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The second Access DevCon Vienna took place on April 7+8, 2018. It included 11
presentations by experienced developers from Europe and the USA. We had 60
attendees from 13 countries.
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This was the agenda in April 2018: |
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Access Update |
Karl Donaubauer,
donkarl, Vienna,
Austria |
A keynote about the current state of the product and the community with a lot of
information and links, funny statements and examples.
Exclusive video by the Microsoft Access Team about the latest news in
the product
What has happened in the Access world since DevCon 1
Evaluation of new features, product policy, websites etc.
What to expect from Access 2019 and what not at all |
Karl
is an Access developer, MVP, author,
speaker, founder of user groups
and
yada yada.
Due to an obstinate nature he has dedicated himself
to tilt at windmills for more than two decades, fighting the bad image of
Access and
the worse intentions, boasting in poor armour in various languages, countries
and funny places, including an English wedding castle, a Calabrian sanctuary and several MSFT offices. |
VBATelemetry |
You've certainly heard of telemetry services for
websites like google Analytics and maybe for mobile apps. Now, with
VBATelemetry
there is an easy-to-use interface tool for real applications ;-)
that enables our Access projects to use Microsoft's popular telemetry
service Azure Application Insights.
Set up Application Insights and VBATelemetry
How to use the tool in your Access/Excel/Word...VBA projects
Track user actions, errors and other metrics in (almost) real time,
worldwide
Who used which form/report/function, which error happened when, how long
lasted this and that...
Get the graphics, statistics and user/location/system etc. info in Azure |
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Access Incompatibilities |
Luke Chung, FMS, Vienna (Virginia),
USA |
A session about essentially all the problems your company may experience with the current Microsoft way to handle versions, builds, updates, bugs, regressions, incompatibilities...
Keeping track of the different versions and builds of Microsoft Access:
FMS big list
- Examples of Access builds and Windows updates that
caused problems in Access applications
- Dealing with continual updates from Office365
What versions of Access can be installed on the same machine?
- Access 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016
- Office365 installations versus installations from disk
- Retail versus Runtime
How to create development environments and make builds for users running different versions
of Access and Windows.
- Using Hyper-V or VMWare virtual machines for development and builds
- Making sure builds are based on the lowest common platform
Supporting 32+64-bit VBA in the same module but using different machines to create
ACCDE/MDE files
Simplifying the deployment of your Access database updates to each users desktop
Professional installation program (InstallShield) to install our program and dependencies
like DLLs and OCX files, registry settings, Administrator rights, etc.
Using the Access Database Engine (ACE) installation program with 32 and 64-bit conflicts
Testing on different environments |
Luke founded
FMS in 1986. He is the primary author of many FMS tools including Total Access Analyzer/Detective/Emailer/Statistics. He
has also personally provided consulting services to a wide range of clients.
Luke is a Microsoft Access MVP.
He is a graduate of Harvard University with a Bachelor degree in Engineering and Applied Sciences, and a Master in
Physical Oceanography.
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Web Replicator
+ Database/Backend
Explorer |
Thomas Pfoch,
picoware, Berlin,
Germany |
Two sensational, brand new tools for Access that will be available as
products around the event:
Web Replicator
Access and the usual mySQL/PHP website/webform get married here! Wait, let's
call it a long-distance relationship with a secure contract: Publish and collect data in realtime to/from
the web using a few common and particular ingredients like FTP, web service,
one-time-tokens and a shared secret.
Architectural and technical overview
Insights to the web service, authentication and security concepts
Live example how to set up the service, drag&drop the data to replicate
between the webserver, a local SQL Server and/or
any Access database
Database/Backend Explorer
SSMS or some mySQL admin tools are great but the Navigation Pane is a mess that can't
handle Access
backends at all. Yet if you have linked tables
in Access you
don't always want to open heavy tools for your backend and
they are less than
ideal for what you usually want to see or do in this context.
Now you can do it from inside your Access frontend:
Watch your backend tables (SQL Server, Access...) and relevant properties
using a treeview
View the data in the backend tables without having to link them
Create or delete links by drag&drop or a few mouse clicks
Copy objects over from one database to another
... use this unique first opportunity to tell the author your dreams of
what else to include |
After
Thomas made his master in computer science at the Technical University of Berlin
he has focused on UI and databases.
So he became an Access developer with the first version in 1992. He uses Access not only as RAD tool for app development, but also as basis for a next generation framework where apps are generated from or driven by meta data.
He is the author of the
picoware Treeview for Access.
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Database Performance
using a Remote Backend |
Jack D. Leach,
Dymeng, New York City,
USA |
Using a remote backend database for distributed Access projects can be a very powerful setup, allowing you to provide Access applications that can be used from almost anywhere. However, working with such a setup can be a difficult task when it comes to performance. Whether its SQL Server, SQL Azure, MySQL or any other relational database in the cloud, the core concepts are the same.
This presentation will cover the topic in detail, from the two core bottlenecks and how to mitigate them, insights on how to classify and organize your data to best optimize your application operations, as well as numerous tips, tricks and tools to help you build high performance Access applications.
Understanding how Wide Area Networks and ODBC drivers work in the context of your data requests
How to predict a 200 millisecond query vs a 200 minute query
Understanding your applications data and how to best deal with the common patterns
Working with data caches and temporary data
Analyzing your remote data request performance
Tips and tricks for how to squeeze performance down to the last drop |
Jack
is the founder and CEO of
Dymeng Services, a software development company working with Line of
Business and B2B SaaS solutions. He routinely works with Access, SQL Server and
ASP.NET MVC delivering solutions, utilizing both Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web
Services as typical infrastructures.
An Access MVP 2012-2016, Jack has also
written numerous technical articles and whitepapers. |
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How to use
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) in Access |
Alexandru
Tofan (LI), Microsoft, Bucharest, Romania |
SVG is an image format for two-dimensional graphics. The images and their behaviors are defined in XML text files.
So they can be created with any text editor or scripted by VBA. Let's say
it can be used to build charts but in the broadest sense, even with support
for interactivity and animation.
Bitmap vs vector graphics
What is SVG and when does it make sense to use it
Understanding SVG shapes
Demo - a dynamic SVG gauge in Access
Limitations and dependencies of SVG
Demo - creating shapes in SVG
Demo - binding an Access recordset to an SVG shape
Demo - practical example in SVG solving a business requirement |
Alexandru started to use Access at his first job where he had to use a template to create mdb files containing land and building registration data.
He has been using Access ever since, both as an end user and developer.
He recently joined Microsoft as a Support Engineer for Power BI, PowerApps and Flow.
They are encouraged to build automation tools to make their lives easier.
So he is currently working on an Access application to help his team process the support requests faster. |
Toilet paper, please! |
Flow and PowerApps are modern MS technologies for online/mobile purposes. This session wants to instigate ideas how to team them with the RAD power of
good old Access and this way add flexibility and robustness, e.g. if there's no
Internet, a request would go into a queue until Internet is back on.
For instance, more and more self-serviced apartments (Airbnb etc.) need a room-service system. A good system would be an Access application on a tablet in the apartment that allows the guest to ask for stuff; like pressing a button to ask for toilet paper which would trigger an approval action in Flow but also post to an admin PowerApps application on the owner's phone.
So he would be able to respond from his phone via PowerApps.
How to design a Flow to approve sth
How to send a POST request using WinHTTP from Access to trigger
a Flow
How to design a simple PowerApps application to receive information via Flow
How to trigger a Flow from PowerApps |
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Start Your Project Right! |
Armen Stein,
J Street,
Bellevue, USA |
Congratulations! Youre starting a new custom development project. But the way a project starts is a good predictor of how it will finish. To make everything proceed smoothly and complete successfully, its important to develop a great project plan. You must understand and document your customers needs, project scope, and perhaps most importantly, the cost estimates!
Armen will discuss how J Street plans Access and web projects from hundreds of hours to thousands, and hell leave you with samples and tools that you can use.
Conversations with the customer
Components of the project plan
Choosing the right architecture
Estimating Access and web projects
Database design as a scope indicator
How Agile should I be? |
Armen is the founder and president
of J
Street Technology, a Microsoft Partner
located near Seattle. J Street is a team of developers with expertise in
building custom Access desktop and ASP.NET web applications. He is an MCP, Access MVP and has spoken at many
conferences and user groups around the world.
His other interests include travel, photography,
Kauai, backgammon, movies and driving his 1969
Ford Bronco in the sun.
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Extended Report Management |
Jean Pierre Allain, abiss.de,
Zurich, Switzerland |
PART I: Changing the
RecordSource of reports after having opened the report in preview
Offer your users to select different data at any time, even if the report is already executed in
print preview. Can't be done in Access, can it? ;-) Well, you'll see the trick.
PART II: Modify and open reports in external files with a RecordSource from the
launching file
Provide your users with the ability to create, modify and print their own reports in a separate file without having to open this separate file.
It's necessary to change the RecordSource after having opened the report: solved
in PART I
This solution even allows the user to open external reports in design view
and to
Modify and save them even if the program file is a compiled mde/accde |
Jean Pierre has been a consultant and developer and is doing presentations and
workshops for many years.
He focusses on the development of relational databases (Access/SQL
Server/mySQL/ Oracle) with user friendly Access frontends.
At his website he offers various useful
Add-Ins
for Access und Excel. |
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Real World Solutions |
Juan Soto, IT Impact, Chicago,
USA |
Juan shows a couple of Access applications his company has developed for different clients over the last years.
The problem/initial position/requirements
Essential parts of the solution
Technical and organizational highlights
The most interesting/unusual codes, tools, tips and tricks
Planning for large projects and unusual situations
Rolling out new versions for the first time
After this presentation you will have a better understanding of how to leverage
Access in more complex situations. |
Juan
is the President of IT Impact Inc. and a Microsoft Access MVP for the last six
years.
His blog is
focused on Access+SQL Server and he is the founder of
AccessUserGroups.org.
When hes not working or blogging, Juan enjoys traveling around the world. You can
reach him at
https://accessexperts.com/contact/ |
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Windows API in 64bit Access |
Philipp Stiefel,
pstiefel.de, Hofheim, Germany |
The Windows API is like a reliable, old car. It's fairly basic but it's just getting its jobs done in an almost miraculous way for more than 20 years.
Now, a bit of maintenance is due to make it run on new 64bit roads. Lets use this opportunity to take it apart. We'll give its moving parts the servicing it needs to be roadworthy for the next 20 years.
Here's our servicing checklist:
Access 64bit vs. 32bit
How to use the Windows API in VBA
Common data types
Tools and resources
VBA7 extensions for 64bit
Preparing API calls for 64bit |
Philipp is working with Access for almost 20 years now. He runs his small consultancy for bespoke software and technical counselling for almost as long. Amongst other community contributions, he was awarded Microsoft MVP for his
website about Access and VBA.
He is the creator of Ivercy, a source code control add-in for Access, and has more recently acquired a taste for recording
Access + VBA related videos. |
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