Why You Need Total Access Analyzer
Whether you're a Microsoft Access end-user, professional developer, or
consultant making a living off Access, Total Access Analyzer can help you
maximize your time and investment in Access while improving your skills.
As your Access databases evolve and grow, they
become harder and harder to understand. Review
the following challenges and see how Total
Access Analyzer helps you address them:
Many Access database projects start out simple and rapidly
devolve into complex collections of related and unrelated objects.
There is simply no way to keep track of which object calls or uses
which object, how data is related to forms and reports, etc.
Solution:
Total Access Analyzer scans your entire database and comes up with a
complete and easy-to-use set of documentation and analysis. It finds
problems, suggests improvements, and recommends performance
enhancements. It even highlights unused objects and code. Total
Access Analyzer lets you take back control of your Access databases.
The built-in Access documenter looks at each object separately.
For each object type, only a single report is available.
Additionally, Access provides no analysis, cross-reference
reporting, or detection or errors and performance problems.
Solution:
Total Access Analyzer also documents individual objects, but in
addition it provides a wealth of information and reporting options.
More importantly, it "analyzes" your entire database, giving you the
information you need to understand how objects relate to each other.
It also provides extensive module analysis so you know more about your
code and where and how it is used. The diagrams for application flow,
data flow, and objects reveal the hierarchical relationship across
code and objects and provide an excellent overview of how a database
works.
Total Access Analyzer also uncovers truly critical
information such as broken or missing references
to objects, unused objects (tables, queries,
procedures, variables, etc.), inconsistent field
types among identically named fields, plus many
other useful suggestions.
Total Access
Analyzer includes over 300 presentation quality
reports with options to filter the data and
customize the headers so you can make a
permanent record of your database on paper. A
wide range of reports is available including
different sort options to reveal different
relationships. For instance, Total Access
Analyzer includes a report that shows each
table's fields, including their type and
description, sorted by the table name. In
addition, the product includes a field report
that shows the same data sorted by field, so you
can see which table each field is in.
Other
reports include the bracketed module printout
(all lines are numbered and indented properly
with each loop bracketed), object
cross-reference reports, module listings for
procedures, variables, etc., application flow
diagrams, and detailed "dictionary" reports for
each object and its properties.
For more
details, see our
Microsoft Access Database Documenter Comparison page.
As your database grows with more objects, relationships, and
complex dependencies, it's easy to have trouble determining how it
works.
Solution:
Total Access Analyzer documents object and code cross-references
so you can determine where and how each object
is used.
More importantly, Total Access
Analyzer reveals complex multi-level
relationships. Not only can you see what an
object references, but you can see what the
referenced object references as well! The
Application Flow, Data Flow, and Object Diagrams
provide excellent overviews of your database.
- The Application Flow Diagram reveals how your application starts
and what events, code, or macros get called, and what those call.
See the entire hierarchical tree of your application flow.
- The Data Flow Diagram shows how data "flows" through your
application, from tables to queries to forms and reports. Complex,
multi-query relationships are clearly revealed.
- The Object Flow Diagram looks at objects from the other
perspective. For each form, report, or query, see what other objects
it uses. For instance, quickly see the entire "family" of objects
used by a form from tables and queries by its record source and
combo boxes, to macros invoked by buttons, and what all those
objects use.
Total Access Analyzer also performs consistency checks to detect
issues such as:
- Identical field names with different data types between
tables
- Identical SQL strings among queries and form/report record
sources
Total Access Analyzer also finds
Unused Objects,
Macros, and VBA Code to help you eliminate objects that are no longer needed to let you
focus on those which are used.
Our research indicates that over 80% of Access database projects
lack documentation of any kind. If you inherit even a mildly complex
Access project, you'll spend weeks just figuring out how it works.
And without doing that, the changes you make may trigger unexpected
problems.
Solution: Only Total Access Analyzer offers the comprehensive set of tools
that give you the jumpstart on an inherited project. Cut your
ramp-up time from weeks to days with Total Access Analyzer's full
set of reports, view, and search tools.
Here's a paper discussing our experience
Inheriting
and Taking Over Microsoft Access Database Applications
As your deadlines loom closer, the time you have to proactively
detect and fix errors dwindles. How to you ship an Access
application with a reduced error count?
Solution: Total Access Analyzer performs sophisticated analysis on your
database application to find a wide range of errors and potential
errors, including missing objects, broken object and field
references, unused objects and code,
design inconsistencies, etc.
As one develops an Access project, it's common to create lots of
unused objects. Temporary objects, copies of objects, and backups
all combine to bloat to your database. But because you can't figure
out whether the objects really aren't used, you're afraid to delete
a questionable query, form, report, macro, or procedure.
Solution: By documenting
everywhere objects are used, Total Access Analyzer can reveal
Unused Objects,
Macros, and VBA Code in your
database so you can determine what should be deleted. The Search
feature also lets you search for any string across your object
properties, macro lines, and module VBA code so you can verify a
particular name really isn't referenced.
Microsoft Access makes it easy to add objects and link them
together. However, Access also makes it easy to create data,
queries, forms and reports that simply run too slowly. You don't
have time to dig through your application and find all the potential
performance bottlenecks.
Solution: Total Access Analyzer provides a complete and comprehensive list
of performance suggestions that can make your application run faster
from table and query design to code.
Documentation is often the last part of a project. If you have a
limited amount of time, you may get to the end of development and
find no time to document the hundreds of objects in your Access
database.
Solution: Total Access Analyzer provides presentation quality documentation
with over 350 reports. You can provide your end-user or client with all the
documentation they desire with the click of a button.
Make Technical Documentation a Profit Center
Rather than a burden, technical documentation is not only
what professional developers should do when delivering a
project, it can also be a profit center for you.
Many consultants recoup the cost of Total Access Analyzer many times
over by charging their clients for such technical documentation on every project
they deliver! Write some pages providing an overview of the application that no
automated tool can generate, include information on the
development environment, and other helpful tips for future
developers (it may be you), and use
the output from Total Access Analyzer to deliver professional application
documentation. All the Total Access Analyzer reports have customizable headers
and footers so you can use your own name to personalize
them.
Good technical documentation is fundamental to being able
to maintain an application over time. Give your clients an
option to purchase technical documentation from you, and
deliver impressive results with Total Access Analyzer. And
if they choose not to get it, make sure it's in writing.
Same for a
backup and disaster recovery plan for Microsoft Access
databases.
The last thing you have is time to manually document and analyze
your database. You need a solution that is easy to use, intuitive,
and quick.
Solution: Total Access Analyzer runs as a
Microsoft Access add-in. It behaves the way
you expect because it's using MS Access tables, forms, reports, and approaches
you're already comfortable with.
Simply open your database and launch
Total Access Analyzer. Its step-by-step wizard
lets you easily select the objects to analyze
and the analysis to perform. No programming
required! When it's complete, you can view and
print/preview/export the results. All the
results are stored in tables in a separate
Access database and available for future
retrieval.
Still not sure?
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