What are the implications of running a Microsoft access database in both 2003 and 2007?

Question

What are the implications of running a Microsoft Access Database in both 2003 and 2007?

Is there some class I forgot to take?

The program was originally built in office 2003, and then run in 2007. Issues seem to happen when the machine it is being run on has both 2003 and 2007 on it. The issue would also appear to stem from reference from the "Microsoft Access 12.0 Object Library" (or the "Microsoft Access 11.0 Object Library" in 2003). To see this, just look at the Tools: Refrences menu on the VBA screen.

The error's symptom is basically the code not be recognized (almost like it doesn’t recognize the programming language I’m using). It usually follows this with a box that says "The expression On Load you entered as the event property settings produced the following error: Object or class does not support the set of events". You can also replace “On Load” with “On Click” for buttons or “On Change” for text boxes.

I personally suspect that the computer is taking parts of the Microsoft Access 11.0/12.0 Object Library and then mixes the two into a useless VBA reference. What further confirms my suspicion is the box that pops up when going between the two that says "Configuring Microsoft Access" Another issue that further confirms my suspicion is it will run on whichever one it is opened on first (2007, for example) and then not run on the other (2003 continuing the example)

The only other issue is I have had to fix was changing the last part of the DoCmd.OpenForm ,,,,, acFormReadOnly (or acReadOnly, depending on how the machine seems to feel on that particular day - yes it would work with one, one day and then want me to switch it another) to simply locking the individual text boxes

Maybe it’s not quite coding, but I think it might be able to be fixed by coding.

Hopefully that’s enough for someone to come up with something.

Answer 1

We have an MS-Acces application, developped with Access 2003 and used on either full or runtime version of Access 2003 and Access 2007 (Access 2007 Runtime being free, we are making a great use of it!). There is no particular issue except the references management. Our code analyses the Office version installed on the computer and automatically updates corresponding references (not only Access but also Excel, Outlook, Word, etc.: code is very tricky but of great interest!)

To my own knowledge, no major objects, properties or methods available in Office 2003/VBA were deprecated in Office 2007. Office 2003 code will then run with Access 2007 once these references issues solved. Some new objects were introduced in Office 2007 so I would not advise any developer to use it to develop code to be further used with Access 2003.

But the main & real issue of your question is: why should one run both Access versions on the same computer? This is what I'd do if I want to make sure to crash my apps. I think that if your objectives were to develop software, you should definitely find a better configuration for your machine!

Answer 2

In general, having multiple versions of Access installed on the one machine is unsupported and will result in the issues you are seeing with the object references.

If the database is authored in Access 2003, compiled to an .MDE, and then deployed onto a separate Windows instance running Access 2007, you should not have any significant issues (other than UI changes such as custom toolbars being thrown into the Add-Ins ribbon).

For testing on multiple versions of Access you will need some form of isolation between each version. I use multiple virtual machines to accomplish this. My primary Windows VM runnings Office 2007 and IE7 and I have a second VM which has Office 2003 and IE6 for testing.

Note that if you wish to simply use Word, Excel and Outlook 2007 with Access 2003, you can install Access 2003 first by itself and then do a custom install of Office 2007 and deselect Access 2007.

Answer 3

Microsoft's official position is that installing multiple office versions on the same pc is not supported and not recommended, and Access 2007 seems to be designed to prove that to us!

That said, you can avoid most issues by doing the following:

1 - Splitting the db into a back end and front end. Place the back end (tables and relationships) in a network folder, and place a copy of the front end (all other objects) on each user's desktop.

2 - It's best to make the front end an mde to avoid the references shuffle every time you open the db in the other version of Access.

3 - Create a shortcut to open the front end with the desired version of Access so it's always opened with that version. (And remember to use the shortcut!) In the shortcut's target:

"path to Access 12 msaccess.exe" "path to db.mdb"