Access 03 to Access 13 migration

[JohnPapa]

I installed today Office 365 and tried to migrate my Access 03 application to Access 13. I opened Access 13, browsed to file, Chose .mdb file, clicked on Open, I received the message found in attachment. The permissions are set to Full Control.
Any ideas would be welcome.
John

 

[PeterF]

Sounds to me you're using a secured mdb file. Are you using the correct mdw file?
More info can be found here.

 

[JohnPapa]

Peter many thanks for your reply,

I must mention that I use A03 and have never used A07 or A10. I have seen A13 for the first time today.

After some research it appears that Access does not support user-level security for databases that are created in the new file format (.accdb and .accde files) ie for A07, A10 and A13.
I understand that this was done to improve security? Please confirm.

I will continue looking into this, but from your experience in A07 and later versions, how would you handle Access dbs with exiting user-level security?

Thanks,
John

 

[Rx_]

The bigger question is about all the other migration issues.
Did you have any VBA? What about the reports objects? The table structure?
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/accessdev/thread/af57be67-b6da-47cd-81e0-d44fbb5461da

 

[JohnPapa]

Thanks Rx for your reply,

My application (www.VisualDentist.com) dates back to 1997 and has lots of VBA. Initially written with A97 then migrated to A03, which has served me well.

I was able to run the software under A13 by using the following command,

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15\MSACCESS.EXE" /wrkgrp "C:\VisualDentist\Vd5.mdw" "C:\VisualDentist\Vd5.mdb" /user dentist /excl

I understand that the Access Runtime will be released in a couple of months, so I used the application .exe in the command above.

I am in the process of testing the software under A13. I will consider removing User Level Security from existing software and using Trust Center and maybe Digital Signing.

A07 has a Convert function button, for converting previous versions. Does A13 have the same functionality, I cannot find it.

If you have any other pointers or issues to share, I would appreciate it. The link you included in your response deals primarily with cloud/Web issues. At present I am trying to see how to use my software using A13.

Thanks,
John

 

[JohnPapa]

I found this general resource for changes in Office 2013. A lot of interesting stuff regarding Access. Some scary!

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178954.aspx

 

[JohnPapa]

I've done some reading on the subject. Maybe I should have aimed to convert to A07 first but anyway...

It appears that Access 13 is geared towards creating Web apps that run within Sharepoint and in the process MS has changed a few things.

Ideally I would like to convert my .mdb A03 application to a .accdb A13 application. I have a .mdb FE (.mde when deployed), a .mdw and .mdb BE.

Yes I can run my existing A03 application under A13 but this is of no real use, since when I deploy my application, this is done with the A03 Runtime. In other words, the installation is independent of any Access software that may or may not exist on the PC.

Is anyone aware of a step by step guide on how to attempt to convert the FE and BE with the existing relationships from A03 to A13? How do we deal with the .mdw file which does not exist in A13?

Any help would be appreciated. I do expect problems but I am willing to try. As an indication, in A13 the Memo datatype is now called Long Text.

Thanks,
John

 

[JohnPapa]

Continuing my previous message I converted my FE mdb and BE mdb to the corresponding .accdb and tried to open the application in A13. It appears that I still need a reference to the .mdw

/wrkgrp "C:\VisualDentist\Vd5.mdw"

(if the reference to the .mdw is omitted from the command below, the application prompts for a Username and Password)

I can open the application by using the following,

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15\MSACCESS.EXE" /wrkgrp "C:\VisualDentist\Vd5.mdw"  "C:\VisualDentist\Vd5.accdb" /user dentist /excl

Why does the .accdb require a reference to a .mdw file? I thought that it did not use it. Is there a way to get rid of the reference to the .mdw file.

TIA,
John

 

[mdlueck]

Why does the .accdb require a reference to a .mdw file? I thought that it did not use it. Is there a way to get rid of the reference to the .mdw file.

Good question. I turned this link up...

Access 2010 user-level security dilemma: *.mdw file is on network share
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...56?msgId=0fbd63b6-acec-4bcf-a0e3-8f0546677242

 

[JohnPapa]

Thanks Michael,

The command line is pointing to the correct Access, ie A13.

In my case the .accdb needs (and only works with) the .mdw file.

My findings seem to disagree with the link you sent me which states that,

You can't join the mdw with an accdb.

John

 

[mdlueck]

My findings seem to disagree with the link you sent me which states that,

You can't join the mdw with an accdb.

I got the impression from the link that it was still possible to associate an accdb with a mdw, just not any way to administer / create a link between an accdb / mdw.

As if MS is sunsetting such capabilities, making it more difficult to use the capabilities.

 

[JohnPapa]

Indeed it appears that MS is sunsetting these capabilities. That is why I am trying to see whether I can continue to run under A13 (with its pros and cons) and not rely on A03.

I have also asked the person on the link you sent to me. If you cannot join a .accdb to a .mdw (as he claims) then you should not be able to!!

Anyway, very strange. I will investigate a bit more and update.

John

 

[JohnPapa]

I believe I made some headway and it was probably my fault.

I converted the FE to a .accde and also took out the /user, /excl parameters. The command is as follows:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15\MSACCESS.EXE" "C:\VisualDentist\Vd5.accdE"

It now works fine.

I will see how to deal with any other issues like the dropping of Pivot tables etc.


The fact that the following works may be a bug,

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15\MSACCESS.EXE" [COLOR=red]/wrkgrp "C:\VisualDentist\Vd5.mdw"[/COLOR] "C:\VisualDentist\Vd5.accdb" /user dentist /excl

It appears that the .accdb requires the .mdw and the .accde does not!!!

 

[RainLover]

John

Do you still need the security of the MDW.

Why do you not get rid of it.

 

[JohnPapa]

Rainlover thanks,

Maybe you did not see my latest edit of the last message.

To answer your question, I do not need the security of the .mdw, BUT it seems (please see my last message) that .accdb requires it and .accde does not.

Does this make sense?
John

 

[JohnPapa]

I did a rebuild and used the following

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15\MSACCESS.EXE" "C:\VisualDentist\Vd5.accdb"

which works fine.

 

[RainLover]

I have never seen A13 and have no intentions. I like 2003.

When they say that A13 cannot join an MDW, I think they are saying that you can't join an existing A13 to an MDW in order to make a new Database that has User Level Security.

My suggestion woud be to get the 2003 file and get rid of the ULS. Technically every Access database has security but does not necessarilly have ULS which requires a special MDW.

I am getting off track here.

Do you know how to leave an MDW?

 

[JohnPapa]

I looked into my FE and it appears that all local tables appear first alphabetically and then all the linked tables alphabetically. In A03 all tables appear alphabetically whether local or linked.

I also noticed that my Memo datatypes have been changed to "Long Text".

Suddenly I am a bit more optimistic about the migration and I hope it continues this way.

John

 

[JohnPapa]

I have never seen A13 and have no intentions. I like 2003.
 
When they say that A13 cannot join an MDW, I think they are saying that you can't join an existing A13 to an MDW in order to make a new Database that has User Level Security.
 
My suggestion woud be to get the 2003 file and get rid of the ULS. Technically every Access database has security but does not necessarilly have ULS which requires a special MDW.
 
I am getting off track here.
 
Do you know how to leave an MDW?

Until yesterday I had never seen A13 as well as A07 and A10. I also like A03 which I use extensively, but at some point in time we would all need to move with the flow.

Everything appears to work. I simply converted the FE .mdb and BE .mdb to .accdb files and used the following command to invoke without any mention to the /wrkgrp "C:\VisualDentist\Vd5.mdw"

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15\MSACCESS.EXE" "C:\VisualDentist\Vd5.accdB"

or

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15\MSACCESS.EXE" "C:\VisualDentist\Vd5.accdE"

I do not know whether I have everything in place but it appears to work The next step is to test it and wait to MS to release the Runtime which will be used for deployment.
John

 

[RainLover]

I don't see that your code is doing anthing except forcing the file to open in Version 15.

This can also be done in the Control Panel so that any 2003 file will automatically open in 2013.

Let me know if you want to get rid of the ULS. It is not all that easy to do. It has been a while since I have done it but I believe I can find the instructions.