Access developers, administrators, and users now have a new toolkit to aid them in analyzing Access 97 databases for upgrade and conversion to Microsoft® Office Access 2003. You can use the tools in the Microsoft Office Access 2003 Conversion Toolkit to find and analyze Access databases in preparation for switching to the latest version of Access.

Note that the toolkit does not actually convert your databases. It only helps you with scoping and identifying known issues that have an impact on the conversion process.

Where to get the Microsoft Office Access 2003 Conversion Toolkit

The Microsoft Office Access 2003 Conversion Toolkit is available from the Microsoft Download Center.

Helping you prepare for conversion

The Microsoft Office Access 2003 Conversion Toolkit provides features you can use to find and analyze Access databases in preparation for conversion. The toolkit itself does no converting. It contains tools and information to help you understand and plan for what may be required when you execute a conversion process.

The toolkit includes the following items:

• Scanning tool — Locates and gathers data on your existing databases.
• Reporting front end — Turns the data gathered by the scanning tool into useful information that will help you identify and mitigate conversion issues and plan a successful conversion effort.
• Documentation — Includes whitepapers with best practices and guidelines to help you plan and execute a successful conversion.
• Training — Includes in-depth eLearning with strategies and advice on how to use the Access Conversion Toolkit and how to approach the conversion effort.

Collecting data on your existing databases

The scanning tool component of the Microsoft Office Access 2003 Conversion Toolkit scans your drives and file shares and collects detailed information on your Access databases (MDB or MDE). The information collected is then used by the reporting front end to identify possible conversion issues. Some of the information collected includes file properties, Data Access Object (DAO) properties, Access properties, Visual Basic® for Application references, and information about your database objects such as tables, queries, forms and reports.

For example, the scanning tool can identify DAO properties such as the Access file format, connection information for linked tables, and whether or not the database is replicated. It can also collect information about whether the database is compiled and identify missing add-in or object references.

Because the scanning tool supports stand-alone command line usage, it can be run remotely by an IT administrator from a management workstation or from a centrally administered script. The collected information is stored in XML files that can easily be imported into the reporting tool. You can also use the reporting tool to drive the scanning tool interactively.

Scoping the task and identifying known conversion issues

The reporting tool is an Access application that helps you make sense of the information collected by the scanning tool. Included are a number of carefully designed reports, charts and forms that analyze and summarize the information gathered and stored by the scanning tool. For example, you can easily produce a chart that shows the total number of databases likely to require manual intervention to convert successfully.

The primary goal of the reporting tool is to help you identify potential conversion issues so you can plan for them ahead of time. To this end, the Microsoft Office Access 2003 Conversion Toolkit employs knowledge about known Access conversion issues when examining the properties and data collected about your databases. For example, you can produce a report that lists the known issues identified for each database. Each database is also categorized according to the likelihood it may require manual intervention in order to convert successfully. This information can be summarized in charts or reports.

Learning about strategies and best practices

The Microsoft Office Access 2003 Conversion Toolkit also includes valuable whitepapers with best practices and guidelines to help you plan and execute a successful conversion. In addition, an in-depth training course is provided with strategies and advice on how to use the Access Conversion Toolkit and how to approach the conversion effort. The training course includes detailed guidance for each of the known issues identified by the reporting tool.

Requirements

The operating system requirement for the Microsoft Office Access 2003 Conversion Toolkit is Microsoft Windows® 98 or later. The reporting tool is an Access application and must run on a computer with Access 2002 or later installed.

The scanning program does not require Access 2002 and needs these external components to run:

• The VB runtime msvbvm50.dll: Included and should be installed in the same directory as the scanning program.
• DAO 3.5/3.6 (dao350.dll/dao360.dll): This should be included with Access 97, Windows 98, Windows NT® 4.0 Option Pack, or Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 (SP4).
• Microsoft Scripting Runtime (sccrun.dll): This should be included with Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack, Windows NT 4.0 SP5, Microsoft Windows Scripting Host, and Access 2000.
• Access 97 and above for the scanning program to gather Access properties (VBA references, reference count, and compiled state).
• MSXML (msxml.dll): This should be included with Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 SP5, and Windows XP.

In summary, you should have Windows 98 or later for the operating system, the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack, and SP5 installed. Access 97 and above is needed to collect Access properties.