Network Line of Business App
Synopsis: Develop and deploy (including configuring security) an Access front-end line-of-business application against SQL Server data.
Background: Databases are often developed to support business or organization processes via front-ends and applications against the data. The data can be 'harvested' later for business intelligence and analytics but importantly the data oriented applications help the business to operate. These types of applications are call 'line of business' (or LOB) apps.
In this two-part exercise we walk thru creation and deployment of an Access application against the Northwind database in SQL Server. The application would be used within a network by Northwind's shipping department to identify the products and item counts for an unshipped order selected by the user. After picking and packing the items for shipment the user would indicate the order has been sent and the appropriate updates would be made to the Northwind database to record the order's shipment.
Prerequisites:
- A DB & Dev Tools subscription from TechCats is pretty much required; establishing your own environment to complete the exercise is possible but would require some detailed configuration.
- Creation of a copy of the Northwind in SQL Server where you are DB owner.
- Some familiarity with Microsoft Access is helpful to flatten the learning curve.
- Some familiarity with establishing access control security in a Windows environment also helps.
- Suggested: Using SQL Server Management Studio (or other tool) execute the stored procedure spNWDatesFwd passing null to the @UpdateToDate parameter. This makes the dates in Northwind more recent so the application looks more realistic.
Development: Although a simple application there is a lot going on so the development walkthru is divided into two parts: