Microsoft Access 2010 Bible

897

CHAPTER

Bulletproofing Access

Applications

IN THIS CHAPTER

Defining bulletproofing

Identifying the features of

bulletproofed applications

Understanding that

bulletproofing goes beyond

code

O

ne of my favorite old movies is Desk Set (1957), starring Spencer
Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. In the film, Spencer Tracy plays a
computer consultant responsible for installing a large computer sys-
tem in Katharine Hepburn’s office. Typical of computers in older movies, the
massive wall-to-wall mainframe featured in Desk Set understands plain-
English queries (“How many ounces of gold were mined in South Africa in
the last ten years?”) and is equipped with a galaxy of flashing lights that indi-
cate when the machine is “thinking.” And, of course, the machine and its
software work flawlessly, delivering the requested information in seconds
(after much clicking, clacking, and spinning of the huge tape drives, of
course).

As we all know, Hollywood’s vision of computer systems has always been far
from reality. Even today, in the 21st century, computers still can’t “under-
stand” plain-English commands, hardware still doesn’t perform flawlessly,
and users still have trouble getting their applications to do what they want
and need them to do. Most important, software can’t be made to anticipate
what the user wants. How many times have you heard people complain that
they know the computer can do what they want, but they just can’t get it to
happen?

The objective of this chapter is to describe a development philosophy that
leads to highly reliable and secure databases that protect the valuable data
entrusted to them. As you’ll see, often you need to limit the user’s interaction
with the Access environment in order to protect the data. Data must be vali-
dated as it is input by the user to prevent inappropriate values from distort-
ing the user’s interpretation of the information contained in the database.
Other techniques described in this chapter make Access applications easier
to learn and use, reducing the possibility that a simple misunderstanding
harms the data.