[AccessD] Linked to SQL Server in a domain

Jim,

The client is a very small company (6 or so employees) that helps seniors with their medical 
insurance plans, researching billing issues and so forth.  They wanted a new network administrator 
(which I am definitely not) so they went out and hired a new company to do this.

This company advised them that in order to be HIPAA compliant they needed to move the data into SQL 
Server (for encryption reasons AFAICT).  It seems this company quoted a very low ball price to 
convert the system to SQL Server, and in the end it APPEARS that all they did was run the upgrade 
wizard.  AFAICS out in the SQL Server there are no views or stored procedures at all, only the data. 
  Even there they appear to have screwed some stuff up.  The database, which I did not write but 
which I maintained and added new functionality to for many years, was working fine (as stated by the 
company owner) before the upgrade but has "a bunch of problems" since the upgrade.

The owner is in the process of hiring a new network admin company and has asked me to come back and 
straighten out the problems in the db.  To be honest I was just brought back in a few days ago so I 
really don't know the details yet on the "bunch of problems".

In any event, the DB FE uses simple ODBC links to get at the data.  They have very few employees and 
performance seems to be pretty adequate doing things this way.  I understand (form a theoretical 
perspective) the concept of using ADO recordsets for the bound forms and as data sources for the 
combos etc. hitting stored procedures out on the SQL Server but none of that is presently used.

I am trying to come in and get some additional functionality happening quickly, for example a fairly 
strong login to the database and possibly additional presentation layer security.  I really don't 
want to get bogged down in trying to move the database away from ODBC at this point, though I would 
love to take this opportunity to do this as things settle down.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com


Jim Lawrence wrote:
> Hi John:
> 
> I have been working with MS Access to ADO-OLE to MS SQL/Oracle DBs since
> 1997 and Access does not work with ODBC. There is a simple and stupid way to
> up date an old Access MDB to a MS SQL BE using connection/links. 
> 
> This system actually works fine for delete, add and update... but as soon as
> you start grabbing recordsets of data for reports, subforms or start rolling
> out a new application to a remote desktops the whole system grinds to a
> halt. At that point you have reached the end of the usefulness of the ODBC
> connections.
> 
> Unfortunately there is no short cut, the client and you just have to bite
> the bullet and go straight ADO-OLE... It is not that difficult but the nice
> gui interface within Access can not do it.
> 
> Jim