[dba-Tech] Looking for a web based app that does these things

[Arthur Fuller]

John,

I have previously sung the song of Alpha Anywhere, and you compel me to
sing them again. Yiou can't exactly port an Access app to AA, but you can
deliver an app that can run on smart-phone, tablet and web-site with not
much more effort than filling in some property-sheets (that's the Access
term). Alpha is truly remarkable in this respect. 99% of what you need to
accomplish can be done by filling out "property sheets" -- not what they
are called in AA, but you'll quickly get the point.

AA is not cheap, but that's because they know they have a winning solution.
You can grab a free trial and check out what they offer.

Full disclosure: I have a forthcoming eBook called "The Access Developer's
Guide to Alpha Anywhere". I'm two chapters from Done, and haven't yet
decided how to market it. I may just add it for free download to my
website; not sure yet.

Arthur

On Thu, Sep 1, 2016 at 4:07 AM, Gustav Brock <gustav at cactus.dk> wrote:

> Hi John
>
> It could be interesting to know if PowerApps would fit this bill:
>
>     https://web.powerapps.com
>
> https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/powerapps/9nblggh5z8f3
>
> It has some very powerful features hard to obtain otherwise but limitation
> seems to be the coding. But perhaps you can live with that.
>
> /gustav
>
> -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
> Fra: dba-Tech [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] På vegne af
> John R Bartow
> Sendt: 1. september 2016 06:52
> Til: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues' <
> dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
> Emne: [dba-Tech] Looking for a web based app that does these things
> Prioritet: Høj
>
> Hi all,
> Wondering if any of you know of a web based app that would fill the needs
> of what an old access app did that I wrote 15+ years ago. The old one is
> pretty simple in concept but it uses VBA to accomplish  much of the
> functionality and as A2016 doesn't support that anymore it is starting to
> break and they want a new one that is web based. It's basically 3 main
> tables with metadata, linking tables and lookups.
> Person <> Organization and a "Bulk Mail List" which essentially holds
> person IDs chosen via the first two. Using selected info from any of the
> three tables data or all, it then produces emails, a faxing list for people
> without email addresses, labels for people without either (hey, it was from
> last century) and content reports. There is also some pretty basic event
> tracking based on events they have people invited/attending which is pretty
> much based on person IDs being linked to a small event info table. The
> "Security" was based on metadata held in the main tables.
>
> So rather than reinventing the wheel, if there is something that would fit
> the bill then we'll just check that out as a replacement.
>
> Here is an outline of what they want now (other than a couple of modern
> items the access app did all of this):
>
> The following list of functions was identified by staff as critical to the
> automation of contact lists in a web based Contact Manager (CM):
>
> .Store name, address, phone (multiple), and emails (multiple) per person
> o       Optional space for professional title and certifications (P.E. CST,
> etc.)
> .Store name of group/organization/event with space to type in description
> o       Option to store group address
> o       Option to store group web page, Twitter, Facebook
> .Ability to link a person to a group/organization/event (one to many)
> .Ability to assign a person's role in each group/organization/event (one to
> one)
> .Allow groups and people to be combined (many to one) to form a bulk
> mailing list .Link to Outlook to allow emailing to lists directly from CM
> app .Link to Dymo printers to allow printing of mailing labels/name tags
> from CM app .Export lists to:
> o       Outlook folders
> o       Excel
> o       Constant Contact
> o       Word for mail merges
> .Import lists from:
> o       Outlook
> o       SharePoint (recycling app)
> o       Excel
> .Produce reports:
> o       By last name
> o       By email address
> o       By group/organization/event
> o       By bulk mailing list
> .Allow links from another, existing, web app to allow people in the CM app
> to be connected to a permit and assigned a role in the permit process
> .Security:
> o       Records and displays who created all contacts and lists
> o       Warn/verify when a list is deleted - double warning if you did not
> create the list
> .Must be mobile compatible (phone, tablet, etc.)
> .Searches:
> o       By last name
> o       By email address
> o       By phone number
> o       By group/organization/event
> .Ideas:
> o       May replace Constant Contact if CM app allows for web subscribing
> to
> mailing lists.
> o       Needs to allow links from a SharePoint app, which stores details on
> events such as attendance, presenters, location, start times, and other
> attributes.
>
> Thanks for any suggestions,
> John
>
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-- 
Arthur