Hating ACC2007

[Malcy]

I am having to start using ACC2007 since it is getting harder to buy ACC2003 for new clients so I thought I had best explore using the 2007 format. Wish I hadn't! There have to be some benefits somewhere down the line surely - please ...
Anyway I cannot see merit in macros since most of my stuff has to use VBA. All I get given is the Private line and the end sub line but OK I will give myself arthritis with all the extra code writing and then sue MS for squillions (as if).

After a lot of faffing around I found that there was no default reference to the ActiveX Data objects 2.1 Library! Having checked that I am finding myself on vaguely more familiar ground.
Does this mean that having got us all off DAO onto ADO they now want us to go back to DAO for ACC2007?
If so I will need to wire myself up to mains for some electric shock therapy and go back five years.

Or am I being unduly pessimistic?

Malcy

 

[Moniker]

Overly pessimistic...

It's in the references list. I just opened a blank Access 2007 file, went to references, and saw these:

Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.0 Library
Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.1 Library
Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.5 Library
Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.6 Library
Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.7 Library
Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.8 Library
Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 6.0 Library

Nothing is checked by default, but how hard is it to set a reference?

 

[Malcy]

OK Sorry I have misrepresented. The references were there but they were not checked by default. The DAO references were checked by default - or at least I didn't check them!
That is what made me think they are expecting DAO rather than ADO to be used.

 

[aceto]

That is exactly what they are suggesting if you are working with an .mdb
or .accdb backend and not a true server backend. That is also what they
recommend if you are using a server backend via linked tables.

That does not mean that you can not still use ADO. Just keep in mind
that ADO is never going to be updated or improved. They are done
with it. On the other hand there have been some additions made to
DAO in 2007.

 

[Steve R.]

Interesting. MS developed ADO to replace DAO, but now abandons ADO in favor of DAO!

I have Access 2000. Due to the lack of Access 2000 books, I bought an Access 2002 book that includes a couple of chapters on ADO but negelects DAO. I guess you can't win.

PS: I have another book that does devote some space to DAO.

 

[Pat Hartman]

The default reference went back to DAO with A2003. The push to ADO with A2K was because they seemed to have the idea that MSDE would replace Jet. Since that failed, having ADO be the default library caused nothing but trouble since MS never changed the internals of Access from DAO to ADO so form/report recordsets for example were DAO objects.

A2007 will grow on you. It does have some good improvements in the area of reports. Controls in reports now support events so you can use them to drill down to more details or open forms. This is very powerful. There are also improvements in form/report layout tools. I haven't totally got control of these yet but in some cases, you can use this "middle" type of view called layout which allows you to adjust formatting while actually viewing data.

I have to admit, the Ribbons are a bit of a problem but mainly (for me anyway) because they don't always have the controls I need (as promised). It is possible to make your own custom ribbons but I haven't had time to play with that yet.