Real World Access (41)

One of a series of articles about where Microsoft Office Access applications have found a real-world niche.

 Roger Carlson's Training Registration

Several years ago, Spectrum Health, the largest hospital system in out-state Michigan, changed its Hospital Information Management system.

Since they employ over 12,000 people, scheduling the training for those employees in the dozen or so modules the HIM offered was a challenge.  They needed an application to schedule people, courses, and classrooms; and they needed it quickly.

Each course had multiple sessions, each of which could be scheduled in one of many classrooms.  Each course could have only one teacher, but multiple teaching assistants assigned to it.  Naturally, each course could also have multiple students assigned to it, up to a maximum, which varied based on the classroom to which it was assigned.

The application had to be able to:

• create courses and sessions;
• assign sessions to classrooms;
• assign teachers, assistants, and students to each session.

It had to keep track of:

• the seats assigned;
• the maximum seating;
• who had attended the course;
• who had completed the course;
• create session rosters;
• create certificates of completion.

With Access, I created the database application in under a week's time, and it worked so well, they ended using it for several more projects.  All they had to do was copy it, wipe the data, and start over.  It was generic enough to be used for most any training initiative.

You can see a working copy here.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft+Access,Microsoft+MVP,software+development

SharePoint Book Recommendation

Ishai Sagi’s new book

SharePoint MVP Ishai Sagi has recently published a brand new book about SharePoint 2007.

In a word – masterful.  Congratulations, Ishai, on a great contribution!

The author is careful to point out that the book is not targeted to the technical end of the spectrum – the professional SharePoint developers and administrators.

Perfect! There are lots of books, and other resources, that make the assumption that you already know stuff, and jump right in to the intermediate or advanced level.

No, this is for the user.  Well, in a sense, the author misses slightly here. He forgot to mention those who don’t necessarily work directly with SharePoint, but work with technologies that can integrate closely with SharePoint.  Like (ahem) Access developers, for example.

So really, it’s for people who need a good, solid, overview understanding of SharePoint. Terminology, concepts, functionality.  In my experience, there was a big gap for this type of book, and Ishai has filled it superbly.

Here’s the first sentence in Chapter 1:

SharePoint is a platform that allows users to build websites.

That’s what I like… start at the beginning, and move on up from there.

Not that it’s all on the basic level. By the time we get to page 341 we’ve covered some pretty meaty topics.

I have learned heaps from this book, and will continue to do so as I explore it more thoroughly. Just what I needed for my present stage of SharePoint knowledge and skill.

I have no criticisms at all. It is nicely written, in a very readable style. Very well organised. Excellently illustrated. Highly recommended.

Technorati Tags: SharePoint,Microsoft+MVP,Ishai+Sagi,book+review

Doing the Access Stretch

Pleasing Some of the People Some of the Time

I have heard it said that the best thing about Microsoft Access is that it's part of Microsoft Office, and the worst thing about Access is that it's part of Office.

For one thing, if it wasn't part of Office, it's doubtful it would have survived like it has.  On the other hand, it is clearly in a completely different league compared with the other Office products.  Most people find it a pretty steep learning curve, and it takes a lot of hard work to achieve proficiency.

In the sense that it is used to “develop” database applications, it is clearly a developer program.

Here's another thing that is a best/worst thing about Access.  It provides the ability for beginners to make effective simple applications, as well as providing a very powerful set of tools for professional developers to build complex applications.  It simplifies the ability to connect to a wide range of data sources.  It provides for a wide range of different application types - desktop / multi-user / hybrid desktop-web / client-server.

There is not a product on the planet that does now, nor ever has, come even close to catering to the needs of such a diverse range of IT workers and such a wide range of application scenarios. And guess what, I reckon this trend is going to become even more so, as Access continues to move forward and keep pace with the wider IT industry.

Is this an advantage?  Yes.  Is it a disadvantage?  Yes.

This is a topic that is close to my heart.  Unlike many professional freelance programmers, I do not have a deep IT background. I came to databases from an entirely different background.  If it wasn't for the fact that Access provides something for the newbie, I would never have got into it.  It was still a steep learning curve, but it was manageable.

I have been full-time Access developer for about 12 years, part-time for a few more years before that.  Know what I'm saying?  I love my work, and I owe my career to being able to do something with Access without knowing what I was doing.

This type of story is not uncommon in the Access world in general.

Now, that's the trouble... The fact that anyone can have a go, and think they're doing cool stuff, but in reality making a mess, because Access is in Office like Word and Excel and some people therefore assume it is as easy to use - that's the root of the stuff you sometimes hear about Access being regarded as "just a toy".

In many situations, it is a constant battle for Access developers to maintain their dignity and get taken seriously.  And for Access to be seen as an appropriate/best tool for jobs, which it really is but the reputation is tarnished. That's the reason I built this webpage, to try and demonstrate that Access does some serious stuff.

But of course, for a computer programme to continue at the cutting edge, it has to change.

With Access 2007, Microsoft made a huge investment. I thank the Access team at Microsoft, for their willingness to take the hard and unpopular decisions in order to keep Access current with the IT industry, create a product that is unique in its scope of functionality, and provide Access with a future.

I see Access 2007 as the first tentative steps in a major movement
towards Access 2010 and beyond, and sometimes tentative steps only make sense in retrospect.

It looks to me that Access is just reaching adolesence.  As such, I anticipate that in 10 years, my work will still be centred around Access development.

What a stroke of luck that some of us hitched our wagon to the Access horse, and not one of those other technologies that are slowly fading into oblivion.

We are expecting the Technical Preview (Beta) of Office 2010 sometime soon, and my bet is on an increase in the number of people who will recognise that Microsoft is getting it right.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft+Access,software+development

Sweet as cherry pie

Bing causing a sensation

People are noticing.

Bing has sort of sneaked out of the closet while nobody was watching.  And we find that it has grown up since we last checked.

Somehow, you get a sense that Microsoft are getting it right this time.

We have an internet  search engine that has come a long way.  I mean a real long way. I am not the only one who is finding it good enough for most normal search purposes.

Plus a couple of very nice features that really set it apart from its competitors – a list of “Related Searches”, and a very nicely done site preview on the search results page.

The Images search also shows some great improvements over the Windows Live Search caterpillar from which this butterfly grew.  Again, they have managed to come up with some real points of difference – category options, and very effective ‘similar image’ sub-search.

As a home page, Bing is very attractive.  Simple and elegant and uncluttered.  But putting that daily picture on there, always a superb and powerful image, is a stroke of pure genius. I have talked to a number of people for whom this has been a significant factor in them choosing Bing.

Maps Search is also looking extremely nice, and seriously rivals anything else out there.

Actually, I can’t think of anything negative to say.  Well, apart from the fact that it looks like it will eventually be swamped with advertising – but I guess that is sadly inevitable in this day and age.

Anyway, I am really liking Bing, and wow! I think this is going to make a real impact.  I wonder when we will start seeing people using “Bing” as a verb, in the same way that the word “google” is used now.

And then, after all that, I found out today that those of us outside North America, are again the poor cousins. The North American version has even more very cool features that we don’t have (but presumably we will eventually).  For example, being able to scroll back to previous days’ default Bing picture.  And having a bunch more options available right on the front page.

I really think that Microsoft dishing up a product of this type that is quite as good as it is, has taken a lot of people by surprise.  But I have heard that significant numbers of people are already declaring themselves as Bing fans.

Technorati Tags: Bing,internet+search,Microsoft