mysql and access

[brendan-j2ZBMMpYpO5eoWH0uzbU5w at public.gmane.org (Brendan Kidwell)]

On Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 6:04 PM, Theodore Ruegsegger <gruntly-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>wrote:

> It would never have occurred to me to set up a MySQL (or PostgreSQL)
> backend yet still retain Access as the front-end, but no doubt you
> have your reasons.
>

I've done some Access work, years ago using only the MS Jet database engine
(Access) in production, but I've fooled around with Access a little as a
front-end to SQLServer, and I don't see why any backend with an ODBC driver
would work as a drop-in replacement for SQLServer -- as long as you are
careful about any SQL code in your application and the language differences
from one platform to the next.

For a desktop-oriented rapid-development form builder, my money is on Access
2000 through 2010, despite all its warts. I'm still waiting and hoping for
LibreOffice or Kexi to catch up with Access' versatility. Perhaps I'm behind
the times though; I haven't played with the latter two lately.

The biggest drawback for Access in this scenario is the difficulty of
setting up individual instances of your application. Creating an automated
installer is a pain, but writing up an installation script in ENGLISH (setup
ODBC resource, link tables correctly, install any COM or other dependencies,
etc.) and having a techie repeat it several times for a handful of target
users is doable.

Also keep in mind that you're probably going to end up giving all your
clients FULL access to the database. Databases with web front-ends tend to
cut that power away from end users and isolate them via middleware (the app
itself running on remote machine); RAD desktop form toolkits tend to have no
"middleware" but if you need to you can at least dish out different database
logins to end users with different levels of authorization.

I'll follow this thread and try to help if I can.

Brendan Kidwell