When are we going to get "modern" controls?

[GBalcom]

So, this afternoon I had a webinar, where a software development company was showing me what they were capable of. The particular application they were showing me was all cloud based, built as a full ERP system, in Silverlight.

What really blew me away was how modern and smooth all the controls were. It seemed to really improve the user experience. I saw savvy Calendars, gantt charts, Cross Tabs with edit and add buttons, etc.

Are we being left in the dust in Access?

 

[vbaInet]

You could have asked them how long it took to create just the one control All of these silverlight controls would have taken a significant amount of time to build. Access is supposed to be a RAD application.

The environments the company uses in developing such web savvy lovely looking controls are made by Microsoft, e.g. Visual Studio, and it's not exactly a RAD tool, it's used to build enterprise applications and Access is just not for that. Microsoft isn't going to give you the best of the best in a small/medium sized RAD environment.

They expect developers to upskill to .NET if they want to build such rich applications.

 

[GinaWhipp]

Access 2013 offers some formatting functions for buttons. You can also create some slick modern form layouts.

What version of Access do you have?

 

[CJ_London]

as vbaInet says - you saw that from the user perspective, not the developer perspective. However you would be surprised what you can do with Access with a bit of effort. Certainly the things you mention can all be done in Access with a bit of effort.

For me, the main restriction Access has (with regards presentation) is with image manipulation/rendering but I have routines for unlimited horizontal scrolling, wizzy scrollbars, drag and drop, forms or controls 'growing' from the bottom or right of the screen and more. You can use controls for other purposes such a images for buttons, or use a shaped, locked, disabled button behind a field rather than using the control borders property.

 

[GBalcom]

Thanks everyone,
I have access 2010 and 2013 available to me. While we're at it, does 2013 offer any additional web options? I've looked at the web databases in the past but was kind of put off, by the data structure and that you can't use VBA.

 

[GinaWhipp]

Still no VBA but you do have Data Macros which are finally *growing up*, as well as, a some new Form feature. Not sure what you mean by the *data structure* as they same Tables like Desktop Access does.

 

[CJ_London]

I've not used 2013, but I do think the access web options are much more limited than using visual studio, etc

 

[vbaInet]

There's no comparison really. VS will always be steps ahead of Access for marketing reasons. Access is doing well but trailing behind.

 

[GinaWhipp]

@CJ London,

Yes, Access is limited when stacked up against VS but not as a RAD Tool and a tool for the information worker.

 

[CJ_London]

Access is limited when stacked up against VS but not as a RAD Tool and a tool for the information worker.

Quite agree, I was just pointing out there is a lot of stuff you can do with Access to make it 'snazzy'