Using Microsoft Access as a front-end to a MySQL database?

My Microsoft Access database (FE/BE) has grown out of the limitations and I've to import more data, so Access is not the right choice for me anymore. I'll switch to MySQL (NOT SQL Server) as a go开发者_运维技巧od alternative, but I'm wondering what to use as a front-end to the MySQL database. Should I keep my Access VBA code and front-end (using a ODBC connection) or ...? High performance is not required.

If you've already invested a lot in your front end development, to me it's a no-brainer to keep the Access front end.

On the other hand, if you're not comfortable with developing in Access and the app you have is relatively trivial, and you have a favorite development platform that you can easily get up and running with very quickly, things tip in the other direction.

Also, if you have a change of requirements, such as needing to deploy on the web or to remote users, that can be a good reason to abandon your investment in the Access front end.

But in general, the first choice is to stick with what is already working, and then move on only if there are unresolvable problems with that.

I use access as my front end all the time. It works, plain and simple. You can use the tools in Access to upsize the tables to SQL. After that is done, I rename the linked tables to take out the dbo_ prefix, so the forms and code is all still looking at the same table name.

Now you have sql maintenance and backups of the data. You can make different copies of the front end. You can have a dev copy and one for users. Once you have changes to the front end - new forms or reports, you can publish it in 2 seconds when no one is in the published copy.

I have wanted to learn asp or go to other platforms for front end gui of my db's, but why bother when I don't need a bomb for an ant hill? They are small apps and Access does a good job with them.

hth!

I think you should at least first try a copy of your existing Access FE with ODBC links to the new MySQL database. I've done similar with PostGreSql and SQL Server as the backend database, and it can work well. I don't know whether you could run into more gotchas or even deal-breakers with MySQL, but seems like it should be worth a try. And it wouldn't cost you much effort to find out ... just discard or rename your existing Jet tables and add the ODBC links in their place.