Testimonials

See what people think about this product The course [Microsoft Access: Upgrading and Migrating to .NET and SQL Server] was run by Adam Cogan from Superior Software for Windows which for me was a big selling point as I'd heard Adam speak before (and he was good). Overall a great event, one of the best trainings I have ever attended. Well done, Adam and team. See what people think about this product
- Thomas Williams, Read more in his Blog http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/thomasswilliams/archive/2004/12/15/36951.aspx
 

Want a Private Course?

The course on this page is a public course. We also provide an on-site "Private Course" on this topic at your company for all your employees with two of our top developers.

Price (ex. GST): $2,800 per company (1 day) or 2 days for $5,400

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The Goal: To convert an Access application to .NET Windows Forms and Reporting Services powered by a SQL Server database.


The entire process of converting from Access to an enterprise level solution will be covered in two days, using a modified version of Northwind as an example. The attendees will approach the task as a real world problem where the entire project will be migrated in four steps (releases). Each step will be a logical extension of the last, allowing developers to stop their own development at a step where they will still have a functioning system, even though it may not necessarily be the best solution.

Day 1 Day 2

1A: Making a Plan (2.5 hours)
  • About Presenters
  • Development Methodology - Extreme Programming (XP)
    • Tool 1: Short Releases
    • Tool 2: Microsoft Word
    • Tool 3: Unit Testing
  • Hands-on lab - Creating a release plan
1B: Converting Access 97 to Access 2003 (1 hour)
  • Converting to Access 2003
    • Why would you upgrade?
    • The issues
      • Uncompiled mdbs
      • Unused code blocks
      • Using referenced .mdbs and .mdes
      • Library mdes
    • Demo - Using tools to find issues
      • FMS Total Access Analyzer

Lunch (1 hour)

2: Upsizing to SQL Server (3 hours)
  • To Move or Not To Move?
  • Current Problems in Access
    • Corrupt data
    • Database users
    • Downtime during backups
    • Security
    • Missing records
  • What's new and different in SQL Server?
    • Architecture
    • Working with data
    • Scalability and performance
  • Demos
    • SSW Upsizing PRO!
    • Microsoft Upsizing Wizard
    • SSW Performance Pro!
    • SSW SQL Deploy
    • Lumigent LogExplorer
    • SSW SQL Auditor
  • Hands-on lab - Migrating Northwind from Access 2003 to SQL Server 2000
1: From Access to SQL Server Reporting Services (3 hours)
  • History of reporting
  • Report life cycle
  • Installing Reporting Services
  • Building a report in Visual Studio .NET
  • Report on any data source
  • Deploying reports
  • Hands-on Lab - migrating 4 Northwind reports from Access into Reporting Services

Lunch (1 hour)

2: From Access Forms to Windows Forms .NET (3 hours)

  • Current Problems with Access
    • Office upgrades
    • Corrupt databases
    • Slow forms
    • Large applications
    • Scalability
    • Deployment
  • What's new and different in .NET?
    • Form design
    • Form inheritance
    • Application design
    • Deployment
    • Visual Studio .NET
    • Programming - VBA vs VB.NET
  • Demos
    • Creating the Northwind Main Form in .NET
    • Creating the Northwind Orders Form in .NET
    • Orders form - the correct way
    • Northwind Orders - Converting to .NET the easy way!
  • Hands-on lab - Migrating Northwind forms to .NET

Detailed Session Descriptions:

Day 1

Session 1
Learn how to target the areas of the systems that should be converted to achieve the best result. How should development of this type of project happen? How should a project be managed? What methodologies are in place?

Upgrading an Access 97 database to Access 2003. What are the issues? With a demonstration using a modified version of the Northwind database.

Session 2
Upsize an Access 2003 database to SQL Server. A modified version of Northwind will be used as an example and the backend will be moved over to SQL Server, correcting a number of known issues concerning the data itself as well the database schema.

Day 2

Session 1
The advantages of moving Access reports into Microsoft's new SQL Server Reporting Services will be described, along with the process for importing four of the key reports from Northwind. Issues related to importing will be handled to produce identical reports. The reports will then be deployed to a report server to demonstrate the power of online reports using Reporting Services.

Session 2
Access Forms will be transformed into Windows Forms .NET in order to provide a more scalable and distributable application. The known issues during migration will be highlighted and the power of .NET will be leveraged to improve the interface performance.

Having moved to a Windows Forms .NET environment you will be shown how to make the application more accessible. Web services will be used so that the client does not need to be within an intranet to access the corporate database.

Session Dates

 

City

 Dates
Canberra Thursday 11th Friday 12th November 2003
Brisbane Monday 29th Tueday 30th November 2003
Sydney Thursday 2nd Friday 3rd December 2003 Sold Out
Adelaide Monday 6th Tuesday 7th December 2003
Perth Thursday 9th Friday 10th December 2003
Melbourne Monday 13th Tueday 14th December 2003 Sold Out
Melbourne (Goldman Sachs Session) Thursday 16th Friday 17th December 2003
Sydney (Repeated Session) Monday 7th Tuesday 8th March 2004 Sold Out
Melbourne (Repeated Session) Thursday 10th Friday 11th March 2004 Sold Out
Brisbane (Repeated Session) Monday 14th Tuesday 15th March 2004
Sydney Wednesday 20th - Thursday 21st July 2005
Los Angeles Tuesday 20th - Wednesday 21st September 2005 Strictly Limited Numbers
Dallas Tuesday 20th - Wednesday 21st September 2005 Strictly Limited Numbers
Melbourne Tuesday 6th - Wednesday 7th December 2005 Strictly Limited Numbers

System Requirements

* If you want this on your PC, you will require 1GB of RAM for Virtual PC.

* Detailed Whitepapers will be provided

* Cost of the course is $999 US

* Information from the seminar will be available for $299.00

** For bookings or further information contact scottmcphillips@s*w.com.au

Acknowledgements

Adam Cogan
Jatin Valabjee
Andrew Weaver

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