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Hello,
I am working on a POS system with about 10,000 users and 100,000 articles. The system will run on the network with multiple users.
Can I use MS Access for this?

Thank you
Manfred

Manfred,

If you want to go to other DB system go to MySql with adordd.
MSAccess its very limited and it will not do the job on reliable way as any other free sql server.

Manfred

There are Pros and Cons both ways .. I like Ms Access because it is easy to market, sell and there are NO elaborate setups that need an IT staff to get involved... Ms Access does have limitations in a Large Enterprise setting specifically security, meaning one person could deliberately DELETE the .Mdb if it is located in the default directory as the .exe.

I have no issues with using any specific Enterprise RDMS be it MySql, Oracle, dB2 or Ms Sql Server. What you have to weigh out is the over-head involved with distributing your application. How am I going to connect ( client ) to the database ? Odbc, OleDb.

As I have mentioned before, Odbc is a setup nightmare if you have lots of desktops .. you probably will have to 'touch' each desktop at one time or another to configure Odbc especially if you add new desktops to the existing mix.. just no way around it.

My goal when I write and distribute any Enterprise application takes into account the entire IT infrastructure and what involvement is the IT staff going to be responsible for and I have found the less IT staff involvement, the better the buy in for your product... and for that, I like Ms Sql Server... and that can be expensive in an Enterprise setting and does not lend itself to the 'free version' and YES, you will need to get the IT DBA staff involved in setting up the Sql Server and set up the initial permissions, ownership rights and the initial connection user, but once that is done, the setup is nothing more than configuring your app to accept the connection string, userid\Password and access to the Database created by the IT Dba's and put your .EXE on a share and create a short-cut on each desktop.

ADO ( ole ) is always a good answer no matter what programming algorithm you use, be it AdoRdd, Fw_Ado functions\wrappers, or just plain ADO methods you manipulate defined by the Microsoft Ado Class within either Harbour or xHarbour.

The redundant point I am making is look at your application landscape and the corporate environment you are going to target and run in, using OleDB ( sql server ) or MS Jet ( ms access ) is built into every Windows desktop including Windows 10!!! .. no client setup needed, and as far as how you implement ADO and your choice of RDBS, that is up to you and your decision.

Rick Lipkin