Re: How does Access 97 rate as a front end?

I think you're getting the idea by now that Access is not considered a good front end for Oracle. <g>

I've now worked with three systems that were initially developed in Access (2 and 97) and were subsequently migrated to an Oracle (v7) back-end while retaining the front end. None worked well. Main culprits have already been identified by others:

1. Access does not retrieve data efficiently.

This can be mitigated by either pass-through queries (basically passing native Oracle SQL through Access) or by using Visual Basic directly. However, both these mitigating approaches involve a fair degree of re-development, in which case you might as well go a little further, In fact, pass through queries seem pretty pointless (apart, perhaps, for specific queries for performance) since Access does *no* validation.

b) ODBC is a bottleneck. (I have seen it quantified as a 4% degredation).

The main point I would add is that (apart from the suitability of Access for large-scale activity), using *any* core software should be introduced at a point where design can play to its strengths (and avoid its weaknesses): the problem with the systems I've worked on is that the solution was crippled by approaches that might have been suitable for Access but disastrous for Oracle. Hence ...

c) Lack of Oracle skills

There seemed to be an assumption you can just port concepts as well as code. In one case, one Access type (incremental integer?) was interpreted as rowids and, as a result, rowids were scattered throughout the database. Ask *any* Oracle DBA (or developer) what he thinks of this approach and the air is likely to be blue! Two failed to grasp the point of Foreign Key constraints.

I would agree with the comments that you would be better to redevelop unless the need is specific, immediate and short term (and you can live with poor performance). I would suggest that you *don't* use PowerBuilder: it is a good enough tool but is aimed at multi-platform developements and brings no benefit over Developer 2000 (or v6). If you only have VB skills and use it carefully, *maybe* this will give what you need.

This is all IMHO.

Len

>My question is:
>
>How does Access 97 rate as a front end?
>
>My manager and I are exploring options regarding how we'll deal with an Oracle
>8 database. We're looking to purchase and install the server in Q1 or Q2.
>Everybody here has Access 97. Oracle says it supports ODBC. Are there any
>pitfalls or headaches involved in querying an Oracle DB with Access?
>
>Any ideas or suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Thank you.
>
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Received on Tue Dec 22 1998 - 00:00:00 CET