Access Xp for Developers

Ted McNealManager of IT Application Development

Mental Health Systems, Inc.and

Consultanttmcneal@mhsinc.org

Based on Office Xp Corporate Preview

The information provided is based on my experience with Microsoft Access Xp beta. It is not intended to represent Microsoft interests in any manner. As with any beta product, some features described may vary or not exist in the final retail distribution.

Still the same great Access

• Database Window

• JET 4.0 and DAO 3.6• VBA 6.0 Language and IDE• Forms and Reports Package• CHM Help System

More Productive UI Design

• With Access Xp you can navigate to form and report objects from the properties window.

• You can open a subform into a new window.

Textbox Enhancements

•New properties allow for control over margins, line spacing and orientation.LeftMargin, TopMargin, BottomMargin, and RightMargin (twips as integer)LineSpacing (twips as integer)

Vertical (boolean)

TIP: Make your code easy to read by computing twips from inches on the fly.

Me.txbMyTextBox.LeftMargin = (0.1 * 1440)

List and Combo - New Methods

• Add and Remove List Items like VB

• Bind an ADO recordset as the list source w/ recordset property. It can be a disconnected recordset!

TIP: Must set RowSourceType to Value List and Index begins at 0.

Forms - Expanded Features

• Can Fix the screen position with Moveable Property• New Events offer richer user interaction.• On Record Exit (Like a Before On Current)• On Undo• On Mouse Wheel• Many new events for Pivot Tables/Charts

• Batch updating in ADP form

• Can specify a particular printer using the printer property

Data Analysis to make you a star

• Forms can become Pivot Table or Pivot Charts• Pivot Table or Charts can be subforms for added

flexibility

Access Reports - Even More Power

• Support for OpenArgs and Modal Behavior!!!• Printer Object allow you to easily redirect jobs• New Recordset Propery allows reports to be

bound to an ADO recordset.

Application Object to the rescue

• Compact/Repair databases without using DAO using the CompactRepair Method. Can optionally create a log of bad pages.

• Import and export XML documents with unprecedented ease.

• Programmatically change the Default Workgroup File

• Launch the Windows File Dialog with one method call!• Printer collection allows you to interrogate and alter workstation printers.

Additional Perks for Developers

• ADPs offer support for new features of SQL Server 2000 including user defined functions.

• Copy the database file and force all users out using Docmd.CopyDatabaseFile

• One method can install a SQL Server database on another server. I definite perk for ADP developers who are not DBA types.

• File format is compatible with Access 2000. Yet, you can create a database/project in a new Access 2002 format.

My suggestions for future projects

• Start learning and implementing projects using SQL Server. Jet is a dying product. Don’t let your career die with it.

• Learn how to compose complicated SQL statements. This includes learning t-SQL for SQL Server.

• Keep your projects simple, consise and follow a standard.

• Learn VBA if you don’t already know it and learn it better if you already do. VBA will make your development efforts much easier and flexible.

Summary

• Access Xp offers additional events and methods for developers to offer a richer user experience.

• Access Xp and its predecessors offer a premier development environment for database applications. • Access is by far the best environment for super RAD database application development. Access Xp only makes the best development tool even better.

• Pivot Table and Charts allow you do deliver advanced data anaylsis services to users with unparalleled ease.

Visit the Microsoft Office Development Center for more information.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/office

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