Is Access really capable?

[prabha_friend]

To completely automate an Insitute of Science and Technology.

Hi All,
Good Evening. I recently joined an Institute of Science, Research and Technology. I have exhibited some of my skills. They all are very impressed and Having plans to completely automate their process. Is Ms-Access really capable of that. Please confirm. Thanks.

With Hope,
Prabhakaran

 

[GPGeorge]

Can you please be a bit more specific? What "process" do you intend to automate?

Seriously, that question is too generic to be answered, even in general terms.

 

[prabha_friend]

From admission to graduation. And all between that..

 

[GPGeorge]

From admission to graduation. And all between that..

One small step. "All between that" is still a pretty big plot of ground to cross.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Automating a process is an open-ended concept because you have to specify the process in question first. Access might be able to automate some formal documentation or registration steps. However, if you meant "automate a remote-controlled or otherwise robotic device" then the question will depend on the available interfaces and the speed required.

At least in theory, any language can do almost anything any other language can do, though there are SOME limits to that statement. But what is not covered by the statement includes the speed, efficiency, and flexibility involved. In other words, given good interfaces, Access can probably do some really nifty things with HVAC and lighting controls, door locking and unlocking, etc. - but if you are going to automate a patrol robot, don't give it a gun.

 

[prabha_friend]

They are asking for a 'Portal' kind of thing, where everyone can login and do stuffs like research proforma, apply leaves and also their day-to-day activities like from attendance (Biometric Data) to authorising the same leave application.

I just told them to 'Let their imagination fly' and not to worry about the practical difficulty.

 

[prabha_friend]

worth making in Access?

 

[561414]

worth making in Access?

By "Portal", it sounds like they're expecting a web experience, but you can create a hybrid solution using Access where Access would make things easier and Web where Web would make things easier.

 

[prabha_friend]

They have their very own intranet.

 

[GPGeorge]

They have their very own intranet.

We've made progress. A portal and an intranet and "... everyone can login and do stuffs like research proforma, apply leaves and also their day-to-day activities like from attendance (Biometric Data) to authorising the same leave application." In short an HR application.

The key concept is "portal". That implies a web experience of some sort. Access runs on a desktop under Windows. Those are pretty much mutually exclusive environments, although there are points of intersection, e.g. web browser controls in Access forms.

That's a different question from whether Access can handle it. The_Doc_Man pretty much covered that, from the POV of architecture and functions. The short answer is "Yes", of course.

For example, tables are going to be the same, for the most part, regardless of whether they are in a local accdb, a local instance of SQL Server Express, a hosted server database, etc.

The interface is where things diverge considerably. Do you intend to deploy this as an Access FE on the computers of all users? Or do you intend to create a browser interface for "the portal"?

 

[prabha_friend]

No Browser interface planned

 

[Pat Hartman]

No Browser interface planned

I guess you don't know what "portal" means. Portal in this case means external access by students. That is far different from a back office application used by administrators. A Portal requires a web interface and the only way you could simulate this is if everyone is on the same LAN. That means that remote people - ie students in their dorm rooms - must use Citrix in order to connect to the Access app on the LAN.

You can easily create a separate FE that provides an interface similar to a kiosk. Thie would let the student log in and let him see and interact with ONLY his personal data. The FE used by the back office staff - the administrators and teachers would have very different features and different levels of control. Admins would have very wide access, professors would be limited to the classes they teach.

I spent 30 years creating COBOL applications that cost millions of dollars and sometimes took years to implement. Every single one of those applications could be recreated in Access in a fraction of the time with no problem at all. The big limitation with Access is not the number of concurrent users or the size of the BE (those can be handled by your RDBMS) but the fact that it is too awkward to create large applications using Access if you have a short time frame because Access doesn't support multiple simultaneous development. Coordinating the changes becomes a nightmare. I've created large applications that have evolved over time. New functionality was added a little at a time over a couple of years.

 

[prabha_friend]

I guess you don't know what "portal" means. Portal in this case means external access by students. That is far different from a back office application used by administrators. A Portal requires a web interface and the only way you could simulate this is if everyone is on the same LAN. That means that remote people - ie students in their dorm rooms - must use Citrix in order to connect to the Access app on the LAN.

You can easily create a separate FE that provides an interface similar to a kiosk. Thie would let the student log in and let him see and interact with ONLY his personal data. The FE used by the back office staff - the administrators and teachers would have very different features and different levels of control. Admins would have very wide access, professors would be limited to the classes they teach.

I spent 30 years creating COBOL applications that cost millions of dollars and sometimes took years to implement. Every single one of those applications could be recreated in Access in a fraction of the time with no problem at all. The big limitation with Access is not the number of concurrent users or the size of the BE (those can be handled by your RDBMS) but the fact that it is too awkward to create large applications using Access if you have a short time frame because Access doesn't support multiple simultaneous development. Coordinating the changes becomes a nightmare. I've created large applications that have evolved over time. New functionality was added a little at a time over a couple of years.

If not Access., then what would be the right tool to achieve this?

 

[Pat Hartman]

I didn't say you couldn't do it with Access. I told you how to do it with Access. It requires Citrix or Remote Desktop to support remote access which seems to be one of the features they requested.

Did these people hire you to develop this application? If so, looks like you oversold your capabilities.

 

[prabha_friend]

I didn't say you couldn't do it with Access. I told you how to do it with Access. It requires Citrix or Remote Desktop to support remote access which seems to be one of the features they requested.

Did these people hire you to develop this application? If so, looks like you oversold your capabilities.

But I never committed. I just showcased some of my works... They just are sharing their thoughts. It is up to me to try and achieve the same. The problem is I always do

 

[prabha_friend]

See. They have a Microsoft 365 with them installed across the institute. Do you think Microsoft 365 is not equipped with the abilities to run a Mid size Enterprise like the one joined. Think Again!

 

[prabha_friend]

Microsoft 365 Dev Center | Build collaborative apps

 

[561414]

It is quite likely a better choice to do it with web frameworks. Tip: Get the job, hire someone who knows how to do as it should and keep the client. Or learn it yourself, but it's not going to be easy to start with a project of such a scale.

 

[monheimx9]

PowerApps could do the job if you're not working with big datasets
Sadly it gets exponentialy slower, and optimizing it is quite the nightmare
But if everybody has ms365 then you can work out a web based portal

 

[prabha_friend]

It is quite likely a better choice to do it with web frameworks. Tip: Get the job, hire someone who knows how to do as it should and keep the client. Or learn it yourself, but it's not going to be easy to start with a project of such a scale.

They are in no hurry and the these development works are just value added only. The more I can automate the easier their job would be... that's all. No commitments, No Timelines and No Tortures. One step at a time.