Using Vault with a Microsoft Access application

[bboppel]

Has anyone implemented version control with a Microsoft Access application? My goal would to be able to check out/in various Access objects (forms, queries, tables, reports, and vba modules). If that is possible and feasible, then my next goal would to be able to deploy "checked-in" changes to a "production" copy of the Access mdb file.

Thanks in advance!

[Tonya]

Vault doesn't support integration with MS Access. But you can use the Vault GUI Client to perform version control features. Any file type that can be stored in SQL Server is supported.

Let me know if you have any additional questions.

Thanks!

[PhilS]

If you want to use version control from with the Microsoft Access development environment, you’ve got three options.

1.) Use the LoadFromText/SaveAsText-Methods of the Access.Application-Object to import/export all the Access objects as text files to the file system and the use the Vault Client (GUI or commandline) to manage them in Vault.
Of course you can automate the import/export part using VBA.

2.) Up until Access 2010 Microsoft offered an free add-in that integrates and interface to version control software into Access. This add-in allows to use version control commands from within the Microsoft Access development environment. It works well with Vault. I used it for many years. Download it here from the MS Download center.
Unfortunately MS discontinued this add-in with Access 2013.

3.) Because I depend heavily on version control integration into Microsoft Access, I needed a replacement for the Microsoft add-in for Access 2013 onward.
So I built such an add-in myself. As we use Vault for version control with our projects, Vault will be very well supported by our Access Add-In.
It is going to be a commercial product and the public release will be in September 2015. You can have a look at the website for the version control add-in for further information.

@ForumModerators: I apologize, if you consider mentioning my own product inappropriate here. In that case, feel free to delete paragraph 3, but please leave the rest of the answer. This information is not known very widely.

[Beth]

PhilS: Thank you for your contribution.

bboppel: I know there were some people in the past who made it work with Access, but I don't know the details of how they made it work. Like Tonya said, we don't support it. All I could suggest is to run some Google searches.

[jclausius]

PhilS, No problem.

I'll also pass this along to our sales team as they get the occasional question regarding Vault integration with Access. It will be good to let others know there are third-party solutions available.

Thank you for your post.