Total Access Analyzer Product Review
One Microsoft Access utilities web site describes
Total Access
Analyzer this way, "Total Access Analyzer performs detailed
analysis of your Access database to generate complete
documentation of all objects and code. It examines your
entire database to reveal complex relationships among
objects, hidden problems, and even unused objects."
Total Access Analyzer has a huge number of documentation
and diagnostic reports
I like how the basic reports are
represented in several ways, showing their information with
different sorts and layouts. By the time you have looked
them all over, you've examined the database every which way;
from general overview reports, to those that drill right
down to the minute details about every part of your
database.
The Documentation Explorer is great tool for surveying
what Total Access Analyzer has found
An object tree on the left provides an
efficient and fast way to navigate throughout all the
objects in your database and drill down to any object's
particulars in a few seconds. What I especially like is that
you can directly open an object in design mode - forms,
reports, etc. - or jump to the IDE window to display your
code in a selected sub or function. I found a good example
of how useful this is when Total Access Analyzer determined that I could
reduce the scope of the function I was reviewing. I was able
to jump to the code, edit it, and save it in an instant. (I
was also surprised - and humbled - at how many of these
little things needing correction there actually were in my
code.)
If you aren't sure where something is located - e.g. code
in a function or property - there is a Search button on the
main menu that will find all or any occurrences of what you
are trying to find.
Total Access Analyzer found several potential errors in my test database
Things like:
- Module procedures without scope
- Form tabs that
were out of order
- 6 modules with un-referenced variables
- 17 reports where the NoData Event wasn't set up to fire,
- and
more...
I always thought that I was thorough about going
through an application and cleaning up loose ends, but Total
Access Analyzer
proved:
- I was wrong and
- I probably won't call another
application complete until Total Access Analyzer gives it the OK.
That being said, one thing I encountered which I did not
expect was that Total Access Analyzer is not able to
cross-reference procedures defined in another database. For
example, I found that Total Access Analyzer reported a
procedure called “PutPar” as undefined. However, in this
case, PutPar existed and was defined within an MDE library
file which I had referenced.
Total Access Analyzer is very fast when processing a database and
generating documentation, so it's easy to re-run it after
making any corrections or tweaks it indicates, and then
re-run it again until you are satisfied that all of them
are straightened out. Any documentation that you run
can be saved and recalled; allowing you to keep a history of
your database's assessments.
The heart and soul of Total Access Analyzer are the documentation and
analysis reports that it creates
There are so many, as a
matter of fact, that they have to be managed in a special
Reports form with an Outlook-style button bar interface.
Reports are subdivided into and selected by categories, such
as Errors, Suggestions, Performance, Database, Tables,
Queries, etc., displayed on the left side of the form. Some
categories, such as Errors, Suggestions and Performance
contain reports that help you fine tune your application
before it's delivered, while others will document your
application for your client, their IT staff or anyone else
who might have to jump in and pick up where you left off.
Note: Selling a documentation package generated by Total
Access Analyzer
for your application is a great way to add a training-free,
trouble-free and reasonably priced profit center to the work
you are already performing!
Most reports can be filtered if
you wish to drill down to, say, a specific group of modules
to report on rather than having to include all of them.
All that being said, I found some things in Total Access
Analyzer to be
extraneous and a few others to be lacking. For example, in
the Reports form, you can choose to display a report by
clicking on the View, Thumbnail or Preview buttons. All
reports can be viewed in Preview and Thumbnail modes, while
the View option cannot show some of the reports offered. I
haven't figured out exactly why the redundancy here, as
neither View or Thumbnail modes appear to do or display
anything significantly different from Preview, nor do they
provide any additional capabilities. It sure seems that the
Preview mode would be enough. [FMS
Comment: the thumbnails are used to display samples of reports
that the current documentation doesn't have]
Report Sets
Reports to be displayed/printed are selected by a
clicking a check box preceding each. There is also the
Report Sets button that will take you to a Report Sets form,
where you can create sets of reports to run together. For
example, you might select a group of error and diagnostic
reports to run just before application deployment to see if
everything is as it should be. You could set up a group of
reports to furnish some basic DB documentation for your
client, etc.
There are some preselected report sets already provided
by Total Access Analyzer. Once you select a group of reports to group
together, simply click on the Select button and go back to
the main Reports form window. You will find all the reports
in that group have been selected and are ready for you to
determine what type of output you prefer.
This is a great utility, enabling you to custom
configure the documentation scope for your needs
That being said,
however, I don't think that Total Access Analyzer takes this nearly as far as
it should. Bundling reports up together to create a larger
document is very smart - especially as Total Access Analyzer has already done
the heavy lifting, but when output, what you have is several
individual reports; no different that if printed out
individually - it's just more convenient.
I think that when reports are selected to be combined
into a "document" the page numbering should be contiguous
throughout the entire group. So, instead of each report
displaying "Page 1 of 4" or "2 of 7", it would display.
"Page 1 of [the total number of pages combined into the
document]". Also, there should be some kind of optional
divider page between reports rather than just a new report
header title on the first page of each.
At the least, there should be a divider page between report categories (as
defined in the Reports form button bar). A user configurable document cover
sheet should be part of this all as well, so that a custom cover page (e.g.
displaying your client's and your company's names along with a custom title).
Finally, rather than to simply select a bunch of reports so they can be run
together from the Reports form, Total Access Analyzer should enable a user to be able to run the
document right from the Report Sets form. This way a developer might create
several custom evaluation and documentation packages that could be reused on
different databases while still retaining a highly client-personalized
appearance.
Total Access Analyzer is a solid product that any
Access developer should have in their toolbox; and one that will pay for itself
in short order.
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