5 ms·

I wonder if sqlite could become this in the future.

jdfellow 7y ago
I wonder how much effort it would take to build a desktop application providing a similar user experience to Access, using SQLite.
- krilly 7y ago
  Open/LibreOffice Base does have backends for MySQL and PostgreSQL already
  - yyx 7y ago
    I wish it was this easy to connect sqlite
  - projektfu 7y ago
    I tried open office base about 10 years ago and it was almost but not quite impossible to use. Has it improved?
- _AzMoo 7y ago
  Why would you do that though? The underlying database technology is not really one of the problems access has.
  - allannienhuis 7y ago
    cross-platform might be one reason.
  - onefuncman 7y ago
    Sure it is ... the database underlying Access uses JetSQL which has its own fun syntactic quirks It's also very bad at concurrent users if you do go down the path of dropping it on a network share if it's a normalized schema, since there's no server to cache queries or do optimizations... for strictly data entry against a simple schema you can maybe push it to low 100s of users, but backing up / restoring / rolling out new versions is a nightmare when the frontend and backend are commingled like that. You can deploy different versions of .mdbs if you have an external backend, though I've never seen anyone do so with an Access database backing an Access "UI" project...
- dev_dull 7y ago
  I tried doing this once with Go, hoping for a static binary, but SQLite library requires glibc. There’s a huge need for a sql-compatible sqite-like database for this purpose in Go.
  - colonwqbang 7y ago
    So, link in glibc statically? I may be wrong, but sqlite is used a lot on Android which uses bionic, not glibc right? So it seems like there should be hope of switching to another libc if you need.
    - dev_dull 7y ago
      With sqlite3 package and Go this doesn’t look possible, or at least not easy. https://github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3/issues/212#issuecomment-112824993 https://github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3/issues/212#issuecomment-...
- ako 7y ago
  Maybe you can use Access as the front end to SQLite? During my internship 25 years ago I build a system to register aircraft accidents and near accidents. This system used access 1.0 (Windows 3.1) as the front end, storing the data in Oracle 6, I think connected through Odbc.
  - lstamour 7y ago
    Yup, ODBC still works: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/administer-odbc-data-sources-b19f856b-5b9b-48c9-8b93-07484bfab5a7 https://support.office.com/en-us/article/administer-odbc-dat... though because this is Microsoft and we can’t have nice things, it might not: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/access/cannot-use-odbc-or-oledb https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/access/... For SQLite there’s https://github.com/softace/sqliteodbc https://github.com/softace/sqliteodbc but at that point I might pick a different DB for a more established ODBC driver. Or just use Access...
    - Bombthecat 7y ago
      But this requires admin access to install? No?
      - lawzup 7y ago
        yes it requires admin access
- cutler 7y ago
  The hard part is the [nested] forms. Access and FileMaker have polished interfaces which would take a lot of man-hours to recreate. Maybe Electron or an SPA built in React.
burmer 7y ago
SQLite with a form builder would do it.
ComodoHacker 7y ago
In the future perhaps, but now Access has a big advantage for multi-user environment: fine-grained locking. In SQLite writes are basically serialized.
floki999 7y ago
All these responses demonstrate the typical issue with today’s dev mindset... i.e. wanting to develop a solution where there is no problem to solve, and very often resulting in an alternative with more issues than the original tool. There is a reason why MS Access and Excel endure: they are far from perfect and have tons of limitations, but they do solve the very basic function they were designed to fulfill. An IT solution which is simple, robust and allows users to do their job without relying on tech support and maintenance is just a beautiful thing - that’s what technology should be about. Not, this endless envy to refactor what is working just fine for for the user... I love the examples presented above of areas where Access solves a real problem and helps them save valuable time, in difficult working conditions!
- mbreese 7y ago
  I don’t use Windows, so Access isn’t part of the MS Office equation for me (on a Mac). However, I’d very much like to have a simple database that I could use instead of tracking certain things in Excel. So... I can completely understand why someone would be interested in making a more universal solution for this very common problem.
  - wrs 7y ago
    The Mac equivalent (for decades now) is FileMaker. Which, now that I look at it for the first time in a long while, seems to run on Windows and the web as well. [1] [1] https://www.filemaker.com/products/filemaker-pro-advanced/ https://www.filemaker.com/products/filemaker-pro-advanced/
    - mbreese 7y ago
      Yeah, I’m aware of FileMaker. We actually use it a lot at my job, but I don’t because I can’t access it remotely from a Linux server. Not sure if that’s a quirk with the FileMaker server security we have or a lack of support. I also tend to avoid it because it’s halfway in between Access and a real SQL database (Postgres, MySQL, etc). But also — have you seen how expensive it is? If you want an individual license, it’s >$500. Or you can get a subscription per user per month. FileMaker seems like one of those applications that Apple has never really known quite what to do with.

I wonder how much effort it would take to build a desktop application providing a similar user experience to Access, using SQLite.

krilly 7y ago
Open/LibreOffice Base does have backends for MySQL and PostgreSQL already
- yyx 7y ago
  I wish it was this easy to connect sqlite
- projektfu 7y ago
  I tried open office base about 10 years ago and it was almost but not quite impossible to use. Has it improved?
_AzMoo 7y ago
Why would you do that though? The underlying database technology is not really one of the problems access has.
- allannienhuis 7y ago
  cross-platform might be one reason.
- onefuncman 7y ago
  Sure it is ... the database underlying Access uses JetSQL which has its own fun syntactic quirks It's also very bad at concurrent users if you do go down the path of dropping it on a network share if it's a normalized schema, since there's no server to cache queries or do optimizations... for strictly data entry against a simple schema you can maybe push it to low 100s of users, but backing up / restoring / rolling out new versions is a nightmare when the frontend and backend are commingled like that. You can deploy different versions of .mdbs if you have an external backend, though I've never seen anyone do so with an Access database backing an Access "UI" project...
dev_dull 7y ago
I tried doing this once with Go, hoping for a static binary, but SQLite library requires glibc. There’s a huge need for a sql-compatible sqite-like database for this purpose in Go.
- colonwqbang 7y ago
  So, link in glibc statically? I may be wrong, but sqlite is used a lot on Android which uses bionic, not glibc right? So it seems like there should be hope of switching to another libc if you need.
  - dev_dull 7y ago
    With sqlite3 package and Go this doesn’t look possible, or at least not easy. https://github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3/issues/212#issuecomment-112824993 https://github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3/issues/212#issuecomment-...
ako 7y ago
Maybe you can use Access as the front end to SQLite? During my internship 25 years ago I build a system to register aircraft accidents and near accidents. This system used access 1.0 (Windows 3.1) as the front end, storing the data in Oracle 6, I think connected through Odbc.
- lstamour 7y ago
  Yup, ODBC still works: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/administer-odbc-data-sources-b19f856b-5b9b-48c9-8b93-07484bfab5a7 https://support.office.com/en-us/article/administer-odbc-dat... though because this is Microsoft and we can’t have nice things, it might not: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/access/cannot-use-odbc-or-oledb https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/access/... For SQLite there’s https://github.com/softace/sqliteodbc https://github.com/softace/sqliteodbc but at that point I might pick a different DB for a more established ODBC driver. Or just use Access...
  - Bombthecat 7y ago
    But this requires admin access to install? No?
    - lawzup 7y ago
      yes it requires admin access
cutler 7y ago
The hard part is the [nested] forms. Access and FileMaker have polished interfaces which would take a lot of man-hours to recreate. Maybe Electron or an SPA built in React.

burmer 7y ago

SQLite with a form builder would do it.

ComodoHacker 7y ago

In the future perhaps, but now Access has a big advantage for multi-user environment: fine-grained locking. In SQLite writes are basically serialized.

floki999 7y ago

All these responses demonstrate the typical issue with today’s dev mindset... i.e. wanting to develop a solution where there is no problem to solve, and very often resulting in an alternative with more issues than the original tool. There is a reason why MS Access and Excel endure: they are far from perfect and have tons of limitations, but they do solve the very basic function they were designed to fulfill. An IT solution which is simple, robust and allows users to do their job without relying on tech support and maintenance is just a beautiful thing - that’s what technology should be about. Not, this endless envy to refactor what is working just fine for for the user... I love the examples presented above of areas where Access solves a real problem and helps them save valuable time, in difficult working conditions!

mbreese 7y ago
I don’t use Windows, so Access isn’t part of the MS Office equation for me (on a Mac). However, I’d very much like to have a simple database that I could use instead of tracking certain things in Excel. So... I can completely understand why someone would be interested in making a more universal solution for this very common problem.
- wrs 7y ago
  The Mac equivalent (for decades now) is FileMaker. Which, now that I look at it for the first time in a long while, seems to run on Windows and the web as well. [1] [1] https://www.filemaker.com/products/filemaker-pro-advanced/ https://www.filemaker.com/products/filemaker-pro-advanced/
  - mbreese 7y ago
    Yeah, I’m aware of FileMaker. We actually use it a lot at my job, but I don’t because I can’t access it remotely from a Linux server. Not sure if that’s a quirk with the FileMaker server security we have or a lack of support. I also tend to avoid it because it’s halfway in between Access and a real SQL database (Postgres, MySQL, etc). But also — have you seen how expensive it is? If you want an individual license, it’s >$500. Or you can get a subscription per user per month. FileMaker seems like one of those applications that Apple has never really known quite what to do with.