Support Statement: Microsoft Access Applications

Owned by Mark Juras
Last updated: Mar 25, 2018

Question: We have an ACCESS 2003 application that we need to convert to a Microsoft .NET DESKTOP application. Do you have a tool that can help here?

Answer: Yes, our VB6/COM processor can be used to help rewrite MS Access Applications as .NET desktop applications.  

Access Application use  the VBA language which looks a lot like VB6 and follows many VB6 conventions; however Access also provides other services through the classes in its object model (Queries, Reports, Forms, etc.) which typically use data binding to your Access database tables.  Also the VBA code runs within the Access application process and therefore it has access to the Access application objects and APIs more directly than similar VB6 code would.  

When you rewrite an Access application as a .NET Desktop application, the code and Access objects will no longer have direct access to the Access application services.  You will need to decide how you want to get similar services from the .NET platform and also decide what you want to do for database services.  There are a lot of options and your decisions will have a big impact on cost and time of the upgrade project, and then on ease of maintenance and cost of ownership after the project.

Our standard VB6 upgrade process is designed to work with standard VB6 projects (VBPs and the code/COM files they reference.)  In order to use our tools, the Access application needs to be extracted from your Access DB and wrapped in a VBP project.   Access has an export feature that can help, but the exported  files are somewhat  different from standard VB6 due to how Access binds your application objects to your database.  We have also developed some custom tools to assist in this area, but they would have to be further customized to your specific needs.  

The bottom line is the tool can be a great help with this, but it does not currently do it completely automatically, right out of the box.  

If you can tell us more about your requirements, that would be a help.  And if you have a VBA sample, then we will be happy to demonstrate what we can do and go from there.