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The
Workbench
Find out who has your database open, start the
correct version of Access, easy compacting and backups, change startup
options, mde compile, shutdown database
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About The Editor
Garry Robinson
writes for a number of popular computer magazines, is now a book author
and has worked on 100+ Access databases. He is based in Sydney,
Australia or try our Aussie
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Is Your Database Corrupt ?
The Access Workbench - External Reviews
Read the August 2006 review at Access
Watch
http://office-watch.com/access/archtemplate.asp?8-13
Read the review at Rick Dobson's ProgrammingMSAccess.com Click here
Read the review at Database Journal in
2005
Click Here
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Picture of the Access Workbench 4.1
Review By Alan Cossey - UK Access Users Group
A while ago, I asked a question in this group about a security worry I had and it was suggested that I contact Garry Robinson, who wrote the book "Real World Microsoft Access Protection and Security" book, which is ace by the way. This I did and Garry asked me if I would do a review of a couple of his products (in return for a free copy of each). What a nice chap! Here is the first one.
The Workbench is an administrative tool for Access. It does lots of things that we developers (and DBA's) have to do - or at least ought to do - and neatly puts these tasks together in a nice and simple interface. When you install it and open it for the first time, the impression is that there isn't much there and it is only when you get started with it that you realise the usefulness of the app. Some examples...
Ease of launching your Access apps with whatever options you want.
There is a Favo(u)rites tab which allows you to record the details of as many of your databases as you like. "OK, so what," you might ask. Well the Workbench allows you specify which MDW file you are to use when opening it, which version of Access to use, whether you want it opened exclusively. It allows you to lock the database if it is open to stop any more users opening it so you can carry out maintenance on it. It allows you to provide users with a message and force the database shut. It allows you to back up your database, compact it, compile it, decompile it all at the tick of a checkbox.
All these things can be done yourself without the Workbench, but this app brings all these things together so that they can be done at the click of a button or the tick of a checkbox rather than setting up yet another blasted shortcut on your desktop, editing the path, sticking a "/decompile" (or whatever) on the end and then forgetting you put it there.
Other goodies
Who's on? - This allows you to see which users are using your database if it has been opened in shared mode. If your users are using user-level security, you can see their ID's.
Deliver - Allows you to set up reminders for yourself for when you are due to deliver a version to your customers, e.g. remember to make it an MDE. Also included in this is the ability to set up a versioning system for your databases. This is rather good as, once it has been set up, you don't need to actually open your database to update the version number as it can be updated directly from the Workbench.
Backups - Backing up of databases is made easy. You designate a back up folder and backing up a database becomes as easy as selecting it from your Favourites list and then ticking a checkbox. If a database is in use and therefore can't be backed up yet, the Workbench will check at intervals (of your choice) and when it finds the database is free, it will then do the back up for you.
Security - This allows you to set up details of the various workgroup (MDW) files that you may want use. A nice feature is that of giving the MDW a simple name and referencing it from a combo box when deciding your launch parameters. However, for me, the best bit is being able to put launch the same database using different workgroup files. This means that, say, I can have MyDatabase.mdb on the Favourites tab twice, once with it being launched using my development MDW file and once with it being launched using System.mdw, which can be an important part of testing the security of applications you give to your customers.
All in all, I am very impressed with this application. If you are interested in it, you can get an evaluation version from http://www.vb123.com/orders or http://www.everythingaccess.com/accessworkbench.htm. The price is approx £45 .
Alan Cossey
Premier Data Technologies Ltd.
Mobile 07963952819
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David from a large mine site in Mongolia said I impressed the system administrator with the way I was using it on site--for Opening multiple versions, Locking people out, seeing who was on. The best thing was that after we removed all ROUGE copies of the front-end, two days later we noticed some one was coming in the back door - some one had their own copy of the front end. This impressed him no end. |
Mike Gunderloy - Author of Access Developer News 14/11/02
The Access Workbench 1.3.4 - GR-FX Pty Limited
http://www.vb123.com/workbench/Let me start off this product review with a quote from a respondent to the latest ADN survey when asked what feature to drop from Access:
"I'm not sure this is a feature or not, but the ability for each version of Access to be independent of each other. There is nothing more frustrating than having multiple versions of Access on your PC double clicking an mdb file and it's opened in the wrong version."
Well, help is at hand. Managing that problem is precisely one of the goals of The Access Workbench. When you select a database in TAW, it will automatically detect the correct database version (97/2000/2002). Then, provided you've got the right version of Access on your box, a single button click will open the database in that version. No more unintentionally launching Access 2000 and having to dismiss upgrade prompts when you only wanted to look at an Access 97 database. TAW also lets you easily switch between multiple Access workgroups; especially useful if you're debugging customer issues and you've given your customers unique workgroups (as you probably should).
But there's more than opening databases here. If you select a database that's already open, you can see precisely who on the network has that database open. If you need to shut it down for repairs, you can also set the bit the keeps further users from logging in, while still allowing existing users to finish their work gracefully. Finally, the program can perform a quick-and-dirty security check to make sure a particular table isn't wide-open to the Admin user.
I tried out TAW on a computer with both Access 97 and Access 2002 installed, and it worked fine. Viewing multiple users is fast, and launching with the correct Access version was flawless. You can download a full-featured trial version from the vb123.com Web Site, or purchase the full program for $89.95.
Mike Gunderloy, Editor
ACCESS DEVELOPER NEWS
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Garry
I received the registration Code and the workbench is working Great!
I have been doing Access Programming and app development for 10 years.
I love access all versions and flavors even old 2.0 is still plenty
powerful for older PC's
The workbench makes quick work of managing multiple versions and DBs of
varing apps a breeze.
Thank you!
Kelly