No Longer Set (Page 61)

Wherefore art thou, database properties?

In my previous post, I talked about adding custom properties to the database object. I covered how to do it, but did not go into any detail about why you might want to do it. Let's remedy that now.

Hidden Features

Database Properties for Thee

The DAO Database object has a Properties collection. You can read through the list of properties to extract saved database options. You can also add your own properties to the object.

Version Control

From Gibberish to Clarity

So, how can we compare those database properties? By iterating through the database's .Properties collection, of course. Here is some sample code from my modified decompose.vbs script.

Version Control

The Starting Point

Before we can use a DVCS with our Access application, we need to convert the binary Access file into a series of text files. The best place to start (and where my journey began) is with this StackOverflow answer.

Version Control

Top 10 Reasons to Use Version Control With Access

Using version control is the most impactful change you can make to improve the quality of your Microsoft Access applications. Here is a quick list of just some of the benefits you gain using version control.

Version Control

An Homage to Mercurial

I believe without a doubt--even knowing what I know now--that I made the right decision at the time. If I could go back to 2009 and do it over again, I would still go with Mercurial. If I were starting from scratch in 2020...that's a different story.

Error Handling

Error Handling Evolution

How you handle errors says a lot about you as a programmer. Most people evolve with experience in how they handle errors. From the most naïve to the most advanced, here is what that evolution looks like.

Basic

It Takes Two

Microsoft Access is both a rapid application development (RAD) environment and a file-based database system. It is actually quite capable in each area. But they are two fundamentally different functions.

Version Control

High Wire Walking With No Net

In those early days, our method of "source control" was making regular copies of the front-end database and appending a date to the filename. This was....less than ideal. The problem is best illustrated with a quick story.

Commentary

Reverence for Backwards Compatibility

A feature that was heavily used by a very small percentage of power users has been maintained over the course of five subsequent upgrades (and counting). Now that is showing reverence to backwards compatibility.

Commentary

Sympathy for the devil?

Microsoft Access is not the devil. You can use it to write great software. You can use it to write crappy software. I'm here to help you write more of the former and less of the latter.