Francisco H Tapia
my.lists at verizon.net
Wed Mar 10 17:17:32 CST 2004
Robert, I don't think I would ever mention Access ADP's as a tool of choice for administration tasks, however, Access in and of itself is a really neat tool in that you can create full featured front end systems which natively hook into SQLServer giving the developer the choice of such built in features such as NT authentication. Natively, no extra programming required. However, if you choose to use or not use EM, is all preferential. In fact for any Creation/Edit of Views/Sprocs and Functions, it's not an ideal choice. However for simple maintenance tasks such as table design, Diagram (PK-FK) joins. It's extreamly easy and quick to use versus typing out the entire contents in QA or some 3rd party tool which still uses DMO or TSQL to do the exact same thing. Not to mention DTS creation and management. Sure this can be done w/ 3rd party tools or w/ even hooking to they DTS libraries but why write all that code when it's all readily available in EM 2000. I've used EM since 7.0 so no I don't have long running history w/ previous versions, but the 2000 version is very neat and easy to use. While there are things that are annoying such as the small Sproc windows or un-smart view wizards, there is more to a SQL Server than creating views and sprocs. -- -Francisco Djabarov, Robert wrote: >I thought I would just ignore this discussion, but when I saw "seasoned DBAs" reference, and I could not resist! > >First of all, seasoned DBAs would not use MS Access for database/server administration purposes, NEVER!!! Very rarely we use Enterprise Manager, OK? I have stopped using EM on a daily basis since 6.5, needless to say in 7.0 or 2K environment. How can a "seasoned DBA" even mention MS Access as a tool of choice, unless he/she is not really ... "seasoned"...??? > > >Robert Djabarov >SQL Server & UDB >Sr. SQL Server Administrator (SEASONED) >Phone: (210) 913-3148 >Pager: (210) 753-3148 >9800 Fredericksburg Rd. San Antonio, TX 78288 >www.usaa.com > >-----Original Message----- >From: dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Steven W. Erbach >Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 3:43 PM >To: dba-sqlserver at databaseadvisors.com >Subject: Re: [dba-SQLServer] Arthur's article > >Francisco, > > > >>>Are you kidding me? Access 2003 is sans ADP's!!!! :O. << >>> >>> > >OK, let me in on the joke. How else am I supposed to interpret this article by Arthur? (from builder.com newsletter, 9-Mar-2004): > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >Enhance Enterprise Manager with Access > >Seasoned DBAs know that one of the best development environments available is virtually free, and it blows away the classic SQL Enterprise Manager. (Note: It's only free if you have a license for Microsoft Office 2000 or XP; it doesn't work for Office 2003.) > >Most companies that use SQL Server also use Office, and most of those firms have licensed the version that includes Access. That means that you can create a Microsoft Access project (ADP) file, which provides direct hooks into SQL Server. > >Once you create an ADP file, you can do almost everything that you can from Enterprise Manager, including create tables, views, stored procedures, and user-defined functions. You cannot create and execute DTS packages, set up logins and roles, etc., because Access is not meant to replace Enterprise Manager for these tasks. > >Follow these steps to set up this tool (this only works in Access 2000 or Access XP): > >1. Create an ADP that points to the SQL database of your choice. Make sure that it connects successfully; this will depend upon several factors, such as integrated or separate login. > >2. Look at the database window in Access. If you're using Access 2000, you'll see separate tabs for Queries and Stored Procedures. If you're using Access 2002 (XP), these two tabs have been rolled into one. > >3. Create a new stored procedure or view. You'll discover that you have a wizard and a graphical environment in which you can drag and drop, double-click various columns from various tables, automatically join tables, and view what you're building as SQL rather than as a graphic. This is especially useful when building constructs such as SELECT TOP 10 .... Nobody said that graphical interfaces could do everything, but the beauty is that you can have it both ways. > >4. Create either a scalar or a table function. > >5. Follow the prompts and build something. Even if it's simple, it'll help you get a feel for the tool. > >Enterprise Manager is intended more for maintenance than for development. Several other companies offer alternatives, but at a substantial cost. Even if you can get a sign-off to license one of these third-party products, you should investigate Access ADP files before doing so. Chances are that you'll get almost all the functionality you want--and virtually for free. > >The real question is: Why did Microsoft kill ADP files in Access 2003? Possibly because they were so good that they made Enterprise Manager look foolish by comparison; or perhaps because Yukon is such a radical change that it would demand a complete rewrite of the relevant code. Your guess is as good as mine. > >Arthur Fuller has been developing database applications for 20 years. His experience includes Access ADPs, Microsoft SQL 2000, MySQL, and .NET. >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > >Regards, > >Steve Erbach > >