Re: [MSAccessProfessionals] Convert MS Access application to Web-browser based application

Of course there's the html5 remote desktop client now. That works very nice with Access Desktop.

For the we implement a Post-API layer that communicates JSON back and  fort, defines a ADO-object in code, fills it with JSON and assigns the ado object as recordsource to the form. The forms use API methods to update/create. We all build those with Power automate that connects to a SQL database (assembles Tsql Exec Queries that are passed in one roundtrip to SQL-server). SQL-Server is a very wealthy client environment to any API (odata to business Central, Navision etc but also to an Access Interop API that's enabled te perform vba in an Access of Excel backend).

To use SQL Server as odata client we have a  C# clr deployed project that gives a stored procedure named WebApiCaller.

Rob

 

Van: MSAccessProfessionals@groups.io <MSAccessProfessionals@groups.io> Namens Lists
Verzonden: dinsdag 8 juni 2021 04:32
Aan: MSAccessProfessionals@groups.io
Onderwerp: Re: [MSAccessProfessionals] Convert MS Access application to Web-browser based application

 

Converting the Back-End is relatively easy, even if you have to create the tables and relationships by hand. What is the real challenge is converting the forms, reports, and VBA to something that will run in a browser.Every time someone asks this question, the responders always seem to only talk about converting the Back-End. I don't think anyone knows of an answer to converting the Front-End; I certainly don't.

I would love to find that there is some tool, free or paid, that will convert the Front-End, even if only partially. It would be great to be able to build the program in MS Access, with the Back-End in some Client/Server Database on a web host, and then convert the Front-End to a bunch of web pages. Then the user could take his desktop app on the road. Who wouldn't love that? How much would a client pay for that? Not so easy without a tool.

A big part of the problem, as far as I know, is that MS Access is so much more powerful than a web page. Web pages are pretty powerful, and they seem to be getting better all the time, but browsers have a ways to go to catch up to Access forms. Emulating Access completely in JavaScript is probably not possible, but some JavaScript guru might think otherwise and I'd love to be wrong here. Perhaps Java would be the way to go, but I have no clue here as don't know anything about Java. I also have no idea how to get the kind of reports from a web site, as a PDF or as another web page, the we can dash off in Access in an hour or two.