Beginning Access 2003 VBA

Chapter 9. Building SQL Server Applications with Access Projects

So far, all the examples in this book have dealt with standard Access database files (MDB files). An Access Project (ADP file) is another type of Access database file that is designed specifically for working with SQL Server databases. In this chapter, you will explore how to create and manage SQL Server databases using Access Projects. You'll learn how to create new Access Projects from scratch and explore the various SQL Server objects that you can create and manage from the Access Project, such as tables, stored procedures, views, and functions. You will also upsize an existing Access database to SQL Server and provide guidelines for resolving any problems that occur during the migration.

This chapter focuses on using Access Projects to work with features that are specific to SQL Server, but it does not cover forms and modules. You still write forms and modules in Access Projects as you have done in prior chapters.

Access Projects—Using Access as a Front End to SQL server

As a quick recap, you are already familiar with standard Access database files: the MDB files. The MDB file is typically used in a standalone manner, meaning that all the tables, forms, modules, macros, and reports for the application are stored within the single file. In Chapter 7, you learned that it is also possible to use a standard Access MDB file in a client/server environment by linking to external database tables such as SQL Server. An example ...