Jane Richter
Software companies that develop Windows database tools for the corporate end user continue to refine their products' ease of use while building in room to extend to enterprise databases. Three Windows database offerings -- Microsoft Access 2.0, Lotus Approach 3.0, and Alpha Software's Alpha Five for Windows -- include tools, such as templates, tutorials, prompts, and help, that are designed to enhance out-of-box productivity. For many end users, this quick start is enough. Others, however, will want business applications that go beyond basic forms and reports; they require custom menus and icon bars, data-manipulation capability, and task automation. The best choice depends on an end user's particular skill level, unique style, and business requirements.
Access
2.0 (see "Access 2.0: The Best of Both Worlds?," September 1994 BYTE) is packed with productivity tools: Wizards and Builders (42 in all, including interactive designers for tables, queries, forms, reports, and labels); ToolTips to help you decipher the user interface; Cue Cards to provide on-line tutorials (optionally with your own data); and a context-sensitive help system to provide help with anything that's visible on the screen. Access also includes many extended features for developing business applications, including a Menu Builder for developing customized menus.
Access 2.0 now includes the ability to interactively create application-specific icon bars. The program also includes a
Macro Builder
that automatically generates Access Basic code. Access readily imports or attaches to all the popular PC database files, automatically links to Word and Excel, supports OLE 2.0, and provides access to SQLdata via its built-in ODBC driver. Microsoft also offers "upsizing tools"to simp
lify the conversion of Access data to client/server data on Microsoft SQLServer.
Approach 3.0
from Lotus ((617) 577-8500) boasts many of the same productivity tools as Access: Assistants with SmartMasters (including interactive designers for forms, reports, form letters, and mailing labels); SmartIcons; an on-line tutorial; and point-and-shoot context-sensitive help. Approach includes 51 templates and three sample applications.
Approach's Note-tab interface makes moving between views in a database a snap. The program uses a context-sensitive standard interface, called an InfoBox, to make real-time modifications to every imaginable property in a view. Approach lets you customize the menus and icon bars without programming.
Approach accomplishes every task interactively. It reads and writes all the popular PCdatabase files; links automatically to 1-2-3 and Lotus Notes to analyze and share data and create reports, forms, worksheets, and labels; and supports OLE2.0. The
program transparently accesses SQLdata sources either by using its PowerKey technology (for Oracle SQL, SQLServer, and DB2)or via its built-in ODBCdriver.
Released in October,
Alpha Five
((617) 229-2924) includes three basic Genies (database, query, and report designers), bubble help, and database-driven (as opposed to table-driven) default forms and reports.
The area where Alpha Five really shines is its rich feature set. In addition to a data dictionary (which offers the ability to set business rules at the database level), Alpha Five provides the most complete interactive tool set for business applications development. Although you cannot create custom menus in Alpha Five, you can turn off the speed bar, put speed-bar-style buttons on forms, and restrict menu items. When automating tasks, Alpha Five's script recorder captures every action and automatically generates xBASIC (a blend of BASIC and xBase) code; you can then view, modify, and reuse this code at will. Alpha F
ive also offers OLE 2.0 support and can natively read and write .DBF format. For the end user who can wait, Alpha Software plans to add ODBC data access in the first quarter of 1995 and bidirectional ODBC access by the summer.
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Access requires more database knowledge as tools get more advanced material.
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Approach's interface to its macro language has an interactive dialog box that uses plain-English descriptions.
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Alpha Five's field transformation rules exemplify the product's rich tool set.
End-User Windows Databases Take Off
