Access v/s VB

[Guest]

Hi !
I have to develop an application.
Users : 10
Geographical Distribution of Users : 4 US cities in 4 US State
We launch the applications via the Novel Application Launcher ( NAL) window present when the users log in the domain a NAL window comes up

Option 1
Develop MS Access Application ( Front End and Backend both

Option 2
VB 6 FrontEnd and Sybase Backen

Option 3
MS Access Frontend and Sybase Backen

Applicaiton Details
1. Will import 3 to 4 flat files to the Backend Databas
2. Not too much processing of the Files will be ther
3. Reporting is the main concern. Excel Reports Tabular Data(Transactions Detail coming from falt files being imported) / Excel Graphs are primarily concern
4. The applicaiton will be not be used round the clock. It will be heavily loaded during the month end say days 28th - 2nd of next month...for creation of reports etc

Can you suggest the suitable Options from above which will help us develop the applicaiton QUICK and the applicaiton would not suffer from Performance

The connectivty between cities are not a concern the connections can be assumed to be quick

Thanks

 

[Guest]

I missed out some points :

1. While replying it would be appreciated if you can substantiate your statements via trusted websites/developers statement

We can use another option
MS Access backend also...with VB FrontEn

The thing is that when we launch the applicaiton / for editing transaction details entered from falt files it should not take time...

 

[Douglas J. Steele]

Development of a database front end in Access will almost always be
significantly faster than in VB.

You shouldn't even consider an Access back end with the parameters you're
describing (primarily the fact that you'd need to communicate over the WAN).

In other words, my recommendation would be option 3 (although I'd suggest
SQL Server rather than Sybase <g>)

--
Doug Steele, Microsoft Access MVP

(No private e-mails, please)

Hi !!
I have to develop an application.
Users : 100
Geographical Distribution of Users : 4 US cities in 4 US States
We launch the applications via the Novel Application Launcher ( NAL)

window present when the users log in the domain a NAL window comes up.

Option 1:
Develop MS Access Application ( Front End and Backend both )

Option 2:
VB 6 FrontEnd and Sybase Backend

Option 3:
MS Access Frontend and Sybase Backend

Applicaiton Details :
1. Will import 3 to 4 flat files to the Backend Database
2. Not too much processing of the Files will be there
3. Reporting is the main concern. Excel Reports Tabular Data(Transactions

Detail coming from falt files being imported) / Excel Graphs are primarily
concern.

4. The applicaiton will be not be used round the clock. It will be heavily

loaded during the month end say days 28th - 2nd of next month...for creation
of reports etc.

Can you suggest the suitable Options from above which will help us develop

the applicaiton QUICK and the applicaiton would not suffer from Performance.

 

[Rick Brandt]

Hi Doug
Can you tell me the reason why is the MsAccess frontend[.mdb] faster that Vb frontend[.exe] ?
Can you reference any technical whitepaper etc saying the same..

He didn't say that an Access front end would be faster. He said
*developement* of an Access front end would be faster (see quote below).
Access provides lots of built in data-related functionality that has to be
provided by the developer when using VB.

 

[Larry Linson]

Can you tell me the reason why is
the MsAccess frontend[.mdb] faster
that Vb frontend[.exe] ?

"Faster"? According to everyone I've talked to who's familiar with
developing client applications with both Access and VB, on a "normal
business database" development, you can expect to spend 3 - 5 times as much
time and effort doing it in VB as doing it in Access.

The reason is that Access is a database product, with a far, far richer
event model for "data events". VB, on the other had, is a great general
application generator that can "do database" but lacks database events. For
example, two of the most useful events in Access are the "BeforeUpdate" and
"AfterUpdate" events, which VB does not have. Access works very well with
bound Forms and Controls (which is far easier than reimplementing navigation
and update functions in code), but VB does not work all that well with
Controls bound to a Data Control.

In the typical business database application, the limiting factors are user
input and database access, both of which are almost identical in performance
in Access and VB. If you had _heavy_ calculations, you might gain by using
VB compiled code; then again, you might gain even more by using a C++ .DLL
called from the Access application.

Can you reference any technical
whitepaper etc saying the same..

I believe you'll find a presentation on the subject that I did for my user
group on choosing a client for a server database. That's not a technical
whitepaper, but some have found it useful. You'll also find many posts on
the subject if you search in the comp.databases.ms-access archives at
http://groups.google.com.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP