Best Access third party tools

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Can anyone comment on what are the best third party tools available for Access

I'm building a rather complicated (for a newby) Access app that manages financial information on ships. It'll be deployed on a dozen vessels with the data being replicated over satellite to a central office DB--about 5000 records per month per ship. The ship DBs will need to be upgraded remotely as new features become available. Any comments on how to tackle this? Access was handed to me as the tool to use, but I'm not sure it scales to do this kind of job efficiently. I'd love to have some feedback from the experts in this group before I get underway on this project.
 
For a project of this magnitude, I don't think Access is the tool. It may
be okay for the database on the ship where the info is archived or deleted
after each verified download and then stored on a bigger more powerful
database for permanent storage. I would not use Access as the permanent
storage. I would use SQL Server or Oracle. Yes, these are more expensive in
the beginning, but over time pay for themselves. Access can import/export in
many formats to enable downloading/uploading to either SQL Server or Oracle.


Gavin said:
Can anyone comment on what are the best third party tools available for Access?

I'm building a rather complicated (for a newby) Access app that manages
Click to expand...
financial information on ships. It'll be deployed on a dozen vessels with
the data being replicated over satellite to a central office DB--about 5000
records per month per ship. The ship DBs will need to be upgraded remotely
as new features become available. Any comments on how to tackle this?
Access was handed to me as the tool to use, but I'm not sure it scales to do
this kind of job efficiently. I'd love to have some feedback from the
experts in this group before I get underway on this project.
 
The # of records is no big deal, but the fact that you'd be trying to
replicate over a satellite WAN (meaning huge latency and potential weather
interruptions probably rules out Access as your tool. Access does not
handle network lags or interruptions very well -- they are probably the #1
cause for database corruption (though more commonly because of a user
abruptly killing Access or the Windows session). You might also find users
continually locked out due to locking issues caused by both the latency and
the slow

As GVaught suggested, I would be more inclined to go with an RDBMS such as
SQL Server or Oracle that has stored procedures, better transaction
handling, backup, and recovery. You could still use Access for the front
end if you want, but you'd probably want to use unbound forms and ADO for
all data access and manipulation to avoid. You might also consider a web
interface (ASP, PHP, JSP, etc.). Given the latency, you're going to be
working semi-asynchronously anyway.

Regardless of what backend or frontend you use, make sure you're only
passing the data necessary because of the WAN (always a good idea anyway, of
course).

This is really a multiuser or replication question rather than a forms
issue. Tony Toews and Larry Linson are gurus on the multiuser group -- they
might have suggestions on how to make it work in Access. Tony has a great
Access front end updater on his website
(http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/autofe.htm.


Gavin said:
Can anyone comment on what are the best third party tools available for Access?

I'm building a rather complicated (for a newby) Access app that manages
Click to expand...
financial information on ships. It'll be deployed on a dozen vessels with
the data being replicated over satellite to a central office DB--about 5000
records per month per ship. The ship DBs will need to be upgraded remotely
as new features become available. Any comments on how to tackle this?
Access was handed to me as the tool to use, but I'm not sure it scales to do
this kind of job efficiently. I'd love to have some feedback from the
experts in this group before I get underway on this project.
 
Hi Garvin,

first of all, you should take a database, that'll be able to handle
the data still in a few months. I think the MS-SQL-Server-2000 would
be the best choice (cause of performance and price).

Next, you'll need a web-based frontend (e.g. 'dynasight').

Regards
Thomas

ANTARES Informations-Systeme GmbH
http://www.antares-is.de

the board for dynasight-developers:
http://www.dynasight.net
 
Hi Gavin,

Based on my knowledge, Access is strong enough to provide front end and
back end. You could design tables and then we use Visual Basic Environment
make codes. Access is enough and I don't know about other development third
party tools.

For your development issue, it's obviously SQL Server is more strong than
Access in synchronization and recovery. However, if your budget is limit,
Access will be the best choice :)

Thank you for your patience and cooperation. If you have any questions or
concerns, don't hesitate to let me know. We are here to be of assistance!

Sincerely yours,

Michael Cheng
Microsoft Online Support
***********************************************************
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.
Please reply to newsgroups only, many thanks.
 
Hi Gavin,

I wanted to post a quick note to see if you would like additional
assistance or information regarding this particular issue. We appreciate
your patience and look forward to hearing from you!

Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

Sincerely yours,

Michael Cheng
Microsoft Online Support
***********************************************************
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.
Please reply to newsgroups only, many thanks.
 
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