What is access good for?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Meilu
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Meilu

I am just wondering what access is good for?

I've been offered a chance to design a database for a
(small to mid-sized) company that plans to run the
database from Access.

But recently I heard that Access' security measures
aren't very good. So if I created a database for a
company and allowed the customers to log in online to
place orders and check on orders.... doesn't that mean
that the company is vulnerable to hacking?

I also heard that Access is a relatively simple database
system. Not very suitable for mid-sized companies. Nor
complex databses that track HR , Orders, Inventories and
etc.

So what type of companies, and what type of work is
access good for?

I think Access seems like a very good program ... but I
wonder if it's the tool for the job?

Any input would be GREAT!
-Meilu
 
I would not use it for allowing users to login online and place orders /
check orders. But for most other things it is a lot more useful than it may
first seem, I work for a very large company and while its not the primary
database it is used for producing a lot of data.

Really it all comes down to what you actually want your database to do.
 
I don't think it is the best tool for what you want to do, but it is a
great tool for many business uses. The security features work very well,
but it is not designed as an on-line database, although I understand it can
do some functioning in that area.
 
I would say whoever you are talking to is wrong.

ms-access is not a database system, but only a tool that connects to your
favourite database.

There are companies out there that have ms-access applications with 1000
users at the same time.

As for security, if you use the included MSDE engine, it is the same as sql
server.

The developer version of office xp is recommend, here are some features of
the product:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/developer/suite/fastfacts.asp

However, your question about people logon on "on-line" is confusing, since
ms-access is not a web based system. And, in fact, ms-access is not even a
database. It is a product that lets you create forms and reports. Those
forms and reports can CONNECT to a database system..

In fact, sql server, or Oracle, Sybase and MySql are just database systems,
and these systems do not create web sites, or allow people via the web to
"log on". In fact those systems don't even come with the ability to make a
form for data entry. However, that IS WHAT ms-access does! So, ms-access is
a tool that creates forms and reports and allows you to connect to a
database system (the database system is simply a system that stores data).

However, those forms and reprots you create in ms-access is not for the web,
but for windows.

For any web stuff, you need a web server, and again that is not what
ms-access is!.

Of course the application you build on the web server can get data from the
database, but the database is not the application.

So, in general, databases do not include the tools to create web sites. And,
ms-access is not a web creating program.

Ms-access is a development tool just like VB or c++. You don't use VB to
create web sites, nor c++ or ms-access. Ms-access is a just tool that lets
you build reports, forms etc.

The default database engine with ms-access is called JET. However, you can
also use the MSDE engine on the office cd also (so, you have two choices as
to what the database engine is going to be). You can generally use ms-access
to connect to any ODBC able database system.
 
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