I am creating an Access client to a SQL db and decided to go with an ADP
instead of an MDB. But I'm having some issues. My previous post regarding
ADP's went unanswered. Is there anyone out there who knows about ADP's?

Andrew Chanter wrote:
Yes, there is. I've used them since Access 2K. They are full of promise.
The promise has not been fulfilled. There are many idiosyncrasies.

Send me an ADP connected to an Internet enabled MS-SQL database and
using bound forms. I believe that I will be able to gain direct access
to the db unless you use application roles. And if the application is
large and complex, you will go crazy trying to cope with the bizarre
anomalies of Access ADPs and application roles; there are a multitude of
these.

And if I can do it for an Internet DB, others can for any db.

Use it as an unbound interface? Why? For its clumsy VBA? For its limited
and ugly GUI manifestation? Because every dolt who has learned where the
on-off switch is fancies himself/herself to have "medium" access skills
and experience and will try to mess with it?

Use it for its reports? Maybe. But certainly ADP reports are not as
sweet and simple as MDB reports. And MS's inability or unwillingness to
standardize forms and reports are, for me, a constant thorn. Be prepared
to wrestle with input parameters.

Want to stay up all night for a few nights trying to figure out how to
do something that must be done, after you are a thousand hours into the
project? Want to find out after posting to several newsgroups that no
one has a suitable solution? Use an ADP.

Want to feel that thrill after those several nights are rewarded by your
finding the true solution? Wait until you try that solution in exactly
the same circumstances and it doesn't work. Such joy. If you are
experienced you will think of the years you spent with DBaseIII,
FoxBase, FoxPro, Clipper, Delphi etc and realize that all their
frustrations were nothing compared with trying to cope with this latest
marvel.

Am I exaggerating? A bit. I still use ADPS for things that are small,
quick and dirty, George Bush types of applications. But would I embark
again on a major ADP? Only if the money were plentiful and mine and the
responsibility all someone else's. And I needed to feed my masochistic
needs.

With apologies to the English language ....

Lyle

"Lyle Fairfield" <lylefair (AT) yahoo (DOT) ca> wrote


So that's a 'no' then Lyle?

Actually I daresay you've saved me much hubble bubble toil and trouble. I've
got a pro bono (which I believe is Latin for 'not getting paid for it') SQL
Server database that I need a George W Bush interface for. In light of your
comments at least I'll know to bail out quickly if the ADP becomes too much
of a PITA.

It is useful to have somebody like you express opinions. Cause I know that
you have put some work into ADPs and gave them a far better chance than most
people. So your disillusion speaks volumes.

Are they being developed any further by MS? I've kinda stopped installing
every version of Office in the world so don't know what happened after
Access 2000.

Cheers, Mike

Mike MacSween previously wrote:

At the UK Access user group MS said that the future was MDB-shaped.
Technology involving the letters a, d and p in any order would not be
developed further in any significant way.

Peter Russell

Lyle Fairfield <lylefair (AT) yahoo (DOT) ca> wrote

<snip>

Too funny.

I am nowhere near as disenchanted with ADP's as Lyle is, but it does
have strange quirks, most of which you have to learn about the hard
way. IMO, if you are on the clock billing a client, the hard way is
not the best time to learn.

For small, non-critical projects, it's very quick and easy -- once you
have figured out the wierd bits.