Microsoft Office Access
Office Access 2007 running on Microsoft Windows Vista.
Developed by	Microsoft
Latest release	12. A software developer is a person or organization concerned with facets of the software development process wider than design and coding a somewhat broader scope of Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer A software release is the distribution whether public or private of an initial or new and upgraded version of a Computer software product 0. 6211. 1000 (2007 SP1) / December 11, 2007
OS	Microsoft Windows
Genre	RDBMS
License	Proprietary EULA
Website	Microsoft Office Access Homepage

Microsoft Office Access, previously known as Microsoft Access, is a relational database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software development tools. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Computer software can be organized into categories based on common function type or field of use A Relational database management system (RDBMS is a Database management system (DBMS that is based on the Relational model as introduced by E A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage is a Legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software Proprietary software is Computer software on which the producer has set restrictions on use private modification copying, or republishing. A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages A Relational database management system (RDBMS is a Database management system (DBMS that is based on the Relational model as introduced by E Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer The Microsoft Jet Database Engine is a Database engine on which several Microsoft products were built It is a member of the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Microsoft Office is a set of interrelated desktop applications servers and services collectively referred to as an Office suite, for the Microsoft Windows and

Access can use data stored in Access/Jet, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, or any ODBC-compliant data container (including MySQL and PostgreSQL). Debt AIDS Trade in Africa (or DATA) is a Multinational non-government organization founded in January 2002 in London by U2 's Microsoft SQL Server is a Relational database management system (RDBMS produced by Microsoft. Oracle Database (commonly referred to as Oracle RDBMS or simply Oracle) is a Relational database management system (RDBMS produced and marketed by In Computing, Open Database Connectivity ( ODBC) provides a standard Software API method for using Database management systems (DBMS MySQL is a Relational database management system (RDBMS which has more than 11 million installations PostgreSQL is an Object-relational database management system (ORDBMS Skilled software developers and data architects use it to develop application software. A software developer is a person or organization concerned with facets of the software development process wider than design and coding a somewhat broader scope of A data architect is a person responsible for ensuring that the data assets of an organisation are supported by an architecture supporting the organization in achieving its strategic goals Application software is a subclass of Computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly and thoroughly to a task that the user wishes to perform Relatively unskilled programmers and non-programmer "power users" can use it to build simple applications. A programmer is someone who writes Computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist It supports some object-oriented techniques but falls short of being a fully object-oriented development tool. Object-oriented programming (OOP is a Programming paradigm that uses " objects " and their interactions to design applications and computer programs

Access was also the name of a communications program from Microsoft, meant to compete with ProComm and other programs. Datastorm was a computer software company that existed from 1986 until 1996. This proved a failure and was dropped. ^[1] Years later Microsoft reused the name for its database software.

History

Access 1. 1 manual cover

Access version 1. 0 was released in November 1992, followed in May of 1993 by an Access 1. 1 release to improve compatibility with other Microsoft products.

Microsoft specified the minimum operating system for Version 2. 0 as Microsoft Windows v3. 0 with 4 MB of RAM. 6 MB RAM was recommended along with a minimum of 8 MB of available hard disk space (14 MB hard disk space recommended). The product was shipped on seven 1. 44 MB diskettes. The manual shows a 1993 copyright date.

The software worked well with very large records sets but testing showed some circumstances caused data corruption. For example, file sizes over 700 MB were problematic (note that most hard disks were smaller than 700 MB at the time this was in wide use). The Getting Started manual warns about a number of circumstances where obsolete device drivers or incorrect configurations can cause data loss.

Access's initial codename was Cirrus; the forms engine was called Ruby. This was before Visual Basic - Bill Gates saw the prototypes and decided that the BASIC language component should be co-developed as a separate expandable application, a project called Thunder. Visual Basic ( VB) is the third-generation event-driven programming language and associated development environment (IDE from If you would like to experiment with Wikipedia please copy In Computer programming, BASIC (an Acronym for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of High-level programming languages The two projects were developed separately as the underlying forms engines were incompatible with each other; however, these were merged together again after VBA. Visual Basic for Applications ( VBA) is an event-driven implementation of Microsoft's Visual Basic, a Procedural programming language

Uses

Access is used by small businesses, within departments of large corporations, and by hobby programmers to create ad hoc customized desktop systems for handling the creation and manipulation of data. Ad hoc is a Latin phrase which means "for this [ Purpose ]" Access can be used as a database for basic web based applications hosted on Microsoft's Internet Information Services and utilizing Microsoft Active Server Pages ASP. Active Server Pages ( ASP) is Microsoft 's first server-side script engine for dynamically-generated web pages

Some professional application developers use Access for rapid application development, especially for the creation of prototypes and standalone applications that serve as tools for on-the-road salesmen. Rapid application development ( RAD) is a Software development process, which involves iterative development and the construction of Prototypes Access does not scale well if data access is via a network, so applications that are used by more than a handful of people tend to rely on Client-Server based solutions. In Telecommunications and Software engineering, scalability is a desirable property of a system a network or a process which indicates its ability to either See DBMS for a shorter list of “typical” representative database management systems However, an Access "front end" (the forms, reports, queries and VB code) can be used against a host of database backends, including JET (file-based database engine, used in Access by default), Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and any other ODBC-compliant product. Visual Basic ( VB) is the third-generation event-driven programming language and associated development environment (IDE from A back-end database is a Database that is accessed by users indirectly through an external application rather than by application programming stored within the database In Computing, Open Database Connectivity ( ODBC) provides a standard Software API method for using Database management systems (DBMS

Features

One of the benefits of Access from a programmer's perspective is its relative compatibility with SQL (structured query language) —queries may be viewed and edited as SQL statements, and SQL statements can be used directly in Macros and VBA Modules to manipulate Access tables. Users may mix and use both VBA and "Macros" for programming forms and logic and offers object-oriented possibilities. Visual Basic for Applications ( VBA) is an event-driven implementation of Microsoft's Visual Basic, a Procedural programming language

MSDE (Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine) 2000, a mini-version of Microsoft SQL Server 2000, is included with the developer edition of Office XP and may be used with Access as an alternative to the Jet Database Engine. MSDE stands for MS Data Engine, Microsoft Desktop Engine or Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine. The Microsoft Jet Database Engine is a Database engine on which several Microsoft products were built

Unlike a modern RDBMS, the Jet Engine implements database triggers and stored procedures in a non-standard way. A Relational database management system (RDBMS is a Database management system (DBMS that is based on the Relational model as introduced by E The Microsoft Jet Database Engine is a Database engine on which several Microsoft products were built A database trigger is Procedural code that is automatically executed in response to certain events on a particular table in a Database. A stored procedure is a Subroutine available to applications accessing a relational database system. Stored Procedures are implemented in VBA, and Triggers are only available from embedded Forms. Both Triggers and Stored procedures are only available to applications built completely within the Access database management system. Client applications built with VB or C++ are not able to access these features. Starting in Access 2000 (Jet 4. 0), there is a new syntax for creating queries with parameters, in a way that looks like creating stored procedures, but these procedures are still limited to one statement per procedure. [1] Microsoft Access does allow forms to contain code that is triggered as changes are made to the underlying table (as long as the modifications are done only with that form), and it is common to use pass-through queries and other techniques in Access to run stored procedures in RDBMSs that support these. A Relational database management system (RDBMS is a Database management system (DBMS that is based on the Relational model as introduced by E [[2]]

In ADP files (supported in Access 2000 and later), the database-related features are entirely different, because this type of file connects to a MSDE or Microsoft SQL Server, instead of using the Jet Engine. Thus, it supports the creation of nearly all objects in the underlying server (tables with constraints and triggers, views, stored procedures and UDF-s). However, only forms, reports, macros and modules are stored in the ADP file (the other objects are stored in the back-end database).

Development

Access allows relatively quick development because all database tables, queries, forms, and reports are stored in the database. For query development, Access utilizes the Query Design Grid, a graphical user interface that allows users to create queries without knowledge of the SQL programming language. In the Query Design Grid, users can "show" the source tables of the query and select the fields they want returned by clicking and dragging them into the grid. Joins can be created by clicking and dragging fields in tables to fields in other tables. Access allows users to view and manipulate the SQL code if desired.

The programming language available in Access is, as in other products of the Microsoft Office suite, Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications. Microsoft Office is a set of interrelated desktop applications servers and services collectively referred to as an Office suite, for the Microsoft Windows and Visual Basic for Applications ( VBA) is an event-driven implementation of Microsoft's Visual Basic, a Procedural programming language Two database access libraries of COM components are provided: the legacy Data Access Objects (DAO), which was superseded for a time (but still accessible) by ActiveX Data Objects (ADO); however (DAO) has been reintroduced in the latest version, Microsoft Access 2007. Component Object Model ( COM) is an interface standard for Software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993 Data Access Objects is a general Programming interface for Database access on Microsoft Windows systems and should not be confused with the Data Access Microsoft's ActiveX Data Objects ( ADO) is a set of Component Object Model (COM objects for accessing data sources

Many developers who use Access use the Leszynski naming convention, though this is not universal; it is a programming convention, not a DBMS-enforced rule. The Leszynski naming convention (or LNC) is a variant of Hungarian notation popularized by consultant Stan Leszynski specifically for use with Microsoft Access ^[2] Except in VBA, it is also made redundant by the fact that Access categorises each object automatically and always shows the object type, by prefixing Table: or Query: before the object name when referencing a list of different database objects.

Microsoft Access can be applied to small projects but scales poorly to larger projects involving multiple concurrent users because it is a desktop application, not a true client-server database. In Telecommunications and Software engineering, scalability is a desirable property of a system a network or a process which indicates its ability to either When a Microsoft Access database is shared by multiple concurrent users, processing speed suffers. The effect is dramatic when there are more than a few users or if the processing demands of any of the users are high. Access includes an Upsizing Wizard that allows users to upsize their database to Microsoft SQL Server if they want to move to a true client-server database. Upsizing is the term coined by Microsoft to describe the process of upgrading Microsoft Access Database to a Microsoft SQL Server. Microsoft SQL Server is a Relational database management system (RDBMS produced by Microsoft. It is recommended to use Access Data Projects for most situations.

Since all database queries, forms, and reports are stored in the database, and in keeping with the ideals of the relational model, there is no possibility of making a physically structured hierarchy with them.

One recommended technique is to migrate to SQL Server and utilize Access Data Projects. This allows stored procedures, views, and constraints - which are greatly superior to anything found in Jet. Additionally this full client-server design significantly reduces corruption, maintenance and many performance problems.

Access 2003 icon

Access allows no relative paths when linking, so the development environment should have the same path as the production environment (though it is possible to write a "dynamic-linker" routine in VBA that can search out a certain back-end file by searching through the directory tree, if it can't find it in the current path). Visual Basic for Applications ( VBA) is an event-driven implementation of Microsoft's Visual Basic, a Procedural programming language This technique also allows the developer to divide the application among different files, so some structure is possible.

Protection

If the database design needs to be secured to prevent from changes, Access databases can be locked/protected (and the source code compiled) by converting the database to an . A compiler is a Computer program (or set of programs that translates text written in a computer language (the source language) into another MDE file. All changes to the database structure (tables, forms, macros, etc. ) need to be made to the original MDB and then reconverted to MDE.

Some tools are available for unlocking and 'decompiling', although certain elements including original VBA comments and formatting are normally irretrievable. A decompiler is the name given to a Computer program that performs the reverse operation to that of a Compiler.

File extensions

Microsoft Access saves information under the following file formats:

Versions

There are no Access 3. Microsoft Office 2007 (officially called 2007 Microsoft Office system) is the most recent Windows version of the Microsoft Office system, Microsoft's 0 to 6. 0 because the Windows 95 version was launched with Word 7. Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented Graphical user interface -based Operating system. All of the Office 95 products have OLE 2 capabilities, and Access 7 shows that it was compatible with Word 7. Object Linking and Embedding ( OLE) is a technology that allows embedding and linking to documents and other objects developed by Microsoft.

Competing software

• Amiga Datastore
• Alpha Five
• Borland Paradox
• Datawasp
• dBase
• FileMaker Pro (formerly Claris Filemaker)
• Kexi
• Lotus Approach
• NeoOffice
• OpenOffice.org Base
• Oracle XE
• Sun StarBase
• SQLite
• Sybase PowerBuilder
• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• Omnis Studio

Database protection

• How to make design changes to an .MDE file

This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL. Alpha Five a Relational database management system and Rapid Application Development system (RAD for building Windows desktop and Web (including AJAX applications Paradox is a Relational database management system currently published by Corel Corporation. dBase was the first widely used Database management system (DBMS for Microcomputers published by Ashton-Tate for CP/M, and later on the FileMaker Pro is a cross-platform Relational database application from FileMaker Inc Claris was a Computer software company formed as a spin-off from Apple Computer (now Apple Inc Kexi is an integrated data management application designed to fill the gap between Spreadsheets and database solutions requiring more sophisticated development Lotus Approach is a relational Database management system included in IBM's Lotus SmartSuite for Microsoft Windows NeoOffice is a fork of the free / open source OpenOfficeorg Office suite that is ported to Mac OS X. OpenOfficeorg Base is the database module initially released with OpenOffice Oracle Corporation ( specializes in developing and marketing Enterprise software products — particularly Database management systems In 2007 Oracle ranked StarOffice is Sun Microsystems ' proprietary Office suite software package. SQLite is a mostly ACID -compliant Relational database management system contained in a relatively small (~500 kB) C programming library PowerBuilder, sometimes abbreviated PB is a computer application development system created by Powersoft which was later purchased by Sybase. MySQL is a Relational database management system (RDBMS which has more than 11 million installations PostgreSQL is an Object-relational database management system (ORDBMS The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing ( FOLDOC) is an online searchable encyclopedic Dictionary of Computing subjects The GNU Free Documentation License ( GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a Copyleft License for free documentation designed by the Free Software

External links

• Microsoft Access Home Page
• Microsoft Access Newsgroups
• A FAQ site about Microsoft Access
• Microsoft Access for Beginners

References