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 AccessPlus
by
Mike Featherstone
Introduction
AccessPlus is the first piece of PalmOS
software I have actually asked to review. Having used MS Access on a few
projects over the years, the chance to examine an application that claims
to synchronise Access data to my handheld was too good to miss.
AccessPlus is advertised as being able to synchronise full
relational databases comprising suites of linked tables of data between
desktop and handheld, though it is unclear as to whether this includes
synchronisation of the link attributes themselves. Simultaneous database
updates on both platforms are apparently supported, with full
synchronisation being restored at the next hotsync
operation. This all sounds promising for those who need access to data from
Access while on the move.
Interface
AccessPlus offers its own rather unique interface using a tabular
data display and set of buttons to perform all the normal database
operations. The colour scheme is interesting, not necessarily to my taste,
but the idea is simple. Press a button then select a row in the displayed
table on which to perform the operation.
Adding
a database to your handheld, a table to a database, a record to a table or
a field to a record definition - all use the same mechanism and the same
button, the actual operation selected being dependent upon the data
displayed at the time. You have to understand the meanings of all the
buttons, of course, but I suspect that comes fairly quickly after prolonged
use. I was certainly starting to get to grips with it after just a couple
of days.
Data Management
AccessPlus supports a subset of the data types that are available
within Access so you will find that the type of certain data items is
converted on each transfer between platforms. This actually works OK (at
least on the databases I tried) and while it’s a bit disconcerting to
see some dedicated Access types represented as straight numeric types in AccessPlus, it doesn't seem to cause a problem (in terms of affecting
the content of the data). What it does do, however, is raise questions
about the usability of the converted Access data on the move.
As an example, if you
have a database referencing 5 regional sales offices identified in Access
using checkboxes, identification of these offices within AccessPlus will not be so straightforward. Rather than
displaying any boxes or names you are used to, each office will be
identified by its number (used behind the scenes in Access to identify
which box to check). It will be down to you to remember which office
corresponds to which number.
This is not a large
problem for new implementations as, with a bit of careful preparation, any
Access database can be constructed so as to avoid using the types of data
representation that will become unhelpful when copied to AccessPlus. It will be an issue, however, for all those
who have an existing database configuration that they would wish to use in
conjunction with AccessPlus on the handheld.
(It may be possible, in
future releases, to hang a 'list' type definition onto one of these numeric
fields, but this is not supported in the current release as far as I know.)
 Database queries are also supported in AccessPlus. Again it's not clear from the manual
whether these can be synchronised with Access or not (though when I tried
it for myself, I concluded that they weren't synchronised).
Queries can use the
contents of one or more database fields in an evaluation expression that is
then used to display a subset of the records within a single table of a
database. Only these simple queries are supported, however, the more
complex cross-table queries available on the desktop being unavailable
here.
Analysis
I must
confess, my initial impressions of this software
were mixed.
As an
instant positive point, AccessPlus fully supports
hi-res+ displays and works in both landscape and portrait formats on the
Tungsten T3. An immediate irritation, though, is the fact that any control
that opens up a window for data entry doesn't put you into edit mode
automatically. Rather, you are presented with an empty box in which you
have to specifically place the cursor with an otherwise un-necessary stylus
tap.
The
requirement to install of 23Mb of windows update was also a dis-incentive. I imagine, that
in a corporate environment, with dedicated bandwidth and IT staff, this
would not be a big deal but it is an extremely tedious process on a 56k
dial up modem!
Having
finally got the installation sorted out, rather than concentrating on the
simple databases supplied with the application, as these seemed to work
without problem, I dropped a small database of my
own into the AccessPlus directory on the PC and
pressed the HotSync button. My database quite happily transferred to the
handheld so I modified a record and hotsynced
again and that's when the trouble began.
The AccessPlus conduit synchronisation works OK so data
modified on the handheld is correctly reflected back onto the desktop. When
the backup conduit kicked in, however, the process suddenly started taking
an inordinately long time. Although the HotSync logos were doing their
thing on both Palm and PC, nothing was actually being written to the disk of
the PC. The process had locked up.
Resetting
the T3 and killing off HotSync on the PC solved the immediate problem, but
didn't get me any closer to assessing the capabilities of AccessPlus. I decided to attempt something simpler.
I
created a small database on the Palm, using one item of each supported data
type, and synchronised that with Access on the PC. This led me to my next
problem, which was helpfully confirmed in an email from SmartCell.
While AccessPlus offers a set list of types for
database use, not all of them are actually supported yet. I didn’t
find this written down anywhere and the software itself certainly
doesn’t stop you trying to use them but it appears that if you do,
the synchronisation process gets seriously upset. AccessPlus
itself also gets upset about this – on the second day of the free
seven day trial period, the application asked me for a registration code.
Fortunately I'd been supplied with one otherwise this review would be
shorter than it is.
I
tried again with another new database, this time with more success as I
limited my efforts to those data types that were definitely reported as
supported by SmartCell. This didn’t
completely clear up the backup conduit issues, however, and a reset mid
synch began to become a regular occurrence (required about 50% of the
time).
Having
had some measure of success, I created a second table in my database. As I
stated in the introduction, AccessPlus is
supposed to handle relational databases synchronised from the desktop. In
their email, SmartCell had already indicated to
me that this is not yet fully supported (the synchronisation of data is
offered currently, but not the relationships - a limitation that makes the
handheld a read-only tool in any real world application) so instead, I
wanted to see how cross table relationships were handled locally. Again, it
was a bit of a disappointment.
Database
joins (or links) are the key to any relational database. They define the links
between the different tables of data and therefore the structure of the
database itself. While the join fields in AccessPlus
work, in as far as they successfully link tables together, there seems to
be no way of controlling the records that are joined on each side of the
link. As far as I can tell, these joins work in purely chronological order
i.e. the first records of each table are joined, as are the second etc.
While it is possible that someone could require this, it is unlikely that
it will be a key requirement of every database created for use on a
handheld computer.
The
manual doesn’t go into any depth on how joins are supposed to work
and my emails to SmartCell elicited no further
replies. It may be that what I was seeing was simply the manifestation of
the unsupported relationships already mentioned. With nowhere else to turn
and so no way of finding out, however, I had to give up trying to
demonstrate any useable relational functionality within this application.
Having
got these mixed results, I lost heart with AccessPlus
somewhat. The final straw, though, came from yet another failed
synchronisation attempt at 11:15 one evening. Having soft-reset my T3 yet
again, it refused to start-up without error, forcing me, eventually, to
perform a hard-reset and spend a further hour rebuilding my device set-up.
(I have since invested in a card backup utility!)
Removing
AccessPlus from the device has removed all trace
of these errors.
Conclusions
Even
ignoring the conduit issues which, I suppose, may be unique to myself, the
levels of functionality and data presentation offered by this application
are not nearly enough to support anything but the simplest mobile business
(or personal) use. While I managed to demonstrate some level of
synchronisation between AccessPlus and Access,
the translation of data types and the inability to use certain formats,
some that are falsely claimed as implemented, really puts too many
constraints on serious use.
If the
conduit issues I experienced are taken into consideration as well, then any
decision about whether to purchase this software is really already taken
(for me at least). I think SmartCell is probably
well on the way to a reasonable handheld implementation of an Access
compatible product (if you can handle the colour scheme) but it is
certainly not ready yet and probably should have been held back for another
iteration of development before being released onto the market.
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