 June
2012
For Microsoft Access, SQL Server,
Visual Studio .NET, and VB6 Professionals
Greetings!
The announcements from Microsoft the past two months have
been absolutely stunning. Many new initiatives are coming to fruition.
In early May, I had a very enjoyable experience
participating at the Portland Access User Group Conference in
Silver Falls State Park. What a beautiful place with lively,
friendly
participants. Ryan McMinn
and Kevin Bell of the Microsoft Access team demonstrated the future of Office and Access. After the
conference, I headed to Redmond and met with members of the
Office, Developer Tools (Visual Studio .NET, SQL Server,
Azure, LightSwitch), and Bing divisions.
Microsoft is very focused on beating Apple, Google, and Amazon,
and being the best player on the platforms of the future. Within
the past few weeks, several major announcements were made. Azure intends to dominate the hosting
world. In addition to hosting .NET applications, they now offer
Virtual Machines and website hosting beyond Windows to include Linux, WordPress, Python, etc.
Can you believe it? SkyDrive now offers applications for Windows, iPhone, and Android
to share files locally and in the cloud. LightSwitch is moving from Silverlight to a pure HTML5
platform. Visual Studio .NET now offers mobility interfaces, and
much more! Check out
the videos from Microsoft's TechEd conference last week for more
details.
We've also had two articles published on the Microsoft
Access blog by Molly Pell, and lots of technical content
including my presentation on how to take over an existing
Access application.
Luke Chung
President
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Contents
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Taking Over Legacy Microsoft
Access Database Applications
 Microsoft
Access Conference in Portland, Oregon
In May, FMS President Luke Chung presented at the three
day Microsoft Access conference sponsored by the
Portland Oregon Access User
Group. Luke participated in a variety of discussions and
gave a presentation on
Taking Over a
Legacy Microsoft Access Database
Application. Check out the paper and PowerPoint
presentation.
Situated at the beautiful
Silver Falls State Park Conference Center, Luke and some fellow
participants took a hike through forest and the many waterfalls there:
 Watch
the Microsoft TechEd Conference Videos
TechEd is Microsoft's premier conference for IT
professionals and developers. The sold-out conference took
place in Orlando, Florida June 11-14.
If you didn't attend, you can still watch the videos from the
conference, including the keynotes and other highlights from
each day. Visit the
TechEd web site and click
the "On Demand" tab to learn about the latest in Microsoft technology.
The announcements this year are stunning with huge advances
in Azure, Visual Studio .NET, SkyDrive, LightSwitch, Virtual
Machines, and more.
 FMS
Guest Blogs on the Microsoft Access Developer Blog: Using a
Combo Box to Search
FMS developer Molly Pell is a guest blogger on the
Microsoft Access developer blog. This post demonstrates a
neat trick that you can use to filter a Continuous or Split
form while your users are typing in a Combo Box.
Check out the post here:
Using a Combo Box to Search as you Type.
For more combo box tips, check out our
Top 5 Combo Box Tips for Access.
Microsoft Access Crosstab Queries
in Reports on the Microsoft Access Developer Blog
FMS developer Molly Pell is featured as a guest blogger
on the Microsoft Access developer blog.
This post demonstrates how to use the Pivot statement to
control column names returned by crosstab queries, allowing
crosstabs to be used on reports.
Check out the post here:
Using crosstab queries in reports
Or read our technical paper with an example of
Creating an Annual 12 Month Summary Report without VBA Code
by Creatively Using a Microsoft Access Crosstab Query
Microsoft Access
Database Architecture: Storing Temporary Data and User
Settings
Read our new paper on:
There are many things a user does with an application
that need to be preserved either during processing, between
screens, between sessions, or between application
updates/versions. When designing a system, it's important to
consider what to keep and where/how to do this. If
designed properly, the data should also support multi-user
environments.
Problem
Users are commonly annoyed to be forced to re-enter their
last specifications when the application should start with
that as its default. After all, a computer is supposed to be
good at remembering things, right?
Solutions
There are several ways to preserve user information
during a session, on a PC, and/or between PCs:
-
Keeping Selections in Memory for the Current Session
-
Using the Registry to Store User Information
Between Sessions
-
Using Private Tables to Store Information Between
Sessions
-
Making Sure Previous Values Remain Valid
Read the
paper for more details and tips.
  FMS
Professional
Solutions Group Creating Custom Solutions using Visual Studio LightSwitch
and .NET
Our Professional Solutions Group has created several custom
Visual Studio LightSwitch web solutions recently. This rapid
application development platform is very misunderstood by the
.NET developer community. Touted as an easy-to-use platform
that didn't require coding, it didn't appeal to .NET
developers and was too complex for non-developers.
Starting with a good database design, LightSwitch is great
for creating a certain class of database applications quickly.
It originally required users to install Silverlight which
severely limited its usefulness. At TechEd, Microsoft
announced that the next version eliminates the Silverlight
dependency and directly supports HTML5. This enables solutions
across multiple platforms.
Contact our consulting team if you would like a custom
solution.
Speaking at NYC Access User Group in September
FMS president Luke Chung will be speaking at the New York
City Access User Group on September 10th, 6:30PM. The
meeting is free and held at the Microsoft offices at 1290 6th Ave., between 51st
and 52nd Streets.
 FMS President Luke Chung
Improving Teacher Evaluations
Over the past year, FMS President Luke Chung was deeply
involved with revamping the way teachers are evaluated in our
county school system. As one of two outsiders on a task force
of 35, Luke brought a parental and "real world" perspective to
the teachers and administrators. Through his participation,
Luke discovered many excellent teachers who are sick of the
low standards that allow ineffective teachers to devalue
their profession.
As a result of this task force, teacher evaluations will
now be based 40% on student performance. Previously, student
performance did not factor into teacher evaluations at all,
so the rise from 0% to 40% is quite significant.
Many things still remain to be determined, including
what's measured, how it's adjusted for student levels, what
result is considered effective, and the implications of not meeting benchmarks. That
said, it's a huge step forward in improving teacher
evaluations.
Luke was quoted rather succinctly in
a recent Washington Post
article: "You don’t want to be on a team where some people
are coasting while you’re busting your butt." We're hopeful
it'll make a difference to schools, teachers and students.
Thank you for your continued support!
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page, and
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