Data Access Technologies Road Map

[Steve R.]

A person from our IT staff just forward this to me.

Data Access Technologies Road Map

There is no 64-bit version of the Jet Database Engine, the Jet OLEDB Driver, the Jet ODBC Drivers, or Jet DAO available. This is also documented in KB article 957570. On 64-bit versions of Windows, 32-bit Jet runs under the Windows WOW64 subsystem.

Data Access Objects (DAO): DAO provides access to JET (Access) databases. This API can be used from Microsoft Visual Basic, Microsoft Visual C++, and scripting languages. It was included with Microsoft Office 2000 and Office XP. DAO 3.6 is the final version of this technology. It will not be available on the 64-bit Windows operating system. (Emphasis Added)

The article has a December 2009 release date, so I don't know if it represents current thinking on the part of Microsoft.

Would this imply that Access is to join the ranks of the "deprecated"? So what is Microsoft thinking of in terms of a front-end for SQL server OR desktop (small business/personal) database solutions?

 

[pono1]

MS sells ASP.NET and ADO.NET for SQL Server (and Oracle) front-ends.

Access will probably survive whatever the DB driver because big-IT groups still move too slow or are simply too costly to satisfy all business needs. The nice thing about Access is you can build an app from nuts to bolts with little to no code and little to no knowledge of the underlying DB connection--and little to no interaction with the technocrats...

Regards,
Tim

 

[Banana]

Only if I get a nickel for every time this dead horse rears its ugly head....

Simply put - the article is discussing Jet as a Windows component. So yes, it's deprecated as a Windows components.

BUT!

Since 2007, Access team has taken over ownership of Jet and thus "privatized" it (forked it?), called it ACE while continuing to use DAO library. So, in Access perspective, DAO is not going away, and in fact there are 64-bit drivers for ACE engine which also can work with older Jet file formats.

I hope that helps.

 

[Steve R.]

Thanks for the feedback. As a follow-up to what Pono1 wrote, Access offers the opportunity for "small" projects like the ones I work on that the IT people would not be normally interested in. Now, as Banana notes, that the Access team has taken "ownership" maybe there is hope for the future upgrades, especially to a 64-bit version.

 

[Banana]

Steve -

Are you aware that 64-bit already has happened? There's a 64-bit Access 2010 available....

 

[Steve R.]

Steve - Are you aware that 64-bit already has happened? There's a 64-bit Access 2010 available....

No. I had assumed that if DAO and Jet were 32-bit that Access was 32 bit also. Good thing a "driver's license" is not required to program with Access.

 

[Banana]

Well, now you know.

Yes, they've already upgraded the engine & DAO to function in 64-bit. In fact, I'm running 64-bit Access on one of my VM, and it's nice, but not something I'd recommend for normal production use just yet - there are issues with activex control compatibility, adapting API declarations along other issues so for good reasons, Microsoft has made it default that Office will install 32-bit. You have to go out of your way to actually install 64-bit and even then should have very very good reason for doing so.

 

[Steve R.]

Thanks. Slowly we learn.