Convert Access Forms to web application

[Shivonne]

Hi all,

I have been asked to investigate whether there is any automated tool to
convert MS Access applications into .NET web applications with a SQL backend.
I've taken a look at 2 currently on the market - DBForms and Microtools
Access Whiz. Both of them handled the data conversion fine but didn't do a
good job of the forms.

Has anyone out there looked at anything similar? My main requirement would
be a good automated converter for the Forms part of the app - whether it's to
classic ASP or .NET (VB or C#) isn't an issue as the conversion to .NET can
be done at a later stage.

Thanks as always

 

[Mark Andrews]

I haven't tried any of these but one of my web designer friends uses these
ones (so can't comment on how good/bad they are):
http://www.yessoftware.com/index2.php
http://www.xlinesoft.com/asprunnerpro/google4.aspx

If possible could you drop me a quick note after you figure out which one
works the best (whichever route you go)?
It would help me out. Contact info on the website.

Thanks and wish you luck,
Mark Andrews
RPT Software
http://www.rptsoftware.com

 

[Shivonne]

Thanks Mark - I'll take a look at these and let you know how I go.

 

[Shivonne]

Hi Mark,

I took a look at these tools - it seems they are better suited to providing
a web front end to the data component of an Access DB rather than converting
an existing Access Forms app.

Thanks

Shivonne

 

[Tom van Stiphout]

On Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:11:27 -0700, Shivonne

If you understand how different the Access forms package and its VBA
language is from .NET development, you realize why it's exceedingly
difficult to provide a good tool to do that. Which, if it existed,
you'd want to buy for a few hundred bucks. Which makes it a losing
proposition for the tool developer.

Tools that do a good job of switching between the Windows world and
the Web world typically use some meta-language or macro-language that
can be interpreted both ways. XAML is such a language. For example
here:
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/page...ing-a-digg-desktop-application-using-wpf.aspx
Scott Guthrie is showing how simple it is to convert a Silverlight
browser app into a WPF desktop app.
No such luck for Access/VBA, I'm afraid. If you do find a good tool,
please post back and let us know.

-Tom.
Microsoft Access MVP

 

[Mark Andrews]

Sorry man I tried.

Hi Mark,

I took a look at these tools - it seems they are better suited to
providing
a web front end to the data component of an Access DB rather than
converting
an existing Access Forms app.

Thanks

Shivonne

 

[Shivonne]

That's pretty much what I expected unfortunately. So far the best option
seems to be the DBForms tool but it doesn't take the code across (only the
screen front-end) so there's still a lot of coding for developers to do.

If I do find something good out there I'll post back and advise.

Thanks for the assistance.

 

[David W. Fenton]

Both of them handled the data conversion fine but didn't do a
good job of the forms.

This is to be expected. The web is stateless and this has certain
important implications for UI design. Access is completely stateful
and bound, and that determines its UI capabilities. Those cannot be
translated to the Web directly -- they have to be completely
re-engineered to use a stateless UI design. That cannot be
automated, in my opinion.