well as opening sushi, but had closing sushi with Crystal and Peter. So we made it!

Here it is:

Access MVPs, aka "MVP Ness Envy", performing "I love rock'n'roll"

More SQL Formatters

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:09:28 PST

There are two more SQL Formatters besides one I mentioned before:

ApexSQL Refactor - addin for SQL Server 2005 management studio, you can format your SQL right in Query Analyzer.

SQLinForm - Java applet which formats all major databases SQL.

Learn Access from Crystal

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:04:14 PST

Access video tutorials channel from Crystal, Access MVP - LearnAccessByCrystal. Check it out, new tutorials are coming!

SQL Formatter

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 06:15:05 PST

A nice tool SQL and PL/SQL Formatter (actually a web page) to format SQL language (Access, T-SQL, etc) to a number of useful formats – html, VBA, XML, whatever you can imagine. Here how html output looks like for T-SQL:

SELECT tblBill.BillID,       
       --tblBill.BillNum,       
       tblBill.BillDate       
FROM   tblBill       
WHERE  Datediff(d,tblBill.BillDate,Getdate()) > @intDays

Access 97 crash on Server 2003

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:04:12 PST

If you would run Access 97 application on Server 2003 SP1 or SP2 – you probably experience a crash of Access while pressing a button, whatever. In order to make it running – you have to either switch off Data Execution Prevention (DEP), or add Access to exceptions list in DEP dialog.

KB960715 (IE7) is breaking Access apps

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:26:10 PST

Graham Mandeno, Access MVP, have found, that latest security update for IE7 breaks Access applications using some of Microsoft ActiveX controls. Details below:

PROBLEM:

Access applications that incorporate certain VB6 ActiveX controls are failing on computers when the "critical security update" KB960715 is installed.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

The Security Advisory for KB960715

The update sets "kill bits" that disable certain third-party and Microsoft ActiveX controls, including the following:

Class Identifier	ActiveX Control
{1E216240-1B7D-11CF-9D53-00AA003C9CB6}	Microsoft Animation Control 5.0
{3A2B370C-BA0A-11d1-B137-0000F8753F5D}	Microsoft Chart Control 6.0
{B09DE715-87C1-11d1-8BE3-0000F8754DA1}	Microsoft Animation Control 6.0
{cde57a43-8b86-11d0-b3c6-00a0c90aea82}	Microsoft DataGrid Control 6.0
{6262d3a0-531b-11cf-91f6-c2863c385e30}	Microsoft FlexGrid Control 6.0
{0ECD9B64-23AA-11d0-B351-00A0C9055D8E}	Microsoft Hierarchical FlexGrid Control 6.0
{C932BA85-4374-101B-A56C-00AA003668DC}	Microsoft Masked Edit Control 6.0
{248dd896-bb45-11cf-9abc-0080c7e7b78d}	Microsoft WinSock Control 6.0

Class Identifier

ActiveX Control

{1E216240-1B7D-11CF-9D53-00AA003C9CB6}

Microsoft Animation Control 5.0

{3A2B370C-BA0A-11d1-B137-0000F8753F5D}

Microsoft Chart Control 6.0

{B09DE715-87C1-11d1-8BE3-0000F8754DA1}

Microsoft Animation Control 6.0

{cde57a43-8b86-11d0-b3c6-00a0c90aea82}

Microsoft DataGrid Control 6.0

{6262d3a0-531b-11cf-91f6-c2863c385e30}

Microsoft FlexGrid Control 6.0

{0ECD9B64-23AA-11d0-B351-00A0C9055D8E}

Microsoft Hierarchical FlexGrid Control 6.0

{C932BA85-4374-101B-A56C-00AA003668DC}

Microsoft Masked Edit Control 6.0

{248dd896-bb45-11cf-9abc-0080c7e7b78d}

Microsoft WinSock Control 6.0

Any form that uses these controls will give errors such as "There is no object in this control".

Any attempt to delete the ActiveX control and rebuild the form gives the error "Microsoft Access does not support this ActiveX control".

WORKAROUND:

Another KB article, KB957924, is a cumulative update rollup for VB6.

It includes newer versions (6.1.98.12) of the above controls that do not have the security vulnerability.

Unfortunately, this update may only be installed if you have VB6 installed.

However, it is possible to install KB957924 on a machine with VB6 and then deploy copies of the new OCX files to the affected end-user machines.

This workaround is unwieldy, as it requires an administrator to install and register the updated OCX files on every end-user machine.

SUGGESTION:

Microsoft should add the "safe" versions of the affected OCX files to the KB960715 update, so that instead of killing the old versions of those controls, the new, safe versions are installed and registered.

Furthermore, Microsoft should create another download which includes the "safe" versions of these OCX files so that machines that have been adversely affected by KB960715 can easily be updated without the need to have VB6 installed.

And some comments from other Access MVP, Sascha Trowitzsch:

BTW: I am using two tools to activate/deactivate ActiveX controls:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/axhelper.html
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/acm.html

SQL-DMO and SQL Server 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:47:56 PST

If you have moved to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and missed SQL Distributed Management Objects (SQL-DMO or SQLDMO) library - do not panic, you can download it as a part of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack. Actually you get Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatibility Components, but it still works with 2008 server.

Comment and uncomment block in VBA

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:31:55 PST

Is there an easy way to comment out blocks of code, without having to do it line by line? Yes, there are such buttons, but they are not on the toolbar by default. Right-click on VBA toolbar, click Customize, in Commands tab select Edit category and in Commands listbox find Command block and Uncomment block commands. Drag both to your toolbar - and here you are!

FMS Development Team Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:56:07 PST

One more blog on Access - FMS Development Team Blog.

Migration to SQL Server

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:13:20 PST

Here a great compilation of Access to SQL Server migration resources from Mary Chipman, Microsoft, that will help to understand - do you need to migrate, when to migrate and what one can get from migration:

TechEd Online Panel (video) - Go to and search for: "Are we there yet? Successfully navigating the bumpy road from Access to SQL Server"

Microsoft Access or SQL Server 2005: What's Right in Your
Organization?

Optimizing Microsoft Office Access Applications Linked to SQL Server

What are the main differences between Access and SQL Server?

"The Best of Both Worlds--Access MDBs and SQL Server"

SQL Server Migration Assistant for Access (SSMA for Access)

FMS Upsizing Center

Microsoft Access Developer's Guide to SQL Server

Migration Considerations for Access 2007

Events on query datasheet

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 21:53:30 PST

One more interesting sample by Krzysztof Naworyta, Access MVP - lightweight form events. Imagine that you open a select query and want to run some code on Unload or AfterUpdate event. Looks like Access does not offer such opportunity, but it is! Using Screen.ActiveDatasheet you can get a reference to query’s form object and then work with it as normal Access form. Same applies to tables/queries as subfoms. Run the sample and look at VBA code to learn this technique.

How to avoid #Error in expressions

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Dybenko) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:16:52 PST

If you have a form with subform, last one has no records, and you have a textbox on a main form which calculates total – then you can get #Error as a result of your calculation.

You can simply avoid this using IsError() function, just make the expression like this:

=IIf(IsError([frmMySubform].[Form]![txtTotal]),0, [frmMySubform].[Form]![txtTotal])