Microsoft Access Developer's Guide to SQL Server

Microsoft Access Developer's Guide to SQL Server
by Mary Chipman and Andy Baron
Copyright 2001
SAMS Publishing

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My first experience with Access was with version 1.0. And boy, has it come a long way since then. Over the years, I have made the change over to SQL Server, although Access projects still seem to pop now and then. In fact, our company's policy is to move all Access databases to SQL Server as soon as we can. And guess who gets involved in this?

If you are faced with the task of moving your Access databases to SQL Server, or even if you not, but you want to get more performance and scalability out of Access, then the book Microsoft Access Developer's Guide to SQL Server is for you.

This book provides all the information you need to convert your Access 2000 file-based databases to SQL Server, and at the same time, shows you how to optimize your Access front-end in order to get the best performance out of SQL Server.

Here's what this book covers:

• Converting Your Access Database to SQL Server

• SQL Server Fundamentals

• Understanding SQL Server Security

• Introduction to Access Projects

• Linking to SQL Server Using Access Databases

• ADO Fundamentals

• Designing and Creating a SQL Server Database

• Introduction to Transact-SQL

• Creating and Optimizing Views

• Programming Effective Stored Procedures

• Scaling Up with Unbound Access Applications

• Building Access Reports from SQL Server Data

• Internet Features in Access and SQL Server

• Architecting Distributed n-Tier Applications

• Deployment, Tuning, and Maintenance

With 838 pages, this book is massive, as it needs to be for such a complex subject. Any experienced Access developer should find the book easy to read and understand. You don't have to know anything about SQL Server to read this book as it teaches you the fundamentals along the way.

On the other hand, once you finish this book, you will want to learn even more about SQL Server in order to get the most out of it. I recommend Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Unleashed as a good choice.

While the book does a fairly good job of showing you how to take advantage of SQL Server features to boost performance, the book still leaves a lot of SQL Server performance-specific information out. And that is one of the reasons why I recommended the above book, so that all the missing parts are filled in.

I highly recommend this book to all Access developers who want to, or are being forced to, move to SQL Server. The book will get you on the right track quickly and easily.