Converting Access Project (ADP) from 2000 to 2003 when source controlis involved

[Yarik]

Hello everyone!

We have an ADP project created using Access 2000. This project is
under source control (using the Access' standard add-on that
integrates Access with SourceSafe).

Now we use Access 2003 to work with this project. Everything seems to
be working okay, including integration with source control. When this
ADP file is opened by Access 2003, it says that the project has "2000
file format".

Which brings up two questions:


(1) What are the strongest reasons to upgrade "file format" of this
project from 2000 to 2003?

For example, within last few months or so, we saw Access 2003 fail
without any obvious reason quite a few times. Usually, re-opening of
the ADP file did not help in such situations, but complete
"restoration" of the project file from source control always helped.
Is it possible that at least some of those unexplained and random
failures were actually caused by some problems with "2000 file format"
being used with Access 2003?


(2) How exactly can I perform the conversion from 2000 file format to
2003 one without losing "connection" to the source control?

For example, when I try to convert the ADP file using

Tools > Database Utilites > Convert Project > To 2002-2003 file
format

menu command, I successfully get a new ADP file in new format.
However, this procedure does not seem to affect in any way the actual
"project sources" in SourceSafe repository, so when I recreate the
project from SourceSafe repository, I'm getting an ADP file in old,
2000 file format again.

FWIW, I did not try (yet) to perform this conversion procedure "in
place" - i.e. without creating a new ADP file. I am not even sure that
it's technically possible, but the main reason of my hesitation is
that I want to keep this project's sources in SourceSafe repository
(preserving all the history), and I don't want to take any chances.
Should I try to do that "in place" conversion, or it won't help
either?


Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Tom van Stiphout]

On Thu, 22 May 2008 19:45:31 -0700 (PDT), Yarik <[email protected]>
wrote:

You would have to start a new SourceSafe tree.

There are few if any reasons to upgrade the file format. If I were you
I'd keep it in A2000.

In our company we have looked at SS integration more than once, but we
always rejected it because of its many limitations. We now check
in/out the entire mdb or adp file.

-Tom.

 

[Paul Shapiro]

I've converted sourcesafe-integrated Access applications without starting a
new sourcesafe project. Check everything out of sourcesafe. Do the
conversion. If Access insists on giving a new name to the converted db, you
have to rename it before attempting checkin. If Access wants to rename the
converted db, you could rename the original before conversion, so the
converted db has the correct name. It's been a while since I've done this,
but I have 1998 dates in a current Access 2003 sourcesafe project, so that
probably went from Access 97 - XP - 2003.

It's a safe conversion. If if succeeds, check everything back into
sourcesafe. If anything fails, you can undo the checkout without the
conversion. Or build a new version of the db without checking anything in
and go from there. If necessary you can edit the project properties to tell
SourcSafe not to cloak the project, and then you can undo the checkout from
within the SourceSafe application.

 

[Tom van Stiphout]

On Fri, 23 May 2008 07:21:36 -0400, "Paul Shapiro"

I believe it's a SS best practice to pin an important version and then
continue with a new version (tree). That way you can easily go back to
many previous versions and check out the exact files pertaining to
that version. Labeling only gets you so far.

-Tom.

 

[Yarik]

I've converted sourcesafe-integrated Access applications without starting a
new sourcesafe project. Check everything out of sourcesafe. Do the
conversion. If Access insists on giving a new name to the converted db, you
have to rename it before attempting checkin. If Access wants to rename the
converted db, you could rename the original before conversion, so the
converted db has the correct name.
...
It's a safe conversion. If if succeeds, check everything back into
sourcesafe. If anything fails, you can undo the checkout without the
conversion. Or build a new version of the db without checking anything in
and go from there. If necessary you can edit the project properties to tell
SourcSafe not to cloak the project, and then you can undo the checkout from
within the SourceSafe application.

Somehow it did not work for me...

- I've checked everything out...

- I've converted the ADP file successfully...

NB: I had to produce a new file, because
their conversion tool does not want to
overwrite ANY existing files (let alone
the file being converted).

- I've replaced the old ADP file by the
new one.

- I've opened the new ADP file and checked
everything in.

Here goes the showstopper: when I tried to recreate the project from
source control, I've started receiving "Cannot import form ..." error
messages. The vast majority of the forms (and probably objects of
other types) failed to get imported.

(FWIW: Once Access had imported everything it could - which was just a
few forms, the title of the database window was still saying "Access
2000 file format"...)

Is it possible that your instructions were missing some important step/
action?


For now, I've reverted the project to 2000 format...

 

[xiaojun]

Hello everyone!

We have an ADP project created using Access 2000. This project is
under source control (using the Access' standard add-on that
integrates Access with SourceSafe).

Now we use Access 2003 to work with this project. Everything seems to
be working okay, including integration with source control. When this
ADP file is opened by Access 2003, it says that the project has "2000
file format".

Which brings up two questions:


(1) What are the strongest reasons to upgrade "file format" of this
project from 2000 to 2003?

For example, within last few months or so, we saw Access 2003 fail
without any obvious reason quite a few times. Usually, re-opening of
the ADP file did not help in such situations, but complete
"restoration" of the project file from source control always helped.
Is it possible that at least some of those unexplained and random
failures were actually caused by some problems with "2000 file format"
being used with Access 2003?


(2) How exactly can I perform the conversion from 2000 file format to
2003 one without losing "connection" to the source control?

For example, when I try to convert the ADP file using

Tools > Database Utilites > Convert Project > To 2002-2003 file
format

menu command, I successfully get a new ADP file in new format.
However, this procedure does not seem to affect in any way the actual
"project sources" in SourceSafe repository, so when I recreate the
project from SourceSafe repository, I'm getting an ADP file in old,
2000 file format again.

FWIW, I did not try (yet) to perform this conversion procedure "in
place" - i.e. without creating a new ADP file. I am not even sure that
it's technically possible, but the main reason of my hesitation is
that I want to keep this project's sources in SourceSafe repository
(preserving all the history), and I don't want to take any chances.
Should I try to do that "in place" conversion, or it won't help
either?


Any help would be greatly appreciated!