Access 2003 upgrade to Access 2007

[access2010]

We would like to upgrade our software from Access 2003 to Access 2007.

Do we have to do anything special or just upgrade our databases?

Thank you.

Nicole

 

[sonic8]

An A2003 to A2007 migration should be mostly straight forward.
However, it is impossible to say that for sure without knowing your project in detail.
On thing potentially needing attention would be custom menu and tool bars. These were replaced by the Office Ribbon in A2007 and classic menus were moved to a subsection of the ribbon.
There are a couple of more exotic areas also potentially causing problems, but I doubt anyone will remember in detail. - After all, you are upgrading from a 20 year old version to a 17 year old version. One could ask why you even bother with this. Both version are out of support for a long time.

 

[Pat Hartman]

We would like to upgrade our software from Access 2003 to Access 2007.

Why would you do that? A2007 is 16 years old and out of support. Why not upgrade to the newest version? The only reason to not skip A2007 is if you have .mdb's that were actually created with earlier versions of Access. In that case, convert them to A2003 first, and then upgrade to the newest version.

As @sonic8 said, the conversion should be straight forward. I've never had any issues converting applications to the ACE version of Access except for the issue with the calendar control. A2007 and newer have a built in calendar control. If the field is defined as a date or if the unbound control is formatted as a date, then the internal calendar is automatically available so removing the old ActiveX calendar is trivial. You just may have to do it a lot. Referencing this old ActiveX control which is no longer supported will cause compile errors. So, make sure all modules have "option Explicit" specified and all modules must compile cleanly. This is best practice anyway so hopefully, this doesn't cause you a lot of work. If you use other ActiveX controls, you will also need to find replacements for them or give up the functionality.

Another thing you might need to do is to disambiguate DAO or ADO objects, whichever you used. That means that you need to find all the Dim statements for DAO/ADO objects and change them to
Dim db as DAO.Database, etc

One final thing, as long as your .mdb's are at least A2003, you can run them in the newest versions of Access without actually converting the apps. I would still do the conversion but, you can do it at your leisure.

 

[CJ_London]

only other potential issue I can think of is if the 2003 .mdb uses a .mdw file for security. That was deprecated in 2007 so cannot be modified although still supported for security through to 2010 and later. So you need to keep that file although personally I would remove that security option before upgrading and write your own alternative.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

I think we would all agree that A2007 has been improved by later versions. A2010 is better, but if I was upgrading, I would go to the latest version you can get.

I would keep A2003 on your computer even so, as long as it works
Additionally, I much prefer the A2003 switchboard to the later versions I have seen.
Also I prefer A2003 menus to modern ribbons.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Additionally, I much prefer the A2003 switchboard to the later versions I have seen.

You might want to take a look at my switchboard samples. I converted this version from embedded macros to VBA. It also has a couple of other modifications. I added a new type of item that allows you to open continuous forms directly from the switchboard.

I also included a link to the version that uses the security I added to the Switchboard Items table.

Replacement Switchboard

This Switchboard form is based on the last VBA version which I think was A2k. I expanded it to allow for 12 items rather than 8 and you can easily change it to do more. I've included directions. This updated version has two switchboards. One more traditional and the other is big buttons...

www.access-programmers.co.uk

Switchboard with simple security

This is a custom switchboard. It expands on the Switchboard Items table to add four additional columns to define view/edit/add/delete security levels for switchboard items and forms/reports referenced by them. It includes tables to manage users and also to assign them security levels. The user...

www.access-programmers.co.uk

 

[Cotswold]

I have converted Access97 & Access2000 to Access2010 and later without any major issues.
I tend to think later versions are always better. After all you would want your clients to be using the latest version of your software. I certainly did.