MS Access Application - Convert data storage from Access to SQL Server

Question

Bear in mind here, I am not an Access guru. I am proficient with SQL Server and .Net framework. Here is my situation:

A very large MS Access 2007 application was bui

Answer 1

You have a couple of options, the upsizing wizard does a decent(ish) job of moving structure and data from access to Sql. You can then setup linked tables so your application 'should' work pretty much as it does now. Unfortunately the Sql dialect used by Access is different from Sql Server, so if there are any 'raw sql' statements in the code they may need to be changed.

As you've linked to tables though all the other features of Access, the QBE, forms and so on should work as expected. That's the simplest and probably best approach.

Another way of approaching the issue would be to migrate the data as above, and then rather than using linked tables, make use of ADO from within access. That approach is kind of famaliar if you're used to other languages/dev environments, but it's the wrong approach. Access comes with loads of built in stuff that makes working with data really easy, if you go back to use ADO/Sql you then lose many of those benefits.

I suggest start on a small part of the application - non essential data, and migrate a few tables and see how it goes. Of course you back everything up first.

Good luck