New Features Added to Total Visual Agent 2021
The world's most popular maintenance scheduling tool for Microsoft Access/Office VBA and Visual Basic 6 (VB6) is now available for Office 365/Microsoft Access 2021 and earlier.
This is the tenth major release of Total Visual Agent and introduces many enhancements to automate maintenance chores easier than ever.
This latest version of Total Visual Agent builds on our vast expertise, and offers the best database management solution to date.
Enhancements
Total Visual Agent 2021 includes the following new features and enhancements:
In mid-2017, Microsoft released a new version of Access 365 that introduced support for SQL Server BigInt field data types. When you link to a SQL Server table with a BigInt field, the Access database is upgraded to a new ACCDB format which breaks backward compatibility. Since then, the ACCDB format was also enhanced to support Date/Time Extended data types. Total Visual Agent 2021 supports the new ACCDB formats.
For Total Visual Agent to support the new ACCDB database formats introduced after Access 2016, your PC must have an Access version installed that can open it (64 or 32 bit version).
The Archive action creates zip files for your Access databases and other files, you can now add a password and apply compression options. Beyond the default ZIP format, you can now use Advanced Encryption Standards (AES) to apply more advanced encryption.
Microsoft Access databases can be a maximum size of 2 GB. If a database reaches that limit, it becomes read-only which may cause your applications to stop and/or lose data. Databases start small and grow over time, so it's easy to not notice the growth before it's too late.
The Database Statistics action adds a new option to specify the maximum size of your database. For example, 1.8 GB:
This action can be assigned to a database or an entire drive/directory including its subfolders so all your databases are monitored on the schedule you specify.
When a database exceeds the limit, you receive an email:
Sample Email for Database Size Alert
Have this run every day to monitor all your databases so you are notified if any exceed your limit
Total
Visual Agent always offered an option to email error when they are encountered. But no emails were sent if the machine hosting Total Visual Agent was down.
To avoid that problem and to know when an event successfully finishes, Total Visual Agent 2021 can send an email even if there's no error. Just check the Email Confirmation option on an event's settings.
Sample Email Confirmation when an Event is Finished
The email contains information how the event was executed (Monitor or Service), its name, start and end times, how long it took in minutes, and whether it completed successfully or encountered errors.
The email addresses for the Error and Event emails can be different and set on the Tools, Options, Email Settings tab.
In addition to the calendar day of a month, you can now set monthly events for a particular week of the month (e.g. second Sunday).
There are several options for the week number and day of week. The day type can be any day, weekday, weekend day or day of week.
You can now schedule events to run once a year. Enter the month and day it should run, along with the time window for that day.
The user interface is enhanced with more modern buttons and toolbars with large icons on the Total Visual Agent Manager form:
And the Managed Databases form:
Easily search, expand or collapse all the treeview nodes. When you click Search, enter the text to find, and the first node in the treeview that matches is selected. Click the Search Next button to find the next one.
All events let you add a comment to better manage them.
When viewing the Event specifications, you can click on the Enabled/Disabled text to change its status.
This is in addition to changing it from the treeview's right click menu.
The Monitor and Service forms add more details.
- If an event is being processed, its start time is shown which is helpful for time consuming events.
- More space is available to show long database names.
- The last event and when it ran is on the status bar at the bottom.
The Activity Log Form is enhanced:
- Sorting Start Time from New to Old or vice versa is displayed with radio buttons.
- The column headers can be clicked to toggle sort order.
- Pressing [F9] refreshes the list, which is helpful if the Monitor or Service is running while this form is open.
The data grids on the Database Statistics form are sortable by clicking on the column header. The first click sorts in ascending order, the next click sorts in descending order.
The Total Visual Agent settings database is now located in the C:\Users\Public\Documents\FMS\Total Visual Agent\17.0 folder.
In the 2016 version, the database was stored in the C:\ProgramData\FMS\Total Visual Agent\16.0 folder. Unfortunately, recent versions of Windows restrict most logins to ReadOnly permissions in the C:\ProgramData folder. Even users included in the Administrators group often did not have Write permissions to our folder and when the Total Visual Agent Manager tried to save new settings, Windows automatically replicated the database in the C:\Users\...\VirtualStore\.. folder. This caused problems with the Monitor and Service which did not expect the database to be there.
By changing the location to the C:\Users\Public\Documents folder, this problem is avoided.
Other Enhancements
- .NET Framework upgraded to version 4.6.2 from 3.5
- New User Manual and Help File
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Total Visual Agent Pricing for Microsoft Access, Office, and Visual Basic 6 |
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| Licenses | Price | Access 365/2021, 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010 and 2007 |
Access 2003 and Earlier |
| Single | $399 | Buy Now | Buy Now |
| 5-Seat | $1199 | Buy Now | Buy Now |
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Upgrades |
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| Single | $299 | Buy Now | Buy Now |
| 5-Seat | $899 | Buy Now | Buy Now |
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Premium Support Subscription |
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| Single | $299 | ||
| 5 Seat | $999 | ||
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Also Available as part of: |
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Total Access Ultimate Suite Total VB Enterprise Suite |
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Runtime/Redistributable Version |
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A runtime version of Total Visual Agent is not available since it
cannot be bundled within an Access or VB6 application (like a control).
Total Visual Agent is a system administrative tool and usually runs
on a machine separate from the deployed applications. Since it can manage
databases across the entire network, its usefulness extends well beyond your
application. Many developers and consultants, who need to bundle scheduled database maintenance with their applications, purchase multi-license copies of Total Visual Agent and resell it to their clients. Not only can you resell Total Visual Agent at full price, you can also charge fees for installation and configuration to manage your applications, all their other Access/Jet databases, and scheduling other tasks. For more information, please contact info@fmsinc.com. |
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Licensing Information |
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| Total Visual Agent is licensed on a per installation basis. Each installation can manage multiple databases across the entire network (assuming the machine has rights to view the other network drives). | |||
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Microsoft Office/Access 365 Support |
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| Microsoft Office/Access 365 is a subscription that is constantly updated. Total Visual Agent 2021 supports the version of Office/Access 365 when it was released at the end of 2021. We cannot guarantee automatic support for all future releases with our current version. We strive to provide upgrades to support new features as they become available. | |||
Enhancements in Previous Versions
Version 2021 is shipping!
With Windows Service!
Supports: All Access, Jet Engine, and Visual Basic versions
Reviews
"Total Visual Agent is a real find, a rare combination of ease of use, and bang for the buck. In the end, no other competitor even comes close."
Thomas Wagner, Product Review in MS Office and VBA Developer
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