Microsoft Access is a "modern" product. How can my database application have Year 2000 problems?
Contrary to the conventional wisdom, "modern" desktop applications, including Microsoft Access, are not always Year 2000 compliant. Microsoft Access has Year 2000 issues in every version. But more importantly, your customizations to properties, expressions, macros, and code may cause Year 2000 issues. Just because you aren't using COBOL doesn't mean you're immune to the problem. For more information on this subject, read the FMS Year 2000 white papers.
Access stores dates with four digit years. What's the problem?
Although Access date/time fields store four-digit years, how the data gets into those fields may be the problem. If there are problems with data entry or data import, dates may be stored with the wrong century. Additionally, date information is not always stored in date/time fields. For example, mainframe downloads often have dates in text fields (e.g. MMDDYY format), partial date fields such as credit card expirations (e.g. mm/yy) may be in text or numeric fields, and year fields such as fiscal year or graduation year may also be in text or numeric fields. How these dates are stored and manipulated may have Y2K consequences.
What are the typical Year 2000 problems in an Access database?
For complete Year 2000 compliance, all dates need to be viewed, entered, printed, imported, exported, and manipulated in code with four digit years. Sounds simple, but it is very cumbersome to detect and fix. Here are some examples of issues in Access. Many date formats do not display all four digits of the year, or rely on the Windows Control Panel settings that users can reset to two-digit years. Each date field should have an input mask to allow and force entry of four digit years. Date controls on forms and reports should be wide enough to display four digit years without truncation or wordwrapping. Any use of dates in queries and SQL strings also need to be examined. Validation rules on date controls need to be verified. Import/export routines often don't consider century. Of course, module code that deal with dates needs to be examined. And any external files such as spreadsheets, ActiveX controls, DLLs, etc. may have date related issues.
There are a few types of problems that occur in a large percentage of databases. For example, if your forms use the InputMask property to format date values, and you haven't explicitly customized the Input Mask setting to be Year 2000 compliant, century information will be either incorrect or ambiguous depending on the version of Access you are using. Another example is the use of Validation Rule settings that may not accept year values greater than 1999. Also, a significant portion of Access Basic/VBA code in Access projects uses string data types to work with dates-this is not Year 2000 compliant. These, and many other issues can cause your database application to fail, or report erroneous results, when the Year 2000 arrives.
How does Total Access Inspector 2000 work?
Total Access Inspector 2000 is an inspection tool that searches your entire database for occurrences of strings and rules that indicate the use of date expressions. All tables, queries, forms, reports, macros, modules, relationships, command bars, database properties, VBA references, data - in short, all parts of your database - are inspected. There is no other tool on the market that does this. Simply open your database in Access and select Total Access Inspector 2000 from the add-ins menu. Step-by-step wizards guide you through the process of running the analysis on your database. Then view the results, or print any one of our extensive set of reports.
Does Total Access Inspector 2000 fix my Year 2000 problems?
No program could possibly determine what the application is "supposed" to do. Such evaluation is beyond the scope of desktop software. However, by showing you potential issues in your database, Total Access Inspector 2000 solves one of the costliest parts of Year 2000 remediation. Additionally, the documentation included with the product provides extensive information on fixing and testing for specific Year 2000 problems.
Does it just do string searches?
No. Total Access Inspector 2000 is much more sophisticated. Not only does it perform string searches for date related words or any words you add to the list, it can detect many other Y2K issues. For instance, it finds date field/control without an input mask, date controls on forms and reports that are not wide enough to handle four-digit years, file import/export specifications that do not using four-digit years, data analysis to find potential date data in non-date/time fields, the use of external files such as DLLs, ActiveX controls, spreadsheets, VBA library references, etc. There are also many reports that help you identify find date issues such as the Data Analysis, Form Control Analysis, Field Cross-Reference, Macro Printout, and Module Code Printout reports.
Can I add my own search strings to Total Access Inspector 2000?
Yes. Total Access Inspector 2000 provides a large number of customizable options, including support for user-defined search strings.
How does Total Access Inspector 2000 categorize the risk of detected issues?
A moderately complex database may contain hundreds of potential Year 2000 issues. Total Access Inspector 2000 helps you in your prioritizing by categorizing risks into three categories: High Risk, Moderate Risk, and Unknown Risk. High Risk issues are those that are almost certain to cause Year 2000 problems. Moderate Risk issues indicate usage or potential usage of dates that need to be verified. Issues of Unknown Risk are related to external files and may or may not be date related.
How do I eliminate "false hits"?
Much of Y2K analysis is the attempt to detect a needle-in-a-haystack. Your database may use dates correctly in most instances, but our job is to locate areas where they are not. This often leads to "false hits". In general, Total Access Inspector 2000 is very intelligent about flagging potential Year 2000 issues. However, certain applications may cause Total Access Inspector 2000 to find more "false hits" than others.
There are several built-in mechanisms to minimize this. First, the detected issues are organized into risk categories. High risk items are serious Y2K issues and need to be addressed. The other categories are lower risk and may not cause problems. Second, the words being searched can be set for whole word match and/or partial word match. For instance, if you are only interested in instances of the whole word "now", but not words with "now" in them, you can control this. Finally, words can be excluded from analysis. For instance, "known" is excluded so it isn't flagged as a word containing "now". If you have a word or field name that is being flagged but is not date related, you can add it to the exclusion list.
How does Total Access Inspector 2000 let me review what it's found?
Total Access Inspector 2000 includes a comprehensive set of fifty reports to help you work through the Year 2000 issues in your database. Summary reports show "overview" information, making it easy to categorize and prioritize the issues you need to examine. Extensive detail reports in a variety of sort orders show issues detected, and allow a great deal of customization. Other supporting reports are available to help you identify date related issues. Examples include data analysis, form control property analysis, field cross-reference, and macro and module code printouts. You can preview or print the reports, and set a variety of options. For a complete list of reports, visit http://www.fmsinc.com/products/inspector/sample.htm
I'm using Access 95. Why doesn't Total Access Inspector 2000 support my version?
Unfortunately, due to performance and stability problems, we are unable to ship an Access 95 version of Total Access Inspector. As a workaround, you may want to consider using Access 97 and the Access 97 version of Total Access Inspector 2000. To do this, you simply make a copy of your database, convert it to Access 97 and run Total Access Inspector 2000 against the copy. You can then use the reports of issues to determine the changes needed in your Access 95 database.
The following resources are available to help you learn more about Total Access Inspector:
Product Fact Sheet
Download the Demo
Independent Reviews
Available Reports
Licensing Information
Product Comparison
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