Below is a collection of Microsoft Access forums and discussion groups that I’ve personally found helpful or that others have recommended to me over the years. The entries are listed alphabetically; this order doesn’t imply any ranking or preference.
These sites allow you to post questions and receive real-time help from other users and developers.
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Below is a brief listing of some of the useful websites that I have found navigating the web in search of answer to my own Access questions/problems. Most of these site are full of free information, tutorials, tips and tricks, samples, … . All you need is some time to go looking.
| The MVPS website | Microsoft Most Valuable Professional’s website (Explanation, Code, etc.. – great resource) |
| Google Groups | Here you can search through postings previously made… you probably aren’t the first person to ask the question so chances are that if you look it up you’ll find an answer waiting for you. |
Sadly, Microsoft has once again sidelined Microsoft Access and removed all Access templates from this page. |
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| Roger’s Access Library | Lots of sample databases illustrating various database technics and principles |
| FunctionX Access Tutorials | Tutorials covering most every basic aspect of using MS Access |
| Tony Toews Website | “Tony’s Microsoft Access tips, hints and links including Email FAQ and Access based accounting systems. One of the oldest Microsoft Access websites.” |
| Stephen Lebans’ Website | On this website you will find numerous APIs and other samples to do what you thought was impossible with access. |
| Allen Browne’s Website | This website has numerous tips and solutions to common problems (from basic to very advanced) |
| Doug Steele’s Website | This website has numerous links to other great Access sources of information. Also, make sure you check out his Smart Access article archive! |
| Albert D. Kallal’s Website | An MS Access MVP’s website full of useful information, tips and examples. |
| Jeff Conrad’s resources page | A very extensive listing of valuable Access resources (newsgroups, books, websites, tutorials, add-ins,…). |
| Crystal’s Website | Her Access Basics guide is a must for any MS Access beginner, and she offer several other gems on her site! |
| BTAB Development | Here you will find a vast variety of information, code sample, links, tutorials, sample database, etc. |
| theDBguy’s site | Anyone that has ever been on the UtterAccess website knows theDBguy. His new site is slowly building up and you find various articles & sample databases to learn more about MS Access from. |
| Glen Kruger’s site | Sample downloads, blogs, links, … a little bit of everything to learn from. |
| Glenn Lloyd’s site | Covering a wide range of topics (Excel, Access, and pretty much the entire MS Office suite), Glenn shares his wealth of knowledge with us all. |
| MS How-To Articles | Provided by www.kayodeok.btinternet.co.uk A vary comprehensive list of MS How-To articles that cover a wide range of common database concepts and problems. This website also has indexes of How-To articles for all the other common MS software programs. |
Have you ever need to generate a random string or generate a unique id using PHP. Below is a complete example of how to do so. Simply copy the entire code into a new php page and then open it.
PHP Random String Generator
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>PHP Random String Generator</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
# AUTHOR: Daniel Pineault, CARDA Consultants Inc.
# DATE: 2010-06-25
# PURPOSE: Generate a random string or unique Id
# COPYRIGHT: You are free to use this code as you wish as long as
# this header is included in the final work. This is
# provided 'AS IS' and I assume no liability for its
# usage.
#
if (empty($_POST)) {
$UCase = 1;
$LCase = 1;
$Nbr = 1;
$SpecChrs = 1;
$ExChrs = "";
$RandStrLen = 12;
} else {
foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) {
$$key = strip_tags($value); //sanitize provided user entries
}
if (empty($UCase)) {
$UCase = 0;
}
if (empty($LCase)) {
$LCase = 0;
}
if (empty($Nbr)) {
$Nbr = 0;
}
if (empty($SpecChrs)) {
$SpecChrs = 0;
}
if (empty($ExChrs)) {
$ExChrs = "";
}
if (empty($RandStrLen)) {
$RandStrLen = 12;
}
}
$sRandString = "";
if (isset($GenRndStr)) {
$s = "";
$sUpper = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
$sLower = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
$sNumbers = "0123456789";
$sSpecial = "!@#$%^&*()[]{},.;:'/\~-+=|<>";
if ($UCase == 1) {
$s .= $sUpper;
}
if ($LCase == 1) {
$s .= $sLower;
}
if ($Nbr == 1) {
$s .= $sNumbers;
}
if ($SpecChrs == 1) {
$s .= $sSpecial;
}
if (strlen($ExChrs) > 0) {
for ($k = 0; $k <= (strlen($ExChrs) - 1); $k++) {
$s = str_replace((string)$ExChrs[$k], "", $s);
}
}
$sLen = $RandStrLen;
for ($i = 1; $i <= $sLen; $i++) {
$sRandString .= $s[Rand(1, strlen($s))];
}
}
?>
<h1>PHP Random String Generator</h1>
<form id="RndStrGen" name="RndStrGen" method="post">
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
<tr>
<td valign="top"><strong>Password Characteristics</strong> </td>
<td><input type="checkbox" id="UCase" name="UCase" value="1" <?php
if ($UCase == 1) {
echo ' checked="checked"';
}
?> />
Upper Case Characters<br />
<input type="checkbox" id="LCase" name="LCase" value="1" <?php
if ($LCase == 1) {
echo ' checked="checked"';
}
?> />
Lower Case Characters<br />
<input type="checkbox" id="Nbr" name="Nbr" value="1" <?php
if ($Nbr == 1) {
echo ' checked="checked"';
}
?> />
Numbers<br />
<input type="checkbox" id="SpecChrs" name="SpecChrs" value="1" <?php
if ($SpecChrs == 1) {
echo ' checked="checked"';
}
?> />
Special Characters (!@#$%^&*()[]{},.;:'/\~-+=|<>)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><strong>Characters to Exclude</strong></td>
<td><input type="text" id="ExChrs" name="ExChrs" value="<?= $ExChrs ?>" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Password Length</strong> </td>
<td><input type="text" id="RandStrLen" name="RandStrLen" value="<?= $RandStrLen ?>" /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>
<input type="submit" id="GenRndStr" name="GenRndStr" value="Generate String" />
</p>
</form>
<?php
if (isset($sRandString)) {
echo "<p>" . $sRandString . "</p>\n";
}
?>
</body>
</html>