Dalhart Dobbs said:
I am an assistant principal of a high school and I have desinged a
database using demographic and schedule information exported from our
program we use at school (SASI xp). I did this so the data could be used to
keep a database of disciplinary information and parent contact records. My
question/problem is, do I design the program strictly using access as the
primary program or do I use Visual Basic as a program and tie in the data
from Access, or do I just use Visual Basic??? Can someone tell me which to
use and why?
Jeff has alluded to some of the major considerations, especially that a
system developed in Access will require that all system users have MS Access
installed on their PC's (unless, of course, you have the developer edition
of MS Office and intend to use the Access runtime).
Here are some other basic considerations:
How much data will be stored (number of tables, project row count in each,
etc.)?
How many concurrent users do you envision?
The Jet database engine is designed for individual user or small workgroup
systems, not for enterprise-level systems. Not knowing the size of your
school, and not knowing the intended user base, I cannot tell you if Access
(the database) is a good choice for you.
Developing in VB requires considerably more technical knowledge than
developing in Access. Access (the development environment) is designed so
non-IT people can put simple systems together.
I have one last point. No disrespect to your technical skills (I have no
idea, as you didn't say), but when somebody says they "designed a database"
and I don't know their background, the first thing I do is ask to see their
table layouts and a relationship diagram. Why? Because a database system
using non-normalized data is almost certain to fail (if it ever gets
finished). Getting the data design right is crucial.
Please post back with additional details you wish to share and any
additional questions you have.
