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Originally published at Internet.comMany developers misunderstand what Access has to offer out of the box and what the Microsoft Office Developer (MOD) tools can add to the picture. They often tell me "I can't develop applications in Access because my company refuses to buy each user a copy of Access," or "I'm going to buy the MOD so that I can compile my applications with the MOD tools." These are just two of the many misconceptions about exactly what the MOD tools do and don't have to offer.
Features of the MOD
You no longer need to buy a separate product to create runtime versions of your Access applications. As a developer, you will likely buy the MOD, which includes Office Premium plus all the features from the old Office Developer Environment (ODE), plus many new components. An important feature of the MOD is a royalty-free distribution license that allows you to distribute unlimited copies of your Access application without your users having to own separate licensed copies of Access. This means that by using the MOD tools, you can create applications you distribute to your users, who can run the application with the runtime engine you distribute to them. The MOD tools also include the following: * The Microsoft Office Object Model Guide and the Office Programmer's Guide. In addition, numerous code samples are provided on CD-ROM. * A Package and Deployment Wizard that helps you to create disks containing compressed files with everything you need to install and run your application. * A host of data-bound ActiveX custom controls that can be used to enhance your application's functionality and distributed to your users as part of your MOD license. These controls include the Enhanced FlexGrid and the Data Repeater controls. * The Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) is an alternative to the Jet Engine. It provides local data storage compatible with and easily upgradable to SQL Server. The MSDE is not automatically installed with Microsoft Access. To install it, run \Sql\x86\Setup\Setupsql.exe, located on the Office 2000 CD-ROM #1. * The Microsoft Replication Manager helps you with the replication process by letting you schedule updates between replicas, determine which objects in the database are replicated, display all the replicas in a replica set, and manage multiple replica sets. * The COM Add-in Designer allows you to create and debug standalone COM add-ins. COM add-ins are DLLs that can be used from multiple Office applications. * The Code Librarian provides a reusable centralized database of pre-written standard routines. This database can be easily shared across development teams. * The Data Environment Designer allows developers to easily connect VBA code to external data sources. Using the Data Environment Designer, you can create hierarchical recordset command objects without writing any code. * Visual Source Safe and VSS Integration provide both versioning and team management for your Access applications. After integrating Visual Source Safe into your applications, team members can check objects in and out, view the differences between versions, view the history of an object, and more. * The String Editor is a WYSIWYG interface that allows you to quickly and easily build SQL statements. It facilitates the process of embedding SQL statements in VBA code. * The Code Commenter automatically adds comments and headers to procedures. This is accomplished using customizable templates. * The Error Handler is used to easily create a standard error handler for your application. It enables you to insert error handling code into your routines, using a customizable template. Many of these utilities are covered in detail in my book, AAlison Balter's Access 2000 Development. * The Multi-Code Import/Export tool allows you to transfer multiple code modules in and out of an application. This makes it easy for you to share code libraries. * The Data Report Designer provides a drag-and-drop interface to report creation. This interface is available throughout the Office suite. * The Windows API Viewer has all the declarations, constants, and type structures used with the 32-bit Windows application programming interface (API). It allows you to easily copy the function, constant, and type declarations into your code modules.
Differences Between the Standard and Runtime Versions of Access
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