Barry

I don't have a good answer for you.

I've noticed the IT department at a couple of companies I've worked at have a strong bias against MS Access.  I don't understand why they are so against it.  My guess is because they don't' want to be responsible for it, but the IT solutions they have are horrible.  For me, MS Access is the bridge for getting data from their crappy systems and turning it into something more useful for my groups.

I have looked into other Database development tools and MS Access really is the best from what I can tell.  It's not even close.  And the available resources are much better... like this site.

I would suggest having some strongly positioned discussions with your  IT department.  Some key points to emphasize:
1. You NEED it for your group.
2. It will not create more work for them
3. The Database solutions do not offer the features that you NEED.
4. It is saving your group time and money by having it and taking it away will seriously degrade the performance of your groups.

Please follow up if you do end up going another direction.

-Raymond

Also, 5.  It is probably included with your office365 so it likely doesn't cost extra.

I agree with Ray's key points to try to get your organization to stay with MS Access!
However just in case, here are my 25-cents worth (with inflation) as a possible alternative:
When I returned from Sweden back to the US in early 2000, I found MS Access was the ONLY tool available to meet my needs and still is today.  Having come from an object oriented program development environment during the 80-90's in Sweden, I was using DataFlex from Data Access Corporation, Miami, FL.  DataFlex at the time was a major player in Europe and particularly in Scandinavia. At the time they were never that big in the US.  This was the only truly OOP tool available for database/program development.  
If you absolutely have to switch from MS Access for frontend development, I can recommend you check out DataFlex from Data Access Worldwide  https://www.dataflex.dev

This is something I have been looking into myself because I hear from more and more people every day who are being told they have to move away from Access. If you do find a really good solution, definitely let me know. William, I will check out DataFlex, that is new to me.

I have also been working on a tool to let people take their Access databases (at least the forms and basic stuff) and publish them as web pages. Since Microsoft got rid of Data Access Pages years ago, I have been trying to build something similar. Right now it handles the basics - viewing, editing, adding records, the simple CRUD actions. If you know a little ASP, you can extend it further for more advanced features. I think the first step is just getting the data online in a usable way.

And like Raymond said, I do not understand why so many companies are against Access. It is a fantastic tool. I think part of the problem is that IT departments and a lot of so-called "real" developers look down on it without really knowing what it can do. I have even made full videos on this topic because it comes up so often.

So yes - if anyone finds a solid web-based product that really does what Access does, let me know. I would love to lean into that and start teaching it rather than having to keep building my own. The demand is huge, and the need is only getting bigger.

I really appreciate all of the input. We have been having discussions with the corporate IT for a few years now. They have actually used some of my databases as templates to create some new solutions that are being used globally. That by itself says a lot for the training I received from this site. Corporate IT is determined to kill Access for most of the reasons mentioned above but mostly because they fear that they will not be able to support it. There are still some huge gaps that only Access (as far as I know) can handle. I have been looking into MS Power Platform and it is a monster. Most all of the comments I have found from others on the support websites say the same thing and most of them are much more qualified than me. If push comes to shove I will have to use Excel but the quality of the system will be greatly degraded. This is going to take several months as Access is not scheduled to be killed until sometime next year. If I find some comparable alternative I will update it in the forum. Thanks!

Yeah, and in the meantime, if you need help convincing your corporate IT gods to keep Access around, let me know.

Barry

Access is not scheduled to be killed.

-Raymond

Richard Thank you! I will let you know if I need any info.

Raymond Hi Raymond. When I said killed I meant by our corporate IT, not MS. Sorry for the confusion.

Barry

I would start talking with other supervisors and managers and identify all the areas that are using Access so you can report to the upper management how big of an impact it will have.

You'd be surprised how many departments are using Access and management has no idea how big of an impact this will have.

-Raymond

Hi Barry, converting Access front end to PowerApps front end requires a complete re-design of the front end and re-coding of all the underlying code.  I've made a short video on building a CRUD form with PowerApps (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6eOT4YjFsc&t=225s ).  Other than having similar controls such as combo boxes, textboxes, subforms (called galleries in PowerApps), etc., there is little in common with Access.  PowerApps does not use VBA, but an "Excel-like" collection of functions called PowerFx as its main coding method.  There are both advantages and disadvantages compared to Access.  It all depends on your needs.  I'm betting that your company is pondering online multi-platform usage, because that's the one disadvantage of Access.  Access must be run on desktop Windows and has issues with online access, whereas a PowerApps app can run on mobile or any platform with a web browser and has fewer issues with online access.


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To those who don't know me, I'm a retired IT manager who have used Access since the mid-1990s.  I was invited here by Richard in 2023 to post in the forum.  I post here occasionally, sometimes rarely.  I've never taken any of Richard courses, so I can't help with questions on the courses (which most of the questions in the forums are about).  I can only help with general Access topics.

Kevin welcome back.

Richard  Thanks, I'll stay for at least a month or so.

Kevin Hi Kevin and thank you for the detailed information. I don't think that corporate IT has any idea of the capabilities of Power Platform nor do they have any plan (if they do they have never told anyone). I am working my way through learning Power Platform on my own and I have seen that it will be a complete rebuild. Just a thought. There is no training that I have found on how to convert Access to Power Platform. If anyone put together that training, I believe it would be popular as I have seen several posts on the internet of frustrated Access developer trying to figure this out.

If it's only a database that you need without a language included, SQLite is very popular. Team that with DB Browser and you have an good option. SQLite is said to be the most widely used database in the world. I am have been working with it for awhile now and am in the process of trying to port one of my Access applications with Go and SQLite. Go will compile to an exe and run on apple and windows and is used for web applications also.

Garry Thanks for the reply Garry. Sorry I haven't been on the forum in a few days. With the direction that our corporate IT wants to go I don't think this will be an option for me. I am beginning to crack the code on Power Platform and I have been able to create a functional app that is connected to SharePoint Lists. I'm still very much in the beginner phase but I'm making progress.

Kevin hi

The YouTube video you gave the link to does not work. Can you check it and send it again? I would love to see what you had to say.

Kevin's link works for me.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6eOT4YjFsc&t=225s  Neat !  

Yeah, it works for me too.

The problem was Microsoft Edge.  When I tried it on Chrome, it worked just fine.