Access as a front-end only (replace? with what?)

[ChrisDaSwiss]

I hope I am in the right section and my question is not too basic:
We started developing tools for budgeting and financial reporting on the base of ms-Access. Now we have moved the data to SQL-Server and (most of the logic) to stored procedures and use Access only as an importing tool and a front-end for inputting budget numbers into SQL-Server tables.

• Should we replace the front-end (Access) with something different?
• With what? Visual Studio?

Background:
I am not a professional programmer, but use 80% of my working hours for coding … in the 80ties I dug deep with Think Pascal on Macintosh for 2 years. In the meantime I got to know Access (and different Databases). Maybe my memories are tainted, but I still think that had been a good tool.

 

[Galaxiom]

Are you finding Access is lacking in any way as a Front End? "If it ain't broke ... ".

Plus your Access FE does have the huge advantage of already having been developed.

 

[Ranman256]

My FE works great.

 

[ChrisDaSwiss]

Are you finding Access is lacking in any way as a Front End? "If it ain't broke ... ".

I find the debugging somewhat cumbersome. And we have the problem, that some part of of our programs don't work on certain computers, despite all being company set up computers. And we also have Mac OS X computers ... not a lot, but some "privileged" people.



And as we do some serious reprogramming, I wanted to "review" my approach before investing massive (time) investments. If we'd started on SQL-Server at the first time, this would have been a good idea ...

 

[sonic8]

• Should we replace the front-end (Access) with something different?

If you ask the question this way, the answer is a clear No!

If you would name concrete requirements you are struggling with in Access which would be implemented easier on/with another platform, the answer might be a different one. - There is no point in changing your frontend technology just for the plain sake of changing it.

I find the debugging somewhat cumbersome. And we have the problem, that some part of of our programs don't work on certain computers, despite all being company set up computers. And we also have Mac OS X computers ... not a lot, but some "privileged" people.

This are all issues that probably can be addressed with still using Access. Even the MacOsX issue could be addressed by running the Access app in a Windows-VM on the Mac.

 

[essaytee]

I agree with the adage 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'. Having said that, you mention that some users are using Apple machines, so you may want to consider cross-platform developing. So, check out Xojo. It's free to download and develop (learn). It compiles to an exe and whatever the equivalent file types are for Apple and Linux. It's OO and VB like language but yes there is a learning curve. If anything, it's more akin to VB rather than Access. The personal licence is relatively cheap, but then you'll see all the options available at their site.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

If you don't want access, you can build your own in any high-level language. It's much harder, as Access comes with a great set of development tools, and there are no problems with data binding. Access is well worth the relatively modest cost of the product, but yes, it does mean distributing an access database needs the end-user to have installed access.

I don't think debugging access is difficult at all, and binding an access data table is far easy than trying to do the same thing in VB, for instance.

 

[Lightwave]

If you are just staying with desktop environment there is little point in re-development the best of the rest is only as good as MS Access in my opinion.

The next step would probably be to go to the web - that way you get round the issue with Mac / Windows dual development. And when selling to clients it is a real bonus to indicate that you simply don't need to install anything on their computers.

I would recommend you look at .

http://www.hkvstore.com/aspnetmaker/

or

www.nubuilder.com

Note master details forms in these code generators will come as a disappointment compared to MS Access and you are likely to have a lot less information on screen at any point in time. They both use responsive design and bootstrap framework which requires a completely different mindset when designing forms. These are the best of the generators that I have managed to find. There cost is reasonable as well. Either way you are going to have to completely rethink your UI in terms of UX (setting aside the challenges of learning a new environment) Typically MS Access allow fabulously complicated forms - that's simply not available on the web without shed loads of money.

 

[dailyxe]

My FE works great.

My FE works great too.