On Mon, Nov 01, 2004 at 08:45:05PM +0000, Owen Synge wrote:

On Mon, 1 Nov 2004 19:46:51 +0000 Jenny Hopkins hopkins.jenny@gmail.com wrote:

...

On Mon, 1 Nov 2004 18:33:44 +0000, Chris Green chris@areti.co.uk wrote:

...

How easy is it nowadays to migrate an Access application to Linux?

I'm getting rather fed-up with trying to maintain an Access 97 application on Windows 2000 and migrating to Linux might be the answer.

Do you mean an equivalent application? I've moved a work MS Access database to Linux by putting the back end in postgresql and rewriting the front end in html/php and serving it over our intranet, it's taken me a long time to do it though. Worth the effort and I only have one front end to maintain. Is this what you mean?

jenny

I think what jenny did is the best way as it reduces the maintenance and dependencies to a minimum, Dependency is one of the most profitable ideas of a software companies as it allows for lock in to technology. Its a lot of work to migrate an Access MS/Office integrated application, because a typical Access Database application uses VBA Scripting language which you can read but is not similar to any Linux language, and many of the components of office as libraries.

Yes, it hadn't actually occurred to me to be so radical but, on thinking about it, this is the obvious way to go. The application is the cash reconciliation/accounting system for my small business. For many years I was a contractor and I got fed up with trying commercial accounts programs and wrote my own, originally in Borland Paradox and then migrated to Access.

As I wrote the original system I know fairly well how it works and I also remember what a pain I found it was to use Access to write it. I actually know SQL quite well (part of my job) but the Visual Basic parts of it always did (and still do) confuse me!

My Ltd. company is still running even though I am no longer a contractor, my wife is using the company to do her freelance training and management work. We have a small network at home (and a Linux 'server' that's on all the time) so a Linux based version of the accounts system with an HTML front end would be ideal.

Even better, my son is very much into PHP so he could well do the front end. I can just transfer the database to mySql or some such.

I think star office is going down the same route and includes some tools for doing the same as what you have but still your application is Dependant on a moving product which may or may not have enough scripting functionality and may or may not be less work to maintain than one based on MSOffice.

I've never really found Star Office a very attractive idea.

My feeling is that you should use a good standardized/open language such as Python/Perl or what ever open rapid development tools you know, and use a GUI appropriate to the problem. Databases on Linux are not my specialty, although I do feel mySQL is suitable for most MSAccess applications, although SQLServer is a far better product and I'd be tempted to replace applications based on this with something other than MySQL.

I'd appreciate some feedback on databases for Linux.

If you have the source code it will be easier than writing the application the first time if you can read the stuff in a debugger.

I certainly have the source, though there's not all that much of it.

Otherwise I suggest that you consider it as hard as rewriting the application.

Probably right, but it'll be a good exercise, especially if I can get my son involved in it.

On Tue, 2 Nov 2004 08:18:10 +0000, "Chris Green" chris@areti.co.uk said:

On Mon, Nov 01, 2004 at 07:46:51PM +0000, Jenny Hopkins wrote:

...

On Mon, 1 Nov 2004 18:33:44 +0000, Chris Green chris@areti.co.uk wrote:

...

How easy is it nowadays to migrate an Access application to Linux?

I'm getting rather fed-up with trying to maintain an Access 97 application on Windows 2000 and migrating to Linux might be the answer.

Do you mean an equivalent application? I've moved a work MS Access database to linux by putting the back end in postgresql and rewriting the front end in html/php and serving it over our intranet, it's taken me a long time to do it though. Worth the effort and I only have one front end to maintain. Is this what you mean?

In the end, yes, maybe. It's actually quite a simple application and an HTML/PHP front end would be a brilliant idea. However a 'quick and dirty' bodge for the moment would be useful too!

I wonder what you can do with Mono (http://go-mono.org)? Mono will probably understand your Basic code and you could easily extract your SQL from Access and insert it into MySQL......

Richard

Chris Green wrote:

[SNIP]

...

...

In the end, yes, maybe. It's actually quite a simple application and an HTML/PHP front end would be a brilliant idea. However a 'quick and dirty' bodge for the moment would be useful too!

I wonder what you can do with Mono (http://go-mono.org)? Mono will probably understand your Basic code and you could easily extract your SQL from Access and insert it into MySQL......

Thanks for the link. However I suspect that it might take almost as much effort as biting the bullet and doing it 'properly' using PHP or whatever. (Especially given my lack of knowledge and dislike of VB)

Chris,

There are a number of free (and non-free) tools to convert access to MySQL. We use one, but I forget which, and there's no-one here right now to ask. It's easier to develop the db structure in the Access GUI and convert to MySQL than to hand code it.

Once it's in MySQL, phpmyadmin will prove a real boon with managing it and the data therein.

As you say, php/html would be a good exercise for your lad! Get him to sign up for phpclasses (see http://www.phpclasses.org/) as in code not lessons.

Cheers, Laurie.