Source Control in Access without SourceSafe

So after starting my new project at work I have made a bit of progress. Some things were a lot easier than I had anticipated, some were more difficult, and a couple were about what I expected. Here is what I’ve gotten so far.

Windows 7 Cool New Features – Part 5

Note: This post is part of a series. Please feel free to read the others first:

1. Snap!, Shake, Jump Lists, and Live Taskbar
2. Pinning, Windows Search, and Aero Flip 3D
3. Desktop Gadgets, Aero Peek, and Libraries
4. Parental Controls, Media Center, and Windows Live

Today we’re back to features that are exclusive to Windows 7. These features help make maintaining all of the computers and devices in your home a breeze.

Developing in Access

I don’t normally have to write very much code at my job. However, I am responsible for several Microsoft® Access database applications. Lately I’ve been finding myself really wishing that I had a lot of the tools I use writing .Net applications available for Access. For instance, I can very easily put my databases under source control (my current preference is for git). However, if I were to do this, they would be treated as binary files. That means that I lose a lot of the nice features of source management: diffs, patches, and blame to name a few.

Seeing this lack and being a wannabe developer , I decided that instead of complaining I would do something about it. So I’ve come up with a new project for myself. I want to make an Access add-in (*.mda database) that I can simply reference from my database projects and get similar tools as what I currently have for .Net development. In the process, though, I don’t want to reinvent the wheel too much. I want to be able to leverage existing tools as much as possible.
With all of that in mind, here are my initial goals I have for this project. Keep in mind that they are subject to change as I am starting off with only a limited idea of how much of this is actually possible.

1. Export all objects from database to text files such as XML or DDL scripts. This will allow for putting all objects under source control with diff and blame support.
2. Import text files that were previously exported to overwrite/add objects back in to the database. This is to allow for starting from a blank database and importing all objects of a previous source revision to recreate that version. I have no real intention of source controlling the databases themselves, only their structure.
3. Import/Export all data in the database to XML. This will let me create pre-canned test data that I can easily access.
4. Simple unit testing support. The idea being to have something akin to early versions of JUnit or NUnit. Fixtures will be modules (class modules?) that end with “Tests.” Tests will be public parameter-less procedures.
5. Automated build support. I have a very specific process that I follow every time I build a new *.mde file from a database. I always update the current version, I compile all the modules, add a password if required (I never password protect the *.mdb as it slows me down too much), and I add the AllowBypassKey=False
   property to ensure that others are not trying to get in to the database improperly. It would be nice to have this whole process (and maybe a few other things) automated.
6. Keyboard support. I try not to touch my mouse, or at least as little as possible. Some nice Visual Studio type keyboard shortcuts to activate each of the above features would be nice.
7. Target Microsoft Access 2003 since that is the version of Office we use at work.

Now none of the above appear to be impossible to do, but some of them might be pretty complicated.  Unit test frameworks in languages that have reflection are complex enough, I can just image doing this in VBA. But I’ll give it a go and we’ll see what I can come up with.

Windows 7 Cool New Features – Part 4

Note: This post is part of a series. Please feel free to read my other posts on Snap!, Shake, Jump Lists, and Live Taskbar; Pinning, Windows Search, and Aero Flip 3D; and Desktop Gadgets, Aero Peek, and Libraries.

While some of today’s features aren’t strictly features and may even be installable on other versions of Windows, they are very powerful tools and became more so with Windows 7.

SyntaxHighlighter for Blogspot

I found a rather interesting article today that shows how to enable Blogger accounts to use the SyntaxHighlighter library to be able to post source code online. This is just a simple test to see if I’ve configured everything correctly.
So the code below is just a simple hello world snippet written in C#.

using System;

namespace Example
{
 public class Program
 {
  public static void Main()
  {
   Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
  }
 }
}

Hopefully this works out OK.

Update

After several revisions of this post, the syntax highlighter is now working correctly. Turns out most of the issues were actually with the WLW plug-in that I was using to generate the source code block. When I wrote the block by hand, it worked perfectly.

Update – Take 2

I got another WLW plug-in that works a lot better. I also updated the blog template to point to the hosted version of the latest version of the SyntaxHighlighter. So far everything appears to be working well.

Merry Christmas!

Just a very short post to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We are going to be doing our usual running around this year, so if you have a hard time getting in contact with us, please be understanding. We will get to everybody eventually.

Windows 7 Cool New Features – Part 3

So far, we’ve covered Snap!, Shake, Jump Lists, and Live Taskbar as well as Pinning, Windows Search and Aero Flip 3D. Today we’ll cover two very useful features that give you information at your finger tips, and one that will make sorting files on your hard drive a horror of the past.

Windows 7 Cool New Features: Cont’d

After my last post, I decided I really needed to talk about a few other features. There may even be one more after this one. :-)

Pinning

Have an application that you use a lot? Well now you can access it even faster. Windows 7 has done away with the concept of a quick launch bar in favor of Pinning. With this feature, you can take applications and pin them to either the Taskbar or the Start Menu. Just take an application in the start menu, right click on it and select either Pin to Taskbar or Pin to Start Menu.
But pinning can be even easier.  You can simply drag and drop an icon from your desktop to your Taskbar and it will automatically pin it to the task bar. And even easier than that: if you are currently running a program, you can simply right click on its icon on the Taskbar, select Pin this program to taskbar and presto! Your application is now pinned and will show up on the Taskbar even when it isn’t running, giving you quick access to launch it whenever you want.

Windows Search

Gone are the days of having to sift through the morass that is the Programs folder in the Start Menu. Gone are the days of having to manually hunt down files in your My Documents or Recent Documents folders. Enter Windows Search. Now just open up the Start Menu and start typing. “Typing what?" you might ask. Just about anything. Windows Search can find files and programs based on partial names, descriptions, even the date you last modified them. For example: Say I don’t remember the name of a digital picture I took because I never renamed it from the random set of numbers the camera assigns to it. And say I don’t remember where in my 7GB of pictures I put the thing. But I do remember what day I took the photo. Just type in the date into Windows Search and BOOM. There’s the photo in the list. And all of this, happens in an instant without having to click a single button.

Aero Flip 3D

So you know that you can focus on a single window by simply shaking it now. But how do you find that window. Simple: Aero Flip 3D¹. Just hold down the Windows Logo key and press the TAB key. You will be able to select the window you want by either continuously pressing TAB or by clicking on it when you see it. Note that the standard ALT+TAB method of switching between windows is also still available.

Conclusion

Wow, that is a lot so far and I’ve barely scratched the surface. Come back next time when we will take a look at Desktop Gadgets, Aero Peek, and Libraries.
¹ Aero needs to be enabled in order to use this feature. As such, your PC will have to support Aero and you will have to be using a Windows 7 theme.