Customer Reviews

Access Cookbook (O'Reilly Windows)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the book that the Access programming community has needed for years! It uses a Problem - Solution - Discussion format instead of the usual academic "let's disect Access's capabilities, throw them at you in little bits, and let you figure out the WHY later" format. Even the table of contents is much more readable and understandable. You know the reason for reading the chapter right from the start, not at the end.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing the multitudes of other Access reference type books, it's just that we finally have a book that fills a BIG gap. Once you read this book, you'll have more use for the others. This book and the others complement each other nicely.

The format of this book is not exactly new, however. Rob Krumm's programming for dummies books have used this format for years (albeit not as explicitly), which is why I enjoyed them so much and always hoped he would go beyond the beginner level Access programming books. Access Cookbook does exactly that, and in a very refreshing way.

Two things about this book were a big surprise to me. 1. Ken Getz wrote it and 2. O'Reilly published it. I couldn't think of 2 better choices! Ken Getz takes his high level expertise and writing style and transforms it into a new book that opens up his experience to a much wider audience. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! And then there's good ole O'Reilly publishing who have always had a talent for presenting a very academic subject to a less academic audience without loss of rigor.

"Cookbook" is an ok word for the title I guess, but I think "Storybook" may be more fitting, because I find that when I start a section of a chapter, I just can't put down the book until I see how the section ends. Likewise, when I start reading a Discussion section, I have to read it all before I put the book down and hit the keyboard. I even use this book for bedtime reading!

Enjoy!

The Access Developer's Handbook Set (search ISBN: 0782140114) and in particular, Volume 1: Desktop Edition (search ISBN: 0782123708) is my definitive resource to approximately 4 years of Access development. I've got more stickies and highlights in this set than all other Access books combined. So when I came across the Access cookbook and realized that the same two indispensible authors (Getz & Litwin) put together a resource of Access developer solutions, I had to have it.

This book has not let me down. It is certainly geared towards the intermediate to advanced Access professional developers who already understand the basics of Access and more importantly, who also understand the shortcomings of Access and the benefits of getting around those shortcomings. There are about 170 solutions in this book that are segmented into 18 chapters of high-level topics such as Queries, Forms, XML, UI, VBA, Windows APIs, even Smart Tags. I would be really surprised to find someone who picked up this text, thumbed through the solutions, and found that there was nothing they could get out of this book.

I would say that if you are developing a professional Access front-end and/or database, you owe it to yourself to buy this book and review each solution before you release or ship your product. I did, and found either new answers and existing improvements to many of the things I was struggling with during my development cycles.

I am an MS Access developer for an architectural firm in Washington DC. In evaluating the MS Access cookbook, I will first offer what I liked about it and then what I didn't like. First, I liked HOW it was written. Other reviewers have commented on the ease of understanding acquired from such a complex topic, viz, one of computer programming and the Problem-Solution-Discussion framework approach in which the book was written and I agree. The book is written in a fashion that makes it very easy to grasp MS Access programming concepts. I also thought there was a diversity of topics covered which will (or should) stimulate the reader into tapping into his/her own creative potential when using Access. What I did NOT like about the book was that I thought it lacked overall practicality. While some of the topics discussed were practical answers to real programming issues in MS Access, I thought that most of the book was impractical for typical business operations. Perhaps another chapter could be added to the book that offered MORE practical solutions for small business. Would I have purchased the book had I known what I now know about it? Yes I would and that strongly suggests the book is worth purchasing. I believe that all books are the same relative to knowledge - no one book has all the answers. You read a variety of books and pull the bits and pieces that you like from each one to create an intrapersonal, collaborative framework of knowledge and wisdom. The MS Access cookbook is just that. A book from which you pull a few practical bits of programmming to add to your own repository of knowledge.

Access Cookbook
Published by: O'Reilly
First Edition, February, 2002

The Access Cookbook really surprised me by how it covers topics regarding Microsoft Access that none of the other reference books talk about. I have an extensive Access reference collection, and the Access Cookbook far outshines them in practical solutions to real development problems, and also covers innovative ways to do things that you might not otherwise think of doing.

Each topic is presented in a Problem, Solution, Discussion format. There are also plenty of illustrations, and a CD that has the code for each of the topics. You can choose to enter the code for the examples yourself, or simply to download it from the CD and follow along with the lesson.

I've been developing in Access for more than a year, and the Access Cookbook has shown me things that I never dreamed could be done inside of an "application" versus a full-blown Visual Basic development environment.

The Access Cookbook is an excellent addition to any Microsoft Access developer's library. It is written for Access versions 97, 2000, and 2002.

Although I am an Access Developer (6 years), I have purchased no fewer than 15 - 20 books on Access 97, 2000, 2002.
Access Cookbook I purchased in late 2002 primarily for the first word at the top of the cover page - "Solutions".
True to the meaning, this book provides "how to " programming solutions that I have struggled with and needed over the past last 6 years.
Explanations are concise, and clear. And you get a CD with the examples which is worth many times the book costs.
I have other books by the authors; Developers Handbook for Acces 97 and 2000, and VBA for Developers. These books (1500 pages) primarly benefit the intermediate to advanced users.
The Access Cookbook should be a extremely helpful even to the beginning users (which we all were at some point).
Enjoy.

This book rates at the very top of my lenghty list, as the finest Microsoft Access book on the market!

The information is well written and easy to understand yet not over-simplified to the point of losing usefulness.

I am a year and a half into developing an ACCESS Multi-user Database for Flight Simulations and Management. Access Cookbook was put to use the first day. I implemented the "Mail Program" from chapter 10 and everyone loves it. I also found some solutions that had been very elusive. I can now monitor who is currently logged into my database and then use the "Mail Program" to send them messages in real time.

I can NOT say enough good things about this book - if you use Access, you NEED this book! My hats off to the authors!

Sincerely,
William A. Dobisky

I have been reading Access books for months now and this one hits the sweet spot that I needed. I consider myself knowledgeable in the basics of Access, but have been wanting to incorporate code to make my databases more user-friendly. I'm a network administrator, not a full-time DBA or programmer. Other books that I have read were either too basic, too theoretical, or too technical for me. This book gives dozens and dozens of practical problems that can be addressed with code along with well-written solutions and sample code that you can import and use in your databases. Thanks for a great resource!

O'Reilly has a series entitled "The Missing Manual" of books. This could rightfully be the "Missing Supplemental Guide" for Access, for this book opens up a lot of the lesser known tricks that are not covered in the standard text but are part of the problems database managers face all the time. Getz, et al take us beyond instruction into actual working code, and explains the idea behind it. The examples are practical - I've put a number of them to work in daily business already. And with the accompanying CD, you can see these functions in action through live database examples. The help in the book is not overly technical so only an Access Guru can follow and replicate it. It's written for people who work with Access and are comfortable with it but want to take things to the next level. The book is organized into thematic chapters so you can delve into what you want or need to know and get the full range. My copy is covered with post-it flags for different examples I want to refer to again and again. It is not often that a book can fill the void in instruction, but Getz and the Access Cookbook had done just that. User friendly, practical, and understandable make this book a permanent resident on the shelf only an arms length away.

This book I would recommend for people who use Access as their back end, and need to add some automation to their back end. It deals mostly with using VBA to solve problems, like:
* How to create an input box where you can get some better info than the standard VBA one
* Call Excel functions, and apply them to Access data
* Figure out which users have a shared database open, if you're
doing a blended Access/CF solution
* Managing report printing (see next set of bullets)

I recommend checking out this book under the following circumstances:
* You have internal and external clients hitting your database. In a situation like that, you can have your internal users access the database using a well-designed Access application, which this book will give you some tricks on how to create.
* In the alternative, you want to manage and analyze your data, and create print reports. That's where Access just as a stand-alone application gives a substantial advantage over any Web technology.

For a ColdFusion developer, there are some topics in this book that probably wouldn't do much good:
* Adding Smart Tags functionality to a database - if you're expanding beyond the reach of Microsoft Office, Smart Tags prove to be a nifty proprietary parlor trick
* Using Access' security management tools to manage user rights to database objects. If I run a Windows server, I would use Challenge and Response to create NTFS based permissions on my pages in my application that manage data. Otherwise, I'll use application-based usernames and passwords, same net result.
* Exporting Access data as XML using pre-defined schemas. Not bad, but ColdFusion has far better technology.

Don't get me wrong - those last three bullets are not any disrespect to this well-written, well-organized guide. I'm just looking at, "What topics would interest you if you're a ColdFusion developer?"

If you do want to learn more about Access database development as an art unto itself, this is not the place to begin. This is the place to arrive at.

If you know basic Access and VB programming, it will give you needed solutions to real situations that actually do arise.

There's is no need to read it cover to cover. Just see what tips it has to offer from the table of contents. If it's something you need for your project, just go right to that section and start reading. You'll probably find suggestions that you never thought of too that are very useful in actual projects.

This is not a book for someone who doesn't know Access or VB at all. However if you know the basics of Access and VB and have gotten a real world project for the first time in Access, this book is a life-saver. A beginner can look like an experienced database programmer when armed with this book as a reference.

It gives useful solutions and tells you exactly how to do it and explains in detail how and why it works.