The MS Access Data Project Application (ADP)
An MS Access Data Project (ADP) replaces the native MS Access Jet Engine data store
with a SQL Server database. All Queries are replaced with SQL Views, Functions and
Stored Procedures. The design interface supports editing the SQL content in the
MS Access ADP project file.
| MS Access Data Project Application Scorecard |
| Number of End Users |
Any |
IE Browser |
| Application Performance |
Good |
MS Access run-time start-up expense |
| Application Reliability |
Good |
SQL Server design-dependent |
| Data Integrity |
Excellent |
SQL Server design-dependent |
| Application Security |
Excellent |
Uses SQL Server security |
| Maintenance Burden |
Low |
Repair & Compact, Restore common |
Developing MS Access Data Projects does make the MS Access application "a web based
database available on the Internet," however this approach does require that all
Users run the MS ADP application through the MS Internet Explorer browser, and each
User must have a locally installed copy of MS Access (or the appropriate MS Access
Runtime engine) for the web-based database application to function properly.
MS ADP applications are limited primarily due to more complex deployment issues
e.g. MS Access Runtime and/or IE Browser availability and version issues. While
overcoming some of the inherent MS Access multi-user deployment limitations, the
MS Access Data Project approach can also suffer from poor performance (vs. standard
web based database applications) due primarily to the start up of the local instance
of MS Access. Data security, reliability and integrity are Excellent, albeit entirely
dependent on the SQL Server design.