Access Analyser Software

[mjc2002]

Hello, I was wondering if any of you know of a program (preferably freeware!) that can analyse Access Databases eg. producing automatic print-outs/reports detailing relationships between queries, tables, forms, etc.

If this all sounds very strange, I ask because I used to use a wonderful little program called Project Analyser (if I recall rightly) which could plough through my VB code and produce lots of interesting and useful analysis concerning variables, procedures, etc.

Or maybe I can analyse my database through Access itself? If so I haven't found that tool yet. I don't know about you but I find as my database grows there are more and more (and ultimately too many) bits and pieces to keep tabs of.

Cheers

Mike

 

[KenReay]

Hi

There is an Tool within Access see Tools \ Analyze

Give it a whirl and see if it is what you want.

Hope this helps

Ken Reay
Freelance Solutions Developer
Boldon Information Systems Ltd
UK
kenneth.reaySPAMNOT@talk21.com
remove SPAMNOT to use

 

[MichaelRed]

I am totally unaware of any freeware which is even close to comprehensive. I (long ago e.g. circa Ms. A. ver 2.0) did a program to generate a crossreference listing of objects and variables in Ms. Access. In the 'way back when' days, it took about a week to get through the various object categories and what I considered the "Top" level references (RecordSource for forms & reports, source tables for queries, etc.). I never did get the variables completed, only managing to more or less find all of the definitions and their scope (Global, Module, Procedure). Parsing the text of queries for field usage was enough to convince me that the third party tool was WELL worth the investment, and the project was dropped in favor of the investment.

More recently, I did a largely programmatic conversion of a relatively large program to VB6. The original program was VB DOS utilizing standard modules to access a btrieve 'database'. Again, I was faced with the issue of determining the definition and scope of variables. Again, I wrote copious ammounts of code to read, parse, and replace 'stuff' with 'mystuff'. After only a few months of effort, I was able to take an existing implementation of the app and replace it with a new implementation -with the exception of the odd control (or so) which was added some installations, but not others (reasons completly unknown).

My conclusion is that if you are strictly needing to generate a reasonable set of documentation of a MS ACCESS app, the third party tool is actually quite a bit cheaper than the 'freeware' - unless your internal charge rate is unrealistically low (e.g. 0). If you intend to make large scale changes to an app (particularly in a mixed environment), you may want to roll your own.

MichaelRed
m.red@att.net

There is never time to do it right but there is always time to do it over

 

[thornmastr]

Mike,

Forget the free stuff other than what comes with Access, which for what it does, is pretty good.

However, if you need a really full analysis of your database, or any Access database, I strongly recommend TOTAL ACCESS ANALYZER from FMS, INC. it is not cheap. But if you develop professionally, you might want to seriously consider spending the $300.00.

Even if not, take a look at the spec sheet from FMS and use it as a guide for what a real analysis program should do.

http://www.fmsinc.com

Robert Berman
Data Base consultant
Vulcan Software Services
thornmastr@yahoo.com