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I have a special place in my heart for Access, its where I first started making money writing software and learned SQL and VB. Its where I really felt like I wa

I have a special place in my heart for Access, its where I first started making money writing software and learned SQL and VB. Its where I really felt like I was making something that solved real world problems for people, quickly at that. It was actually amazing how far it could scale, you could put a shared MDB file out on a Novell network share and have 30 concurrent users with no server app at all, users just doubled clicked the MDB. I still think there is a killing to made on a modern day Access "Done Right". DB, Gui framework and printable report generator all in one sharing the same language front to back, top to bottom.

Clubber 7y ago
My first real paying gig was Access 97 (I'm old). They actually taught it at my university at the time in the MIS/CIS path. I built a credentialing system for a small HMO. I was able to get it to support over 100 people, including report load. I split out the database from the front end (forms/reports) and put the database files on an NT4 share. When we grew and it started to buckle under load, I created an additional read-only share and replicated the read-write database to the read-only database every so often. This allowed me to split the users' load between those that needed read/write and those that needed read only. Talk about a rapid design tool of both forms and reports (and schema), Access was tough to beat. I think Corel/WordPerfect had a similar concept as well. Good times.
- SigmundA 7y ago
  I got started using Access 2, so I'm older...
  - ourmandave 7y ago
    Learned 3NF in an Access 2 class, so I might be older... =)
    - linuxhiker 7y ago
      Dbase3 and Clipper here.
      - pgrote 7y ago
        I hear you and raise you a Progress.
        tlavoie 7y ago
        Ugh, me too! My manager was a huge fan of Progress, such that it became the de facto tool of choice whether it fit or not. I was less of a fan, but just checking now, it still exists! I'm curious about this one blurb from their web site though, which proclaims, "Progress Named a ‘Strong Performer’ in The Forrester Wave™: Low-Code Development Platforms For AD&D Professionals, Q1 2019" I'm not sure how a database applies to sitting around with dice and figurines, but I've never really understood that whole pro gamer thing.
- HenryBemis 7y ago
  I made my first system for a client 20 years ago on MS Access, and the latest one was again (they asked, I didn't say no) I created a mini-MIS for another client. Reports, forms, tables, everything MS Access. I won't be insulted if MS renamed it to "SQL for dummies". Access just works!
jjkaczor 7y ago
>you could put a shared MDB file out on a Novell network >share and have 30 concurrent users with no server app at >all, users just doubled clicked the MDB You could be describing myself. However... I beg to differ on it's scalability... There were 'issues' with the 2.0 Jet engine when accessing MDB files on network shares that would often result in 'missing data'. Lots of fun. (Lots of work up-sizing to actual SQL back-ends as well though)
- SigmundA 7y ago
  Oh I didn't say it was without problems, but it did mostly work , mostly... Once I started learning SQL server and VB5 for real client server apps I never looked back, but then you had to go find a reporting engine too.
  - encoderer 7y ago
    Crystal reports. Shudder.
    - jjkaczor 7y ago
      I hated it so bad, I eventually took it off my resume.
  - EvanAnderson 7y ago
    I've seen Access macros to generate reports, called from the command-line, as a "reporting engine". It was a rickety death-trap but it worked...
  - orionblastar 7y ago
    Crystal Reports worked great for me. Even had ActiveX and ASP versions. Only problem was Seagate Software was in Canada and CR was quite buggy. So I got docked in my paycheck for calling Canada. It is SAS now I think. Lotus Approach also did the same as Access.
truculent 7y ago
> I still think there is a killing to made on a modern day Access "Done Right". DB, Gui framework and printable report generator all in one sharing the same language front to back, top to bottom. Reminds me of Airtable, Monday, Notion or one of these all-purpose productivity tools
- MisterOctober 7y ago
  Airtable is really good for what it does : makes data-driven tools available for folks who don't want to mess with writing queries or being a DBA, and also has a reasonable API for automations. For heavy stuff, I'll take Postgres anyday given the choice, but Airtable is great for small user-maintainable tools + dashboards, etc
  - bdcravens 7y ago
    I think Airtable is great, but it’s lack of aggregate functions really restricts it.
    - MisterOctober 7y ago
      I certainly agree it's no replacement for a proper DB when full SQL functionality is needed, but it does have basic aggregates like count(), sum(), etc, available as formula fields: https://support.airtable.com/hc/en-us/articles/203255215-Formula-Field-Reference https://support.airtable.com/hc/en-us/articles/203255215-For...
      - bdcravens 7y ago
        Yes, but those formulas are scoped to the row, not the worksheet (you can't pass in a range of cells; each row essentially treats its own columns as local variables). SUM() means something completely different in Airtable than in every other spreadsheet out there. I've built out some beautiful Airtables only to find I had to switch to using Google sheets since I couldn't total up the value of a column, something I've been able to do since Lotus 123 in the 90s.
james_s_tayler 7y ago
Isn't Airtable considered like modern day Access?
- benhurmarcel 7y ago
  Except it requires your IT department to contract it, which makes it a non-starter for most "shadow IT" uses where Access excels.
  - ako 7y ago
    Access running on your pc is also there because of your IT department.
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      Access running on your PC is because it comes bundled with MS Office suite, which is installed for you to have Word, Excel, PowerPoint and perhaps Outlook available. It's a great thing Microsoft didn't make it easy to unbundle them all, otherwise lot of places with Access wouldn't have it.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    Not to mention, Access won't randomly break because Microsoft isn't likely to Move Fast and Break Things or suddenly get acquihired. And it will work over LAN even when you lose your Internet access. And, all your data - including schemas and forms you've made - is in actual file.
  - Spooky23 7y ago
    Plus, it's the normal shitty SaaS model for something that isn't enterprisey enough. So it's easy pickings for budget cuts. Access is like a cockroach. It never dies as long as some Microsoft stuff is still around. The only thing that will kill it is subscription licensing -- Microsoft eventually take it away for Azure AirTableClone.
- brisance 7y ago
  Does Airtable still require internet access? That's a non-starter for many businesses which only have intermittent internet access.
codeulike 7y ago
Salesforce, the core database/CRUD bit of it if you ignore all the stuff they've purchased and tacked-on in the last few years, is essentially 'Access in the cloud', in terms of the sorts of things you can do and the ease with which you can do it, and how far you can stretch it before it starts to get cumbersome. And yes, they are making a killing. edit: And if that sounds easy, imagine how you would go about upgrading and patching and extending your access-like cloud platform twice a year without any significant breakage of any of your customers varied and extensive customisations, and without any significant downtime, and keep that up for 20 years. Thats the thing that Salesforce are good at, and not many people appreciate how difficult it is.
- wil421 7y ago
  ServiceNow is a lot easier for admins/developers to use for workflow automation. In my opinion it’s a little easier than Salesforce but it could become bloated like Salesforce if it want already. Quickbase is another one I worked with but I was migrating workflows off of it. Quickbase was good for non IT people but not much better than Access or Excel.
  - linza 7y ago
    I was curious about ServiceNow and googled it and was excited as they offer demos. But they require registration and a lot of information about myself, so i stopped. Is it not meant for small businesses perhaps?
    - wil421 7y ago
      Try the developer site, link below. You’ll need to register but it doesn’t look too invasive. It is expensive for small businesses. The main part is an ITSM suite but I’ve built workflows for call centers and account managers. https://developer.servicenow.com/app.do#!/program/developer https://developer.servicenow.com/app.do#!/program/developer
    - akdor1154 7y ago
      As a developer who is forced to use a service now interface for interacting with any other part of my organisation it's fucking awful in terms of user interface and friction. Unsure if that is because of our workplace setup or if it's intrinsic to the platform.
alexis_fr 7y ago
Modern-day Access: Filemaker Pro was the contemporary competitor and still lives and has usergroups today; Airtables and similar (all SQL-based form managers) are the modern options.
- EvanAnderson 7y ago
  FileMaker, in my experience, attracts a certain smug developer who simply cannot believe that there are more industrial-strength database systems and that FileMaker can't solve every possible problem in the world. Access devs, at least, don't seem to have that particular quirk.
  - tbyehl 7y ago
    It's because they were all Mac users -- in the early days it was an Apple (Claris) product.
    - kn0where 7y ago
      Fun fact: it’s still owned by Apple
      - steve1977 7y ago
        Another fun fact: The company just rebranded itself to Claris again this summer.
  - campfireveteran 7y ago
    I wouldn't rag on it or Access too much because it serves/d a purpose: app and data design for less technical users who are busy doing a million other things. I supported several dozen FMP apps at Stanford Student Housing (R&DE) as it was easy for analysts to make something quickly and worked at the scale needed. Later, they used proper databases, reporting, and app-ish tools. FMP ran on a half dozen early Xserves which used goofy, consumer-grade parts inconsistently while looking Apple over-designed.
dillonmckay 7y ago
FileMaker Pro?
- philistine 7y ago
  Exactly. I didn't understand the might of FileMaker Pro until I saw university employees at my alma mater working with it.
- julianz 7y ago
  Yup. I built a networked invoice database with FileMaker Pro (2.1??) on Macs at a university in the 90's. It was still there when I went back a few years later, running on an ancient Mac server with an external hard disk duct taped to the top. It had just enough functionality that the department could keep track of how the monthly budget was going while the month went on, as the official Oracle Financials system could only tell you once it was too late. Later, I realised that it had a Y2K bug in it, but oh well.
mobjack 7y ago
Access is highly underrated. I was able to build a CRUD app with 20 concurrent users in a month just using a shared directory to host the backend database. It would have taken a team of engineers 6 months to do the same properly developing a Java web app with Oracle database. Access does have such easy WYSIWYG reporting tools that I still miss.
- specialist 7y ago
  I was never more productive than using Access. Once wrote a full budgeting, cost estimating tool. Supposedly impossible. (Access' VBA had an 'eval' function.) We lost something in the switch from "workgroup" (dBase thru Paradox) to client/server. Spoiler: ODBC broke the tight coupling of code and persistence. Spawning monstrous hacks like ORMs and ActiveRecord. What Ted Neward famously called The Vietnam of Computer Science. It took me a very long time to figure out what went wrong. Even longer to fix it. Cliff hanger, I know. Someday I'll post polish and publish that fix. Using my real name.
  - blihp 7y ago
    The thing that was lost quite frankly was most of the value that desktop productivity software used to provide before Microsoft consumed the market with Windows. It's not that client/server couldn't provide the same (or even better) value, it's that the companies left standing (think Microsoft, Oracle, IBM etc.) had no interest in providing maximum value to customers. They wanted to extract maximum value from customers. Access was created to compete with and replace those single-user and workgroup dBase-era software solutions from the 80's and early 90's. It helped them to cover the bases of the 'professional' desktop use cases as they won people over with Windows. With that mission complete and all competitors long gone, Microsoft now needs to kill off Access to get more people migrated over to SQL Server solutions which will allow them to extract more value from their customer base.
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      It's interesting to see that, given that in modern times, Microsoft is the only tech giant that can still build user-empowering software. Not Windows, that's getting dumbed down UX-side. But Office suite still includes Access and Excel, the latter being probably the single highest productivity booster in modern companies (to the chagrin of IT departments). And you're essentially saying that this is already another order of magnitude worse than what came before Microsoft. Now I wish I was able to see that older software in action.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
insaneirish 7y ago
> I still think there is a killing to made on a modern day Access "Done Right". DB, Gui framework and printable report generator all in one sharing the same language front to back, top to bottom. I don't know what the actual market [that will pay money] is for it, but I can certainly say I've never seen anything quite like it. In high school, I worked as a sysadmin/misc. programmer for a company whose whole business was software built on top of Access. I was the weird Linux person who ended up having to do a lot of stuff in Access (97). It had its issues. It was not perfect. But the simplicity with which you could bind a visual tool and query designer to an ODBC/SQL backend--I think--goes unmatched 'til this day. There are many things I cram in a spreadsheet these days that would be way more flexible if they were instead built on a quick and dirty Access DB. If there are equivalent tools out there, please, let me know.
dvdhsu 7y ago
Hi! I'm working on a project called Retool (https://retool.com https://retool.com), and it's basically Access, in the cloud. We connect to any sort of cloud database / API, and let you build UIs quickly. It's good for building forms that write back to APIs, tables that read data from databases, etc. I'd really appreciate HN's feedback on this -- if anybody has thoughts -- I'd love to hear them! I'm also david@ if you'd rather email me anything. Thanks!
- edraferi 7y ago
  Hey David - love what you’re doing with Retool. I think it’s a good solution for the front end piece of this challenge. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t Retool focus on working with existing enterprise databases and APIs? If so then I think the missing piece is a DBaaS with great guardrails. Access (and to a lesser extent, Excel) empower anyone to model their data and manipulate it without asking permission. The problem is they don’t scale well, there are no backups, they don’t show up in a data catalog anywhere, no integration with enterprise SSO, etc. They do benefit from file-focused solutions for these issues (eg the Access file lives on a network drive which is backed up) but they fall far short from what you expect from a production database. So my challenge is: how can I let anyone in my organization create a new database, with all the backup/authentication/discovery/scalability out of the box, for them to connect to Retool?
- ThrowawayR2 7y ago
  Half of the point of Access is that it's not in the cloud; it's a locally installed app that doesn't even require network access or admin rights.
  - cutler 7y ago
    Access has had a decent MySQL connector for a long time so the scalability, availability and other network factors can be a non-issue if Access is used purely as a GUI.
onefuncman 7y ago
i have no affiliation but like the product -- try https://airtable.com/ https://airtable.com/
interlocutor 7y ago
> DB, Gui framework and printable report generator all in one sharing the same language front to back, top to bottom. Printable reports is so 90's. Back then you printed reports and shared reports on paper. In meetings everyone gets a printed copy of the report. Today web is the way to share reports, and you project reports on to a big screen in meetings.

Clubber 7y ago

My first real paying gig was Access 97 (I'm old). They actually taught it at my university at the time in the MIS/CIS path. I built a credentialing system for a small HMO. I was able to get it to support over 100 people, including report load. I split out the database from the front end (forms/reports) and put the database files on an NT4 share. When we grew and it started to buckle under load, I created an additional read-only share and replicated the read-write database to the read-only database every so often. This allowed me to split the users' load between those that needed read/write and those that needed read only. Talk about a rapid design tool of both forms and reports (and schema), Access was tough to beat. I think Corel/WordPerfect had a similar concept as well. Good times.

SigmundA 7y ago
I got started using Access 2, so I'm older...
- ourmandave 7y ago
  Learned 3NF in an Access 2 class, so I might be older... =)
  - linuxhiker 7y ago
    Dbase3 and Clipper here.
    - pgrote 7y ago
      I hear you and raise you a Progress.
      - tlavoie 7y ago
        Ugh, me too! My manager was a huge fan of Progress, such that it became the de facto tool of choice whether it fit or not. I was less of a fan, but just checking now, it still exists! I'm curious about this one blurb from their web site though, which proclaims, "Progress Named a ‘Strong Performer’ in The Forrester Wave™: Low-Code Development Platforms For AD&D Professionals, Q1 2019" I'm not sure how a database applies to sitting around with dice and figurines, but I've never really understood that whole pro gamer thing.
HenryBemis 7y ago
I made my first system for a client 20 years ago on MS Access, and the latest one was again (they asked, I didn't say no) I created a mini-MIS for another client. Reports, forms, tables, everything MS Access. I won't be insulted if MS renamed it to "SQL for dummies". Access just works!

jjkaczor 7y ago

>you could put a shared MDB file out on a Novell network >share and have 30 concurrent users with no server app at >all, users just doubled clicked the MDB You could be describing myself. However... I beg to differ on it's scalability... There were 'issues' with the 2.0 Jet engine when accessing MDB files on network shares that would often result in 'missing data'. Lots of fun. (Lots of work up-sizing to actual SQL back-ends as well though)

SigmundA 7y ago
Oh I didn't say it was without problems, but it did mostly work , mostly... Once I started learning SQL server and VB5 for real client server apps I never looked back, but then you had to go find a reporting engine too.
- encoderer 7y ago
  Crystal reports. Shudder.
  - jjkaczor 7y ago
    I hated it so bad, I eventually took it off my resume.
- EvanAnderson 7y ago
  I've seen Access macros to generate reports, called from the command-line, as a "reporting engine". It was a rickety death-trap but it worked...
- orionblastar 7y ago
  Crystal Reports worked great for me. Even had ActiveX and ASP versions. Only problem was Seagate Software was in Canada and CR was quite buggy. So I got docked in my paycheck for calling Canada. It is SAS now I think. Lotus Approach also did the same as Access.

truculent 7y ago

MisterOctober 7y ago
Airtable is really good for what it does : makes data-driven tools available for folks who don't want to mess with writing queries or being a DBA, and also has a reasonable API for automations. For heavy stuff, I'll take Postgres anyday given the choice, but Airtable is great for small user-maintainable tools + dashboards, etc
- bdcravens 7y ago
  I think Airtable is great, but it’s lack of aggregate functions really restricts it.
  - MisterOctober 7y ago
    I certainly agree it's no replacement for a proper DB when full SQL functionality is needed, but it does have basic aggregates like count(), sum(), etc, available as formula fields: https://support.airtable.com/hc/en-us/articles/203255215-Formula-Field-Reference https://support.airtable.com/hc/en-us/articles/203255215-For...
    - bdcravens 7y ago
      Yes, but those formulas are scoped to the row, not the worksheet (you can't pass in a range of cells; each row essentially treats its own columns as local variables). SUM() means something completely different in Airtable than in every other spreadsheet out there. I've built out some beautiful Airtables only to find I had to switch to using Google sheets since I couldn't total up the value of a column, something I've been able to do since Lotus 123 in the 90s.

james_s_tayler 7y ago

Isn't Airtable considered like modern day Access?

benhurmarcel 7y ago
Except it requires your IT department to contract it, which makes it a non-starter for most "shadow IT" uses where Access excels.
- ako 7y ago
  Access running on your pc is also there because of your IT department.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    Access running on your PC is because it comes bundled with MS Office suite, which is installed for you to have Word, Excel, PowerPoint and perhaps Outlook available. It's a great thing Microsoft didn't make it easy to unbundle them all, otherwise lot of places with Access wouldn't have it.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  Not to mention, Access won't randomly break because Microsoft isn't likely to Move Fast and Break Things or suddenly get acquihired. And it will work over LAN even when you lose your Internet access. And, all your data - including schemas and forms you've made - is in actual file.
- Spooky23 7y ago
  Plus, it's the normal shitty SaaS model for something that isn't enterprisey enough. So it's easy pickings for budget cuts. Access is like a cockroach. It never dies as long as some Microsoft stuff is still around. The only thing that will kill it is subscription licensing -- Microsoft eventually take it away for Azure AirTableClone.
brisance 7y ago
Does Airtable still require internet access? That's a non-starter for many businesses which only have intermittent internet access.

codeulike 7y ago

Salesforce, the core database/CRUD bit of it if you ignore all the stuff they've purchased and tacked-on in the last few years, is essentially 'Access in the cloud', in terms of the sorts of things you can do and the ease with which you can do it, and how far you can stretch it before it starts to get cumbersome. And yes, they are making a killing. edit: And if that sounds easy, imagine how you would go about upgrading and patching and extending your access-like cloud platform twice a year without any significant breakage of any of your customers varied and extensive customisations, and without any significant downtime, and keep that up for 20 years. Thats the thing that Salesforce are good at, and not many people appreciate how difficult it is.

wil421 7y ago
ServiceNow is a lot easier for admins/developers to use for workflow automation. In my opinion it’s a little easier than Salesforce but it could become bloated like Salesforce if it want already. Quickbase is another one I worked with but I was migrating workflows off of it. Quickbase was good for non IT people but not much better than Access or Excel.
- linza 7y ago
  I was curious about ServiceNow and googled it and was excited as they offer demos. But they require registration and a lot of information about myself, so i stopped. Is it not meant for small businesses perhaps?
  - wil421 7y ago
    Try the developer site, link below. You’ll need to register but it doesn’t look too invasive. It is expensive for small businesses. The main part is an ITSM suite but I’ve built workflows for call centers and account managers. https://developer.servicenow.com/app.do#!/program/developer https://developer.servicenow.com/app.do#!/program/developer
  - akdor1154 7y ago
    As a developer who is forced to use a service now interface for interacting with any other part of my organisation it's fucking awful in terms of user interface and friction. Unsure if that is because of our workplace setup or if it's intrinsic to the platform.

alexis_fr 7y ago

Modern-day Access: Filemaker Pro was the contemporary competitor and still lives and has usergroups today; Airtables and similar (all SQL-based form managers) are the modern options.

EvanAnderson 7y ago
FileMaker, in my experience, attracts a certain smug developer who simply cannot believe that there are more industrial-strength database systems and that FileMaker can't solve every possible problem in the world. Access devs, at least, don't seem to have that particular quirk.
- tbyehl 7y ago
  It's because they were all Mac users -- in the early days it was an Apple (Claris) product.
  - kn0where 7y ago
    Fun fact: it’s still owned by Apple
    - steve1977 7y ago
      Another fun fact: The company just rebranded itself to Claris again this summer.
- campfireveteran 7y ago
  I wouldn't rag on it or Access too much because it serves/d a purpose: app and data design for less technical users who are busy doing a million other things. I supported several dozen FMP apps at Stanford Student Housing (R&DE) as it was easy for analysts to make something quickly and worked at the scale needed. Later, they used proper databases, reporting, and app-ish tools. FMP ran on a half dozen early Xserves which used goofy, consumer-grade parts inconsistently while looking Apple over-designed.

dillonmckay 7y ago

FileMaker Pro?

philistine 7y ago
Exactly. I didn't understand the might of FileMaker Pro until I saw university employees at my alma mater working with it.
julianz 7y ago
Yup. I built a networked invoice database with FileMaker Pro (2.1??) on Macs at a university in the 90's. It was still there when I went back a few years later, running on an ancient Mac server with an external hard disk duct taped to the top. It had just enough functionality that the department could keep track of how the monthly budget was going while the month went on, as the official Oracle Financials system could only tell you once it was too late. Later, I realised that it had a Y2K bug in it, but oh well.

mobjack 7y ago

Access is highly underrated. I was able to build a CRUD app with 20 concurrent users in a month just using a shared directory to host the backend database. It would have taken a team of engineers 6 months to do the same properly developing a Java web app with Oracle database. Access does have such easy WYSIWYG reporting tools that I still miss.

specialist 7y ago
I was never more productive than using Access. Once wrote a full budgeting, cost estimating tool. Supposedly impossible. (Access' VBA had an 'eval' function.) We lost something in the switch from "workgroup" (dBase thru Paradox) to client/server. Spoiler: ODBC broke the tight coupling of code and persistence. Spawning monstrous hacks like ORMs and ActiveRecord. What Ted Neward famously called The Vietnam of Computer Science. It took me a very long time to figure out what went wrong. Even longer to fix it. Cliff hanger, I know. Someday I'll post polish and publish that fix. Using my real name.
- blihp 7y ago
  The thing that was lost quite frankly was most of the value that desktop productivity software used to provide before Microsoft consumed the market with Windows. It's not that client/server couldn't provide the same (or even better) value, it's that the companies left standing (think Microsoft, Oracle, IBM etc.) had no interest in providing maximum value to customers. They wanted to extract maximum value from customers. Access was created to compete with and replace those single-user and workgroup dBase-era software solutions from the 80's and early 90's. It helped them to cover the bases of the 'professional' desktop use cases as they won people over with Windows. With that mission complete and all competitors long gone, Microsoft now needs to kill off Access to get more people migrated over to SQL Server solutions which will allow them to extract more value from their customer base.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    It's interesting to see that, given that in modern times, Microsoft is the only tech giant that can still build user-empowering software. Not Windows, that's getting dumbed down UX-side. But Office suite still includes Access and Excel, the latter being probably the single highest productivity booster in modern companies (to the chagrin of IT departments). And you're essentially saying that this is already another order of magnitude worse than what came before Microsoft. Now I wish I was able to see that older software in action.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

insaneirish 7y ago

> I still think there is a killing to made on a modern day Access "Done Right". DB, Gui framework and printable report generator all in one sharing the same language front to back, top to bottom. I don't know what the actual market [that will pay money] is for it, but I can certainly say I've never seen anything quite like it. In high school, I worked as a sysadmin/misc. programmer for a company whose whole business was software built on top of Access. I was the weird Linux person who ended up having to do a lot of stuff in Access (97). It had its issues. It was not perfect. But the simplicity with which you could bind a visual tool and query designer to an ODBC/SQL backend--I think--goes unmatched 'til this day. There are many things I cram in a spreadsheet these days that would be way more flexible if they were instead built on a quick and dirty Access DB. If there are equivalent tools out there, please, let me know.

dvdhsu 7y ago

Hi! I'm working on a project called Retool (https://retool.com https://retool.com), and it's basically Access, in the cloud. We connect to any sort of cloud database / API, and let you build UIs quickly. It's good for building forms that write back to APIs, tables that read data from databases, etc. I'd really appreciate HN's feedback on this -- if anybody has thoughts -- I'd love to hear them! I'm also david@ if you'd rather email me anything. Thanks!

edraferi 7y ago
Hey David - love what you’re doing with Retool. I think it’s a good solution for the front end piece of this challenge. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t Retool focus on working with existing enterprise databases and APIs? If so then I think the missing piece is a DBaaS with great guardrails. Access (and to a lesser extent, Excel) empower anyone to model their data and manipulate it without asking permission. The problem is they don’t scale well, there are no backups, they don’t show up in a data catalog anywhere, no integration with enterprise SSO, etc. They do benefit from file-focused solutions for these issues (eg the Access file lives on a network drive which is backed up) but they fall far short from what you expect from a production database. So my challenge is: how can I let anyone in my organization create a new database, with all the backup/authentication/discovery/scalability out of the box, for them to connect to Retool?
ThrowawayR2 7y ago
Half of the point of Access is that it's not in the cloud; it's a locally installed app that doesn't even require network access or admin rights.
- cutler 7y ago
  Access has had a decent MySQL connector for a long time so the scalability, availability and other network factors can be a non-issue if Access is used purely as a GUI.

onefuncman 7y ago

i have no affiliation but like the product -- try https://airtable.com/ https://airtable.com/

interlocutor 7y ago

> DB, Gui framework and printable report generator all in one sharing the same language front to back, top to bottom. Printable reports is so 90's. Back then you printed reports and shared reports on paper. In meetings everyone gets a printed copy of the report. Today web is the way to share reports, and you project reports on to a big screen in meetings.