Access Support Being Stopped?

[jimc52]

I am thinking about creating a DB using Access for a business. However, my wife mentioned to me that her company is looking at software for database work and has some Access DB's they are trying to convert because, according to a technical support person, Microsoft intends on getting rid of Access as a DB! I am posting here to ask anyone, professional or otherwise, if anyone has heard that Microsoft intends to stop supporting or implementing Access. Is Access 2003 the last version? I haven't been able to find out anything along this line. I thought, maybe Microsoft is thinking about supplanting Access with SQL Server. Before I go to the toil of building a DB system in Access, I want to know I am not wasting my time doing it. If anyone on this forum has heard a thing about Microsoft dumping Access, please let me know. Thank you.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I thought, maybe Microsoft is thinking about supplanting Access with SQL Server

- Not a chance! They are not the same product and they do not even compete. Access is a complete development environment. It comes with its own database manager which is called Jet but Access can be used as a front end to any database on the market that offers an ODBC driver. SQL server is a relational database. You cannot build an application with a relational database. You need another product. Databases ONLY store data. SQL Server stores data, DB2 stores data, MySQL stores data, Jet stores data. Access provides the forms/reports/etc. that make the application.

This confusion was caused because someone at Microsoft made an inaccurate statement that no new versions of Jet were being contemplated and people who don't understand that Access is actually separate from Jet interpreted that to mean that Access was being abandoned.

I can assure you that Access is alive and well and the version being prepared as we speak is awsome. It includes some new features that will blow your socks off. Unfortunately since Microsoft hasn't made any public anouncements with details, I can't either. I am awaiting a beta copy which is promised for next week. I went to the Microsoft Campus in March and saw version 12 demonstrated. The version of Jet that Access uses is also alive and well.

So please tell your wife to tell that technical support person to stop spreading that rumor or he will look really stupid in a few months. Please have your wife contact me via PM and I will talk to the technical people at her company and clear up this confusion.

 

[jimc52]

Pat, Thank You!

Pat:
Thank you for answering my question, much to my RELIEF! I don't have the next ten years to get a doctorate in programming to figure out Oracle or some other database software. So I really need Access to give me some help.

I do want to ask one further question. What do you think is happening with the Jet Database? Is Access going to use some other database structure than Jet? I am not a professional, just a user who wants to put Access to some good use, if I can. I don't want to waste my time if anything is going to cause such a disruption I can't port the data to some other whatever...database structure...

Does it matter whether or not Access uses Jet or some other database thing? I am not a professional programmer, so ODBC doesn't mean much to me. I am thinking of the distant past when I did some programming Visual Basic. I presume you mean, I would have to tie some programming language using VB between Access and some new database structure. Am I getting the drift or am I completely wrong or not getting it?

All I want to know is, is Access going to continue being supported AND is what I create going to need to be ported somehow to something entirely different? YOu have made clear the first part, but I am yet unsure of the second concern.

Pat, once again, thank you for your time and response. I hope you will respond and give me a clearer picture about the second concern.

Thank you

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Pat will answer in her own way, but I'll toss in an observation:

MS wants to sell you software. Access - as a package - includes Jet as a way to get started. They would like to sell you MORE software. For instance, SQL Server. And Access - with Jet - provides a really GREAT platform to get you started, to the point that just when you start getting frustrated with Jet's limitations, you become aware of SQL Server as a reasonable way to expand your abilities.

Sort of like junkies and drug dealers. First they get you hooked. THEN they drop the hammer on you.

 

[dan-cat]

I cut my teeth on access and owe alot to it. There are some who will argue on spending the money on vs.net and sql server developer instead of access. I reckon this depends on how ambitious you are. Are you interested in web design? Developing apps that connect to remote servers? Multi-user apps?

When you say 'toil' do you mean learning VBA from scratch? If so, I would seriously consider skipping straight to .net. You can still link to an access db via the .net framework and you won't have to alter your programming skills if you get ambitious later on.

Judge your client carefully. Are they going to hammer this app? Do they have a manager who is ambitious and may want to wire up a web-based interface. Have people work from home though a DSL link? Its really a combination of how ambitious you and your potential customer is.

PS: I am a .net junkie, access junkies will have equally persuasive arguments

 

[Pat Hartman]

The version of Jet that Access uses is also alive and well.

I know what the future of Jet is but I signed an NDA so I can't say any more. Microsoft will anounce their plans within the next few months. You can feel comfortable developing Access applications for many years to come.

Microsoft has made a serious commitment to provide backward compatability. It won't always be perfect but so far it has been pretty good. The only problems I have encountered when converting from one version to another have been with databases built by users or other programmers who used sloppy coding techniques. The problems have been that newer versions have gotten so they enforce rules more rigidly.

 

[R. Hicks]

How is that you know so much about this Pat ???
LOL .. <just joking>

RDH

 

[Pat Hartman]

I went to the Insiders meeting in March. I thought I would see you there.

 

[R. Hicks]

I really wish I could have made that MS meeting and met you and the other Access Insiders ...
I had a sponsor that would have paid for most of it ...
I have been, and still am, up to my neck in alligators with a large corporate project ...

.... I need a break ..

RDH