Chapter 19: Upgrading

Overview

There is a chance that at some point or another, your application may grow beyond Microsoft Access. Imagine a scenario like this: You own a small store and decide to put your catalog on the Internet. You keep your catalog details on Access for easy updating. Your small site, initially, gets a few visitors a day and Access is working fine.

You then decide to start taking orders online. You suddenly have new security issues that Access may, or may not, fully address. A year or so down the road, your website is getting several hundred visitors an hour; and many are complaining that the site is running very slow. You may have reached the limitations of Access. If that is the case, the upgrade path of least resistance is Microsoft SQL Server.

Note

Do not confuse Microsoft SQL Server with the SQL query language.

In this chapter, we are going to examine the ways to upgrade your database to SQL Server while you continue using Access as a front end to access the SQL Server engine. This will require a brief discussion of user-defined functions, stored procedures, Transact SQL, and views.

Admittedly, this chapter will present only a brief overview. A full discussion of Microsoft SQL Server would fill a book by itself.

As of this writing, Microsoft has made a SQL Server available for approximately $50. This has most of the features of the Enterprise Edition but can only be used on a single machine for noncommercial applications. It is ideal for learning this product and for studying the examples shown in this chapter.

In addition, Microsoft has a 120-day trial available for free download at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/evaluation/trial/default.asp. Be warned, however: the download is approximately 350 megabytes, and you will need about 550 megabytes for it to expand. The $50 may be a more viable alternative.