Is VB.Net the best option for a web front end port of an existing MSAccess 2003 system?

[Chrisso]

Hi All

I have developed a MS Access 2003 application for a client. It is
spilt into two with a data back end and a forms/query/modules front
end. The majority of the "value add" of the system is in the VB logic
in the front end that guides and validates the users actions as they
use the forms to update and search the back end.

The system has proved successful in prototype and now the client wants
to roll it out to his users - this is where we hit a problem.

His IT department do not support MS Access! While he could get MS
Access installed on his PC he cannot get it installed on any of the
PCs of his staff he wants to view and update the database. The IT
department now want me to move the application to a web based version
with SQL server backend.

I have trawled through the groups etc and it seems to me the best way
is to:
1. drop the back end directly into MS SQL server using MS SQL Server
conversion tools - I understand that this should be fairtly straight
forward after all relational tables are relational tables in both MS
Access and MS SQL Server.
2. rewrite the front end in VB.Net so that all the users can view
and update the back end through their web browser.

Can anybody give me some hints and tips about whether this is the
right way to go about it? I am a programmer so am happy to learn
VB.Net and should have no problems with SQL Server.

Would this be the quickest way to take my MS Access 2003 system and
turn it into a web database? I am skeptical that any conversion tool
would do a good job as the real value of the system is all the VB code
behind the forms which I am sure any conversion tool would really
butcher. I think it would be best just to clone my system myself in
VB.Net.

Have I chosen the right tool (VB.Net) for my web enabled front end? It
has to be something Microsoft I think (i.e. not PHP) for the IT
department to support it on their servers. I am very comfortable with
VB for MS Access so I am sure I can learn VB.Net easy - is this a
valid assumption?

Can I download a developer version of VB.Net to do this project on my
home PC?

Thanks in advance for any ideas - my head is swimming a little at the
moment as there seems to be loads of different ways of doing this.

Chrisso

 

[calVie]

http://asp101.com/

 

[GBA]

well this phrase kind of summarizes your dilemma: "The IT

department now want me to move the application to a web based "

that's sort of like telling a trombone player that the IT Dept now wants him
to play the harp...

yeah they both require a knowledge of music, and they are in the same field
of study...but they are entirely different instruments....

you are in total start-over mode. You can give that Access app to a web
developer as it will make a great prototype example of what they need to
build.....but no one casually learns web development for a 1-off project,
last minute change from Access. Web development is a deep well.

they seem to specify sqlserver - but what about the web server - are they
not going to spec that as ASP?....it would seem there is a real failure of
communication somewhere - - not to mention that claim that IT "can not
support Access" - - a very dubious claim indeed......

 

[a a r o n . k e m p f]

any IT department in their right mind strictly forbids Access.

I know of quite a few mid / large sized companies in Seattle that
explicitly forbid using Access / Jet for any reason.

Anyone with a clue moved to SQL Server and Access Data Projects a
decade ago.

 

[De Jager]

message
any IT department in their right mind strictly forbids Access.

I know of quite a few mid / large sized companies in Seattle that
explicitly forbid using Access / Jet for any reason.

Anyone with a clue moved to SQL Server and Access Data Projects a
decade ago.