Re: why>?

MDB are a useful learning tool

I used them for several years before moving to SQL.

but newbies shouldn't have to do that since ADP has such a nice
interface for writing sprocs and views.

and the training resources that are out there for SQL vs the training
resources for MDB?

it's possible to find any of hundreds of books; mdb doesn't have 50
books written about it

I want to help people to see the light; i'm sorry that I'm agro
sometimes.
it's just frustrating.

i wish i could spend more time teaching people Accesss.

I wish that I had gotten the project manager job at Microsoft; where I
should be working right now.

A lot of things to wish and regret.

But when all is said and done; i can write some really exciting
applications with really exciting performance-- against thousands,
millions of records

and i wish that i could just sprinkle my magic fairy dust and let you
guys see the light.


i just-- i mean.. everything i build; you can right-click SORT on it.
it's much cleaner than any other solutions out there.

right-click filter, right-click sort-- it's a very intuitive interface.

i can't wait for the next version.

Excel 2007 has some really really exciting technologies.. the ability
to import olap data as either a table or a pivotTable-- that's going to
revolutionize the way that we do business.

we've got 500-odd cubes around here; and it's a lot of fun.

We've got the most exciting pivotTables anywhere.

but it has nothing to do with excel.

it's all web-based; it's a lot more centralized than a bunch of
spreadsheets.. we keep all our report definitions in a single table..
it's each to share reports with others; copy reports; duplicate
reports; change a couple of fields..

it's just the most beautiful web-based pivotTable solution ever.

it just seems like it blows the pants off of excel pivotTables.

a) you can collapse dimensions; so that you can put manager and
employee in one dimension; allowing people to double click on a manager
in order to view the employee level..
b) performance is much better in OWC than excel
c) we keep all our reports in one place-- instead of a few thousand
spreadsheets (we literally produce 20,000 pivotTable reports off of
these olap cubes)
d) if we change something; it's real simple to loop through all the
reports; find out which ones are broken and fix them. i mean-- drag and
drop
e) it allows you to make custom calculations; using simple expressions
or complex MDX (100 times more powerful than SQL language-- it's
multi-dimensional; it's the language behind pivotTables)

i just think that it's the most beautiful technology anywhere.

it carries a lot of weight; and we've got a lot of excited excel users.

and i just mean-- the difference between having 10,000 spreadsheets and
10,000 report definitions?

all we do is have a simple XML report definition; people create these
by dragging and dropping fields in a web-based pivotTable format.

and we can have triggers-- an audit trail-- to these report defs.

and we can associate notes to these; and allow other people to blog on
these reports (all it is is a couple of fields in a database)

I just wish i could demonstrate to you guys how exciting this
technology is.

And all you need is

a) SQL Server Standard Edition
b) office license.

you dont need Access anywhere to do any of this.

but Access is how you get your data organized; move it to SQL Server
and presto-chango-- you've got a tool that can answer hundreds of
questions with very exciting levels of performance.

i mean.. drag and drop; it's 100 times faster than normal excel
pivotTables.





-Aaron


Harlan Grove wrote:
aaron.kempf@xxxxxxxxx wrote...
I have never once reccomend the usage of MDB files anywhere.
...

That's true. [Fair is fair - you've been almost as strident against MDB
files.]

However that undercuts your arguments in favor of databases. Few
business users outside IT departments have permissions to do anything
more than read company databases. The only database software SOME of
them may have is Access. They won't have MSDE installed, and they won't
have any Office product CDs with which to install it, and they likely
have company technology policies that explicitly forbid them to
download and install 'unapproved' software.

So if you want all these Excel users to switch to databases, Access
*AND* MDB are necessary stepping stones along the path. So you better
get used to giving MDB answers if you want to win any converts.

.