Access JumpStart 2.0 | Blog

A Rapid Development Framework for Microsoft Access

Recent Articles

Case Sensitivity – Not everyone types English!

by Jonathan Halder | Blogging, MS Access, MS Access Features, MS Access VBA Coding

I was posting some information on the Option Compare statement in Access VBA and was trying to find more information about the Option Compare Database default option and what exactly it means. From the online Microsoft VBA documentation: Option Compare Database can...

Access as a low cost option

by Jonathan Halder | Blogging, MS Access

Is Microsoft Access really a low cost option? It certainly can be if you are a DIY person who already owns Microsoft Office and think of low cost as "not spending lots of cash". There is always a learning curve which takes time to work through, as well as the time it...

Writing tests for legacy code – Part 3

by Jonathan Halder | Blogging, MS Access, MS Access Forms, MS Access VBA Coding, TDD

See yesterday's message in the archive here: Writing tests for legacy code – Part 2 | Access JumpStart For reference, here is the full function I am discussing. '@TestMethod("DeleteAction") Private Sub...

Tree View Control

by Jonathan Halder | MS Access, MS Access Features, MS Access Forms, MS Access VBA Coding

I watched half of a new Access Users Group video on the tree view control by Pete Poppe which I link to at the bottom of this message. I learned something new. The last time I used the Treeview control I never ended up implementing it in a customer's project because...

Article written with AI: Leveraging AI Chatbots to Assist in Writing VBA Code

by Jonathan Halder | Blogging, MS Access VBA Coding

Except for this first paragraph and my reaction at the end, the entire article below was written by Bing Copilot using the prompt: "Can you write me a 300 word article on using AI chatbots to assist writing VBA code?" I will note my reaction at the end of the article....

Writing tests for legacy code – Part 5

by Jonathan Halder | Blogging, MS Access, MS Access Forms, MS Access VBA Coding, TDD

Yesterday's message: Writing tests for legacy code – Part 4 | Access JumpStart Here is the full code I am discussing: '@TestMethod("DeleteAction") Private Sub GivenConcreteGroupDeleteTriggered_WhenReadOnlyStatusType_RequirePassword() On Error GoTo TestFail 'Arrange:...

Writing tests for legacy code – Part 2

by Jonathan Halder | MS Access, MS Access VBA Coding, TDD

See yesterday's message in the archive here: Writing tests for legacy code – Part 1 | Access JumpStart I'm going to start breaking down the test I wrote and what I'm doing and why. Here is the whole test: '@TestMethod("DeleteAction") Private Sub...

Cost and Price for custom written software

by Jonathan Halder | Blogging

In the consideration of charging customers for custom software you are writing for them there are different terms here that sometimes get used interchangeably. I'm going to define them for this article as two very distinct and separate things and will do so in terms...

Are you a good customer?

by Jonathan Halder | Blogging, MS Access

I can not overstate the importance of the relationship between an Access developer / development company and the customer. If bad, this relationship will create disillusionment and disappointment on both sides of the aisle and become toxic and destructive. So what are...

Writing tests for legacy code – Part 4

by Jonathan Halder | Blogging, MS Access, MS Access Forms, MS Access VBA Coding, TDD

Yesterday's message: Writing tests for legacy code – Part 3 | Access JumpStart Before diving into the next piece of the function, the Act, here is the full code: '@TestMethod("DeleteAction") Private Sub...

Writing tests for legacy code – Part 1

by Jonathan Halder | MS Access, MS Access Forms, MS Access Tables, MS Access VBA Coding, TDD

As I am continuing on my Test Driven Development journey, I am starting to learn how to write tests as I add new features to my code. A recent example would be a requirement to ask for a password if the user was trying to delete a line in an order. There are...

Can you make a living with Microsoft Access?

by Jonathan Halder | MS Access, MS Access VBA Coding

The resounding answer to this is "Yes". BUT - what if you can't seem to make it work? There are actually a number of ways to monetize your Access skills: Offering your services as an Access Application developer to create, modify, and/or maintain Access databases.Many...