How to Convert/Create an Ms Access form into a Web Page (HTML Form)?

[prabha_friend]

Possible?

Please find attached herewith the required form in word format...

I have easily created that in Ms Access as a Form using textboxes and sub-forms for table like interface parts?

But as a HTML document. How?

 

[cheekybuddha]

Possible?

Yes.

How?

With a lot of research/learning I guess.

Do you understand basic web technologies? HTML, CSS, POST/GET requests etc.
You would need a web server/service, plus probably a domain name.
You will need to understand how web forms communicate with the server.
Presumably you would need a database which may or may not run on the same server as the web server. Access likely won't cut it.
You will need to have a program running on the server that handles writing the web response to the database. can be written in PHP, JS, Python, Ruby, Go etc etc
Security is a big area you must get right as well.

Possible, but quite a long journey if you are starting at the beginning! I haven't even mentioned frameworks for making the web development easier eg React, Svelte/Sveltekit etc.

A long journey, but a fun journey if you're up for it!

 

[prabha_friend]

Thanks Cheeky. If an Access Developer, wants to set foot into the web side. Which would be right tool to start learning with Sharepoint? or Visual Studio?

 

[cheekybuddha]

Personally, I wouldn't advise using either.

I would leave MS out of the equation entirely.

Actually, I lie a little bit - I would use MS Visual Studio Code editor (different from Visual Studio)

Frankly, IMHO, MS makes a complete mess of anything web related (but have made a damn fine editor!)

Probably start here

 

[prabha_friend]

Thanks Cheeky. If an Access Developer, wants to set foot into the web side. Which would be right tool to start learning with Sharepoint? or Visual Studio?

Looking for more opinions/Answers. Your answers might decide on which ebook I am buying tonight...

 

[cheekybuddha]

Perhaps explain your use case in more detail.

Will this form need to be accessible from anywhere on the internet, or just from within your organisation?

Are you hoping it will link directly to an existing Access database?

How many users / how much traffic are you expecting this form to have?

Does you organisation already have ShitearePoint installed/available?

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

I've posted this on AWF before:-

One of my rainy day jobs is to put a database on the internet using PHP and MySQL. Haven't done it yet, and I probably never will! Still, it's an ambition of sorts.

I did an online course which I thought was fantastic! I highly recommend:-

Robert Tucker of Infinite Skills

I found this PHP MySQL course exceptionally clear and easy to follow. I particularly like Robert Tucker of Infinite Skills, his voice, I could listen to him all day!

The course is currently free on Udemy, and I have seen it in other places on the internet for free as well. I also found the content, the sample files somewhere for free, not sure if I could find them again…

Beginner PHP and MySQL Tutorial

Free MySQL Tutorial - Beginner PHP and MySQL Tutorial

Learn PHP and MySQL and start developing web apps like a pro! - Free Course

www.udemy.com

You couldn't go far wrong in taking this free course, to my mind it's exceptional.

I made this note about a “Framework”
(Use a framework)

PHP frameworks comparison | Comparison tables - SocialCompare

This PHP frameworks comparison chart compares the best PHP frameworks: Banshee vs CakePHP2 vs CodeIgniter vs Fat-Free vs FuelPHP vs Jelix vs Kohana vs Laravel vs Lithium vs PHPixie vs Mako vs MkFramework vs Solar vs Symfony2 vs Yii vs Zend Framework

socialcompare.com

Maybe of some use...

 

[GPGeorge]

Avoid SharePoint unless you have no other choice. That's my opinion, but I think it can be sustained.

Historically Microsoft tried at least three times to "webify" Access, unsuccessfully every time. There is little to no chance it will be attempted again. There is, of course, a lingering desire to somehow make that work. But it is more complicated than replicating the Access forms and reports using html. Much more.

As David asked, what's the use case? Why is this on the agenda?

 

[prabha_friend]

Perhaps explain your use case in more detail.

Will this form need to be accessible from anywhere on the internet, or just from within your organisation?

Are you hoping it will link directly to an existing Access database?

How many users / how much traffic are you expecting this form to have?

Does you organisation already have ShitearePoint installed/available?

Will this form need to be accessible from anywhere on the internet, or just from within your organisation? - Intranet

Are you hoping it will link directly to an existing Access database? - Not needed. Sharepoint List also is okay

How many users / how much traffic are you expecting this form to have? - 47 is the total employee count

Does you organisation already have ShitearePoint installed/available? - Microsoft 365 (I think Sharepoint is included in that)

Please reply. Thanks.

With Hope,
Prabhakaran

 

[prabha_friend]

One more point. They just have to access the content from anywhere inside the institution without any dependencies on place. Like Ms-Access or any other tools. They are okay with a Browser.

 

[cheekybuddha]

Is it just the form you linked in Post #1, or a whole database interface you will require?

 

[prabha_friend]

Currently Proforma Only... Soon Planning for a Complete Automation of that Institute. But we have a vast timeline for that. Initially I was approached for just that automation only on a freelancing basis but upon seeing my Skills, They have hired me under 'Highly Skilled Labour' category. It's my dream work to automate and design, build a too. for a complete enterprise with my skills. You know 'The CTO' task

 

[The_Doc_Man]

The problem has to do with protocols. Access is basically a file-selective-sharing app. Web-related protocols are generally not compatible. You would have a great deal of trouble and effort to make Access do anything interactive via a web page directly. There are approaches to get this effect, each with issues of technical and cost factors. The below list is OR not AND.

1. Migrate the back-end to an active SQL environment such as SQL Server, ORACLE, etc. Keep your Access FE alive via ODBC techniques. Build a true web page that can look into SQL via ODBC as well. But understand that you have just jumped into the world of "double entry bookkeeping" because you now have an Access FE and a WEB FE that need to be maintained together. Cost is that of SQL Server licenses and development of the web side. There is also the cost of a machine robust enough to run SQL Server or other ODBC-based tools.

2. Obtain copies of CITRIX or another Remote Desktop tool. Let everyone RDP into the server and let them run Access in the remote window. Cost is that of the licenses for the RDP tool and everyone needs a licensed copy of Access (though I recall that there IS such a thing as a multi-user license.) Pat Hartman has used CITRIX before and has posted many articles on this subject. Issues are cost of the per-user licences for your RDP tool (CITRIX or something else) and setup of the RDP environment so that each user has a private profile and a private copy of the FE. The central machine that will act as the CITRIX server and that will run Access for everyone needs to be quite robust, and a multi-processor system would be highly advised, so there is a cost of hosting.

3. Since this is a LAN, set aside a machine to be the file server and put the BE on it. If you already have a file server on site, you can probably share it. Use some of Pat Hartman's auto-distribution scripts so that everyone has a copy of the FE. Cost is that everyone needs a "real" Access license.

4. Look into using an Access runtime version of the FE to ride the LAN. I have no experience with this but you can search this site for Run-Time and will get lots of hits. Cost is setting up the FE to run in a runtime environment.

 

[GPGeorge]

Re: Item 1. One of my premier projects in the days when I was still working as a consultant was exactly that sort of dual environment application. I built the Access side, a colleague built the Web Browser side. We had two instances of SQL Server, one on the local network, one in the hosted environment to drive the webpages. Data was imported from lab tests via csv files, and then massaged and aggregated with Access. We used stored procs and passthrough queries to send the summarized data to the hosted SQL Server.

Two developers cost twice as much as one developer and the skill sets didn't overlap very much. Towards the end, ironically, the C# developer took a contract that made him relocate overseas. I was asked to take over maintenance of the web side because they felt it was cheaper to train me up on the coding than to train a new C# developer on the really complex business rules in the application. One developer wearing two hats is can be less than twice as expensive , but just barely.

 

[561414]

Choose a stack, OP

I recommend MySQL, Express, React and NodeJS. You'll use mostly JavaScript for this, so it's very convenient because you write both the backend and frontend with the same language. Let me know if you have doubts about this suggestion, but for what you've said, that stack covers all your needs.

 

[prabha_friend]

Choose a stack, OP

I recommend MySQL, Express, React and NodeJS. You'll use mostly JavaScript for this, so it's very convenient because you write both the backend and frontend with the same language. Let me know if you have doubts about this suggestion, but for what you've said, that stack covers all your needs.

Why do we have to move out of our "Office" umbrella... As the same is familiar and pre-built too?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Move out from under the Office umbrella because that umbrella isn't web-friendly for the most part.

 

[561414]

Why do we have to move out of our "Office" umbrella... As the same is familiar and pre-built too?

Because you want to build a web app that uses a browser. Access has the web browser control and you can also write html code dynamically and then show the page to your users with an Access frontend, but it's not going to be a professional solution. It's going to be a hack, a temporary thing that requires a lot of understanding. You could use that energy to learn web development properly and be a more skillful programmer who can also provide web solutions without requiring Office. A proper web application that uses the browser is cross-platform, it can be used on a Mac, Linux, Windows, a mobile phone, etc. Access just can't provide that, Office in general can't do it. You may argue about sharepoint or azure, but you're just limiting yourself to what they allow you to do, and each additional integration comes with a per-user price tag.

 

[561414]

I'm being unfair, if you like Microsoft products a lot, there's C# web development as well. Blazor, MSSQL, you can build minimal APIs with the new frameworks as well. That could be another stack. It's very valid as well.

.Net is also faster than NodeJS, it's more refined and an excellent candidate for apps that use a lot of calculations versus JavaScript that confuses a lot of developers when it comes to math, me included. You can look up memes about javascript and math. There's a big community behind as well. But I'm afraid most developers are focused on NodeJS. Tons of things have already been built with it, because it's just so flexible and gets you results in no time.

 

[cheekybuddha]

Choose a stack, OP

I recommend MySQL, Express, React and NodeJS. You'll use mostly JavaScript for this, so it's very convenient because you write both the backend and frontend with the same language. Let me know if you have doubts about this suggestion, but for what you've said, that stack covers all your needs.

Kind of suggesting learning to run before you know how to walk. Better to have some idea of the basic building blocks before building up the stack.