Professional Database Developers

[Banana]

When you prototype with Access, do you migrate data over to ORACLE or just start a new database based on successful prototype?

 

[WindSailor]

Do IT professionals and database developers use Access and VBA to make their databases or do they only use knowledge of SQL and Server 2000 etc?

You know… I am going with the point of I think Access is actually more functional with IT or IR departments than database developers (except for prototyping).

 

[The_Doc_Man]

When you prototype with Access, do you migrate data over to ORACLE or just start a new database based on successful prototype?

In our case, ORACLE requires import/export operations through text files, for which use the old standby "comma delimited" format. But that's just the version of ORACLE and the mind-set of the DBAs who are running it. It could at least in theory go either way.

 

[Len Boorman]

Doc Man

I think you summed the situation very well indeed.

Lots of people "Think" they are Developers. I believe I am a Developer because of my knowledge of the theory, SQL,VBA Security etc but I am also aware that there is still more to learn.

As a Problem Solver I use my knowledge to provide Solutions to the best of my knowledge but there is still a great deal to learn

len

 

[Banana]

My applications are all designed to work with a client/server back end even if the BE is Jet. That way 99.99% of the time, nothing has to change to convert to a different back end server.

A very sensible thing to do.

I'd like to know if anyone knows of a good link enumerating what needs to be done to ensure compatibility for moving from desktop database to server/client DBMS? All I know is that generally Jet/Access does early binding which may not always fly with SQL's late binding and am sure there is more to the big picture.

 

[mvester]

Currently. I am using Access to extract data from a large Oracle database. Some of the queries take days to run. I run the big ones after hours and the results are collected in an Access table. The data is then passed along to my users where they will further analyze it with Excel and/or SPSS.

In the past, I have used Access for small multi-user applications. Between 3 and 6 users. Works very well and it is quick to set something up.

My favorite Access use is desgning and prototyping databases. It lets you play around and you get a pretty good tool to setup and display relationships. I have built MySQL and PostgreSQL databases after designing them on Access. It saves an awful lot of SQL coding. And I print out the relationship diagram and use that as a roadmap. I have yet to see a better tool for doing this kind of work.

 

[mvester]

If the queries are taking days to run, you might consider determining why. I've run queries that retrieve millions of rows from a server and they take minutes to run.

It takes so long to run because I am doing a group by on an un-indexed column. Nothing I can do about it. The design of the database is out of my hands. I have tried extracting the rows from the table with the un-indexed column and doing the group by locally. It still takes a very long time.

I am evaluating a new ODBC driver but in evaluation form, it does not allow pass through queries. When I have finished with the evaluation, I will try pass throughs and see if that works any better.