Zoho's New Plugin Turns Microsoft Access Databases into Web Apps

Written by Steven Walling / July 9, 2009 5:40 AM / 14 Comments

To everyone wishing they could use their Microsoft Office Access database to build a Web app, your savior has arrived. Zoho has introduced a plugin to migrate Access databases on to their platform. Once migrated, they can be used to build database applications through the Zoho Creator interface.

The new plugin is just one part of a larger strategy by Zoho to integrate with Microsoft, in the hopes that they can encourage converts to their SaaS products. The boon for those who use Access databases is that they can now easily translate their data tables into applications, which can be served through Zoho at little or no cost.

Zoho is one of the leading providers of SaaS collaborative tools for the enterprise and consumers alike. Since their advent in 2005, they've created some of the most useful productivity apps available online, and their platform as a whole shows promise.

But to compete further with Microsoft, they've recently taken to integrating with their competitor. Late last month, they even added support for SharePoint, despite a staunch belief in the superiority of SaaS.

From Desktop Database to Web App

Microsoft Access is a simple, WYSIWYG interface for creating a database. While technically you can make Access data public through SharePoint Services, actually building a working application on the Web is basically impossible out of the box.

The best options for moving your Access database onto the Web have long been either MySQL or PostgreSQL, which are frankly beyond the capabilities of many people who find Microsoft Access an attractive tool.

Enter Zoho's migration plugin.

In a process that takes relatively little time, Zoho will take your database and place it within the grasp of your Zoho Creator account. Once it's been migrated to their servers, you can collaborate on the data tables with your colleagues and easily build applications for your business. Controls for how much of the database you share are reasonably fine grained, with three levels of access.

If you're not developing an app solely for within a company, you can additionally publish your work through the Zoho Marketplace or run it on the Google App Engine.

Microsoft Access is a fairly painless way for enterprise users, many of whom are still tied to Microsoft by IT and management, to build simple databases. But there's never been a particularly easy method for sharing those databases and doing something really useful with them. While it might also be attractive to developers aiming at the consumer Web, Zoho's plugin will best aid businesses with databases that have had nowhere to move forward.

Comments

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this is great news, guys at zoho know from where to eat the meat, even though i do not use access but many do.

PS to RWW: facebook contact did not work i got this msg:
"Invalid API key specified

The application you are trying to access does not exist or has been disabled."

Thanks

Posted by: Gaith | July 9, 2009 7:13 AM

I only have one issue with Zoho, being open the whole time is a memory hog and kills FF.

A desktop version coming??

Posted by: Jim Gaudet | July 9, 2009 7:21 AM

@Jim Gaudet, can you tell us which Zoho app causes Firefox to leak memory? Long usage sessions is something we test for and we want to identify any issues.

Thanks,
Sridhar Vembu
Zoho

Posted by: Sridhar Vembu | July 9, 2009 9:42 AM

Umm, Access isn't collaborative? Gee, I'd better tell my clients that who have 25 users in the system at the same time.

And while we're at it this story is exceedingly misleading about Accesses capabilities.

"Microsoft Access is a simple, WYSIWYG interface for creating a database"

Simple it can be but it sure doesn't have to be. One client has 160 tables, some with 800,000 records, 1200 queries, 450 forms, 350 reports and 70,000 lines of code. Running a welding shop with several hundred employees building components for some of North America's largest oil processing plants.

"The best options for moving your Access database onto the Web ..." Umm, what about SQL Server?

And of course the Zoho product is only about the data. The business logic implemented in forms, reports and VBA code are by far the largest investment which has to be completely redone.

This story is pretty weak on credible details about Access. And I wonder if my comments will still exist in a few days.

Posted by: Tony Toews | July 9, 2009 7:30 PM

This product will be useful especially to SMBs who don't need or want to spend on SQL server or the like. If people can afford SQL server, they would not use MS-Access in the first place as SQL server is so much better than it. Also, there is a learning curve to it and resources are needed. One person can manage MS-Access easily.

Posted by: Ravi | July 9, 2009 10:31 PM

Zoho is the only relevant data. The form of business logic implementation, reports and VBA code is the biggest investment was completely redo.
This product will not helpful for SQL server or the like.

Posted by: Ricky | July 10, 2009 1:55 AM

Well, have tried it on standard database and failed!

http://tinyurl.com/mj9duk

I wonder if these guys always test it only on one database..

Posted by: Jane McCarty | July 10, 2009 2:57 AM

It seems that this product is targeted at business users that don't use many of the features of Access. If you simply type data into a table or create simple queries, it might work fine.

If you have created a database application in Access, then you're talking about building it all over again in Zoho. Probably not the easy transition that your article suggests.

As with all applications, whether online or locally installed, Zoho will have it's niche. I just don't think it is the 'Access to web saviour application' suggested in the article.

Posted by: George Clegg | July 10, 2009 9:33 AM

@Sridhar Vembu

Well, I haven't retested since FF 3.5 but here is what I had;

I only used it for the Chat to start. I had the chat option on my blog *gone now, will test again* too.

I linked to gmail, msn, yahoo and aol. Those were the only things I had running. But, I had to leave it open the whole day to catch the live users on my site, but after 3 hours or so FF would be over 1gb in ram. So I went to Chrome and I didn't check the ram, but the page would just freeze up or I would lose my connection to the chat services.

I will test on FF 3.5 now, I am also running Windows 7 RC now, so not sure if my results will even be worth anything.

@RWW - for some reason FB connect is not working for me anymore. it says invalid application..

Posted by: Jim Gaudet | July 10, 2009 9:57 AM

Tony Toews, as you can see your comment is still here, and all this time it has been making the baby E.F. Codd (and every RDBMS professional who's read it) cry.

Although it is true that an Access -> SQL Server path is perfectly fine. You'd just have to convert all that horrific VBA code inside the Access app to something real. In practice though Joe Access's 50,000 lines of code can be boiled down to a couple thought-out queries or reasonably compact stored procs.

Posted by: Steve in Bloomington | August 5, 2009 8:45 AM

First, the Zoho UI is amazing. And the underlying strategy they are trying to achieve is spot on. Whether they can execute on it and gain a meaningful market share against Microsoft's significant install base remains to be seen. With Office 2010, Microsoft is clearly moving in a similar direction.

Last, I was somewhat dismayed to find that the Zoho plugin failed very quickly on some very simple databases. Not the kind of stage entrance you want as a company at this stage. I'm sure they will fix the issues in time, but certainly a mistep in their effort to gain MS Access converts.

Posted by: Brandon | August 7, 2009 9:52 PM

MS Access kicks! We use it extensivly as a front-end tool. The ability to rapidly develop fast, complicated, feature rich, data entry front-ends ( if done correctly ) can not even be attempted in a web based or even .net interface! Coupled with a good "pull" updating stragegy and a SQL server back-end I don't see a better business application solution tool set available. So, what's the point of this software?
Good luck! You'll need it ....

Posted by: Jack | August 17, 2009 7:38 PM

Thank you for your sharing.!

Posted by: nusret | October 8, 2009 10:08 AM

If you have created a database application in Access, then you're talking about building it all over again in Zoho. Probably not the easy transition that your article suggests.
http://www.yuregininsesi.com

Posted by: magic | December 26, 2009 11:17 AM