Total Access Inspector 2000 Product Comparison

Background
FMS and ViaSoft have both recently introduced programs to address Year 2000 issues in Microsoft Access databases. This document provides a preliminary comparison of the two companies and their products.

About FMS
Founded in 1986, FMS is a privately held company and the leading developer of third party products for Microsoft Access and Visual Basic. FMS has nine award winning Access products under the Total Access name. Existing programs include the leading database documentation program Total Access Analyzer. Technology from that product is the basis for Total Access Inspector 2000.

FMS has also led the research into Year 2000 issues for Microsoft Office products including the publication of the primary white paper on Y2K issues in Office. FMS has worked closely with Microsoft to define the Microsoft Year 2000 web site. FMS personnel are well known in the Microsoft Access community having written books, magazine articles, and portions of the Access manuals, and spoken at conferences across the US and Europe. We recently presented on the Year 2000 issue at the Microsoft TechEd conference.

Product Summary
FMS conducted a comparison of its Total Access Inspector 2000 product against the download version of OnMark 2000 Workbench for Access from ViaSoft’s web site. The test was conducted at FMS offices.

Comparison Highlights
Total Access Inspector 2000 is integrated into Microsoft Access and designed specifically for Microsoft Access. OnMark 2000 Workbench for Access is a standalone program based on a generic Year 2000 tool adapted to Access.

How the Programs Work
Both programs allow the user to specify the objects to analyze and the search strings to detect. The database is then analyzed and Year 2000 issues displayed in reports. However, the approach of the two products is very different.

Total Access Inspector 2000 is integrated directly into Microsoft Access and available from the Access menu as an Add-in. All of its output is stored in Access tables with a large number of customizable Access reports. Year 2000 issues detected not only include string search matches, but also date issues specific to Access. Issues found are organized into risk categories: High, Moderate, and Unknown. Reports also include analysis to simplify detection of date data and properties on fields, forms, and reports, to allow additional analysis by the user.

OnMark 2000 Workbench for Access runs as a standalone EXE and uses OLE Automation to open Access databases and extract the information it needs for analysis. Because it is not designed specifically for Access, it has trouble dealing with certain databases including secured databases and databases with start-up forms or macros. As an EXE, it runs faster, but does not detect every Year 2000 issue.

Feature	Total Access Inspector 2000	OnMark 2000 Workbench for Access
How the program runs	Access add-in	Standalone EXE
Works with secured databases	Yes	No
Works with password protected databases	Yes	No
Suppresses startup forms or macros when the database is examined	Yes	No, startup process interferes with analysis

Objects Analyzed
There are many object types in Access. Total Access Inspector 2000 analyzes all of them, OnMark 2000 Workbench for Access does not. The most important omission is macros. Microsoft estimates that over 80% of Access databases use macros. Year 2000 issues exist in macros and must be examined for complete database compliance.

Analyzes:	Total Access Inspector 2000	OnMark 2000 Workbench for Access
Tables, queries, forms, reports, and modules	Yes	Yes
Macros	Yes	No
Table and query relationships	Yes	No
Access 97 command bars	Yes	No
All database properties	Yes	No
File import/export specifications	Yes	No

Analysis Performed
Both programs perform string searches across the object properties and settings. Total Access Inspector 2000 also includes Access-specific Year 2000 detection that cannot be achieved with a simple string search.

Feature	Total Access Inspector 2000	OnMark 2000 Workbench for Access
Customizable list of search strings to find	Yes	Yes
Ability to exclude words from searches	Yes	Yes
One easy to maintain list of search items	Yes	No
Search engine tuned for Access to find potential issues without unnecessary false hits	Yes	No
Risk Assessment: Issues grouped into risk levels	Yes	No
Finds date controls without Input Masks	Yes	No
Finds data input and displays with two-digit years	Yes	No
Finds controls on forms and reports that are not wide enough to display four-digit dates	Yes	No
Detects import/export specifications using two-digit years (major Year 2000 problem)	Yes	No
Finds external files used by the database such as linked tables, import/export files, spreadsheets, DLLs, ActiveX controls, VBA References, etc.	Yes	VBA References only

Reports
The reports generated by Total Access Inspector 2000 are far superior in both number and quality. Many reports can be filtered by object and/or issue giving the user a great deal of flexibility. The reports combined with the manual describe how to fix the issues detected. See an online list of available reports.

The cross-reference reports are particularly important. Both products detect Date fields used in tables, but only Total Access Inspector 2000 documents where those and all fields are used. This is extremely important for Year 2000 compliance. Additionally, the field data analysis reports are important for finding date data in non-date fields. Fields such as partial dates (e.g. credit card expiration dates), and dates containing years (e.g. fiscal year, graduation year, etc.) all have Year 2000 compliance issues.

All the results (data) from Total Access Inspector 2000 are stored in Access tables, so Access developers can even create their own reports.

Feature	Total Access Inspector 2000	OnMark 2000 Workbench for Access
Number of output reports	53	6
Summary "Executive" reports	Yes (5)	No
Available sort orders	By Object, Issue Type, and Risk	None
Output reports can be filtered by object or issue	Yes	No
Complete cross-reference showing where fields are used among all queries, forms, and reports	Yes	No
Data analysis reports to find dates, partial dates, and years stored in non-Date/Time fields	Yes	No
Macro code printouts	Yes	No
Module code printouts	Yes	No
Ability to use the raw data to create new reports	Yes	No
Reports include information on how to fix the issues found	Yes	No

There are many existing databases for each of these platforms, especially Access 2.0. Because Year 2000 problems are most severe in Access 2.0 and these databases tend to be the oldest, proper analysis of Access 2.0 databases is imperative.

Total Access Inspector 2000 is available in two versions for Access 2.0 and Access 97. Due to bugs in Access 95, FMS was unable to create a stable build of Total Access Inspector 2000 for Access 95. Support for Access 95 requires the user to convert the database to Access 97 and run the 97 version of Total Access Inspector 2000. Since Access 95 and 97 are both 32-bit products, the conversion is very simple.

OnMark 2000 Workbench for Access is available in one version that claims to support Access 2.0, Access 95, and Access 97. Support for Access 2.0 requires having a copy of Access 95 or 97. The program imports Access 2.0 database objects into an Access 95 or 97 database. As mentioned previously, this methodology does not work for secured databases. Additionally, because Access 2.0 is a 16-bit program, importing its objects may change many things, especially module code. This leads to results that do not necessarily match the original Access 2.0 values. Problems may also occur if there are 16-bit ActiveX/OCX controls, DLLs, or module code that conflicts with the 32-bit VBA reserved words. Table relationships and linked ODBC tables (they rely on 16-bit connections) may also fail when converted.

Feature	Total Access Inspector 2000	OnMark 2000 Workbench for Access
Supports Access 2.0	Yes	Yes via Access 95 or 97
Supports Access 2.0 databases natively	Yes	Objects imported into a new Access 95/97 database and may change and/or fail
Supports Access 2.0 in Windows 3.x	Yes	No. Access 95 or 97 required in Windows 95 or NT
Supports Access 95	via Access 97	Yes, but not for secured or password protected databases
Supports Access 97	Yes	Yes, but not for secured or password protected databases

Pricing and Availability
Total Access Inspector 2000 offers more features at a lower price.

Feature	Total Access Inspector 2000	OnMark 2000 Workbench for Access
Pricing	$499 for one version $799 for both	$2,400
Availability	Currently Shipping	Currently Shipping

Disclaimer
The information in this document is based on analysis by FMS, Inc. FMS believes the information provided is accurate, but does not claim full knowledge of Viasoft or its products. FMS welcomes feedback on this document by customers who have used OnMark 2000. Testing performed at FMS offices through June 10, 1998.
OnMark 2000 and its related product names are trademarks Viasoft. Microsoft Access, Windows, Windows 95, Windows NT, Microsoft Office are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Total Access Inspector 2000 is trademark FMS, Inc.


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Last modified: February 03, 2010