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There are hard limits to Access's internal engine (JET, IIRC) which you're likely to run into as time goes on. The unfortunate thing is that there isn't anythin
by fusiongyro 13y ago
There are hard limits to Access's internal engine (JET, IIRC) which you're likely to run into as time goes on. The unfortunate thing is that there isn't anything you can do to avoid the limits or recover once you've hit them.
On the other hand, you can install Postgres under Windows and then build an Access frontend over ODBC. This gets you the best of both worlds, IMO, at the cost of running a kind of odd stack. Cheaper than SQL Server though, and I like the maintenance story better.
TBH the last time I considered a solution like this I was consulting, so it was a few years ago, and all my clients either didn't sign up at all or went for a custom web solution instead, so I don't have a lot of war stories about this platform. I do think it would work though.
- jpitz 13y agoJET's days are long gone. The SQL Server Desktop engine is the underpinning for Access now. It essentially _is_ SQL Server. The biggest limitation? The concurrent transaction count is limited to 5. There are others, but it is a far, far cry from that prone to corrupt, slow beast JET.
- moron4hire 13y agoJET isn't all that bad. It can be used to run SQL queries CSV files. As an ETL tool it's pretty flexible.
- jrarredondo 13y agoActually, in the latest Office 2012, Access apps are now three tier apps with SQL Server 2012 or SQL Azure backends.
- fusiongyro 13y agoIt's amazing how much things change when you're not paying attention. Thanks for explaining this.
- panderon 13y agoPoint of clarification, concurrent transaction count is limited to 255. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access-help/access-2010-specifications-HA010341462.aspx http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access-help/access-2010-sp...
- goofygrin 13y agoOne of my clients has a poorly designed access system (using, now, mssql as the backend). It's not access's fault that the system is shit, it's the developer's fault. Bad devs write bad code. Beginner bad devs tend to write their bad code in Access (or Excel). It gets the job done --- until it doesn't.