VB.NET-Should Access be used for this situation?

[Philip]

Hi,

I am going to develop a piece of software in .NET that could concievably use
an Access MDB file as a backbone for its datastore. Then I could use
ADO.NET to get the data (it's kind of like a lightweight POP3 server) and
all of the data file infrastructure would be all ready for me. But my
question is, I've never seen a professional program use Access like that.
Would I be better off developing my own way to save the data to a disk and
have to write routines to write and read the data? Why don't more people
use Access for data based applications? What problems arise from it?

Thanks

Philip

 

[Merlin]

Your kidding!

A hell of a lot of people use Access as the backend database - and many
mainstream companies use it as their desktop application database, as its
easy to work with, fast and easy to install as part of an application.

Personally I would suggest using SQL Server, if you don't have access to
this then Access is fine for any situtation, as long as your not going to
have dozens of concurrent heavy users.

Merlin.

 

[Merlin]

Off the top of my head - one of the UK's leading time and attendance systems
used Access.

You say you want to market the software to the home user with a desktop PC,
then Access seems an ideal solution; as with all databases, issues usually
appear on multi-user systems, whereas yours would appear single user.

If you don't need to use the latest 'bells & whistles' report writers, and
your data is only a few thousand records and MOST IMPORTANTLY you do not
require complex relationships between your data - then I wouldn't bother
with Access, just create a random access flat file. I had a company running
a Stock Control System with a random access flat file for 13 years, and
never ever had a problem - there indestructible!

Sorry I can't be of further help - only you can weight the advantages and
disadvantages of using Access, governed by your requirements.

Merlin

 

[Mr. B]

with Access, just create a random access flat file. I had a company running
a Stock Control System with a random access flat file for 13 years, and
never ever had a problem - there indestructible!

Where the Users accessing (read/write) at the same time? I too am going to
write a small app (100 Users) who "occasionally" enter data (small stuff at
that too). The app would 'read' the data file every 5-10 minutes. So would a
RAF file do this or MDB is the way to go?

Regards,

Bruce

 

[Mr. B]

and I either would only require to read the data in sequential order or my
records were under 20,000. You'll be amazed at just how fast you can read
data from a RAF file - and the main benefit being you'll never have to worry

Good. I guess (unless you have other thoughts) that a simple TXT file would
also be useable. But I guess a RAF probably is just as better (ie: I don't
know the exact benifits from one to the other on a read/write application with
several users - other than you can read a TXT file simply enough with a text
editor). But I'll try the RAF and see how that goes.

Regards,

Bruce