Access 2002 backward compatability

[krisleech]

I have Access 2002 (set to use Access 2002 file format) and when i export as Access 2000 and use the exported file with Access 2000 there are many errors with certain commands.

Date() does not work, changing to Now() fixes the problem.
Left() does not work. eg. Left([gender]),1) gives M or F for male and female
Format$() does not work which returns 1 as January and 12 as December.

With the expection of Format im sure these commands are in Access 97 let alone Access 2000!

Anyone know of a list of commands/function that do not work in previous versions of Access so i can avoid them.

I need to make my Database availible as Access 2000 and Access 97 so i dont wanna have to re-debug the database each time.

Many thanks Kris.

 

[Rich@ITTC]

Hi Krisleech

Have you thought about setting your database file to Access 2000 file format (this is actually the default in Access XP/2002). Your development will be 99.99% the same from then onwards ... but your database will already be suitable for people with Access 2000.

From Access 2002 you can save a file to Access 97 format:

Tools/Database Utilities/Convert Database/To Access 97 File Format

This does the trick for me - though I usually have to re-compile and I neede to check I have all the relevant References.

To test things out thoroughly you will need to have Access 97 installed too - this is possible but slightly awkward (as you need to have both versions and to install them in chronological order - e.g. first Acces 2, then Access 95, then Access 97, then 2000 and finally Access XP - and they must be in different directories, not just the default of Microsoft Office).


HTH

Rich

 

[krisleech]

I think i will switch back to the Acces 2000 file format!
But i cant understand why commands like date() do'nt work!
Maybe the version of Access 2000 i am using is corupted, but then in that case why would it work at all.?

 

[SunWuKung]

I am creating an Access 2002 project in Access 2000 file format, using SQL Server 2000 as backend.

When people want to use the frontend with Access 2000 they get an "MSAccess has generated errors and will be closed by Windows error". They don't get the error if they set a breakpoint and step through the code. The error disappears if they enter comments and save each form. I think all this does is forcing Access to recompile the form.

I can't imagine this would be due to missing references.

As I keep sending them updates on the application this won't work on the long run. Could somebody suggest a more 'sustainable' solution?

Thanks
SWK

 

[krisleech]

Access for production applications =

the biggest problem solver in Access for me was to press ALT + F11 to open VB, then choose refrences from the tools menu and deselect all MISSING refrences. This cured many seemingly unrelated errors. However since you are using Access with SQL server i dont know if references are used in the same way.
I assum you are using a Access Project, not a normal Access Database.

I personally think Access is no good for distributing beyond the platform the database is developed on. I have had so many problems. Access is good for prototyping a application, but for production i now use Delphi to develop the applications front end. Using either an Access database (with no forms or reports) or SQL server database for the data storage / backend. Long term this has so far prooved much more stable and less error prone between different platforms.

Kris.