Microsoft Access is a database management system (DBMS) from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. It is a member of the Microsoft Office suite of applications.

Lots of our clients organize their business or even sell solutions around this great tool. But in times of cloud computing, web, and mobile devices, the reach and the usage of these Windows Desktop-based tools decline. Users require web-based applications, don’t they?

Thinfinity VirtualUI can take your software to the web, and now, your MS Access apps too!

Turn Your MS Access Application to a Web App

Ready to convert MS Access to web application? First, check that you’re running the latest version of Thinfinity VirtualUI. Then download an example and run Microsoft Access on the browser from the download link below:

https://www.cybelesoft.com/support/files/DemosVUI/VirtualUI_Access.zip

On a side note, you may need to do this in order for the demo to work.

After you unzip the file, right-click the VirtualUI_Access.accdb file, and click on “Properties”. Check the “Unblock” checkbox, and click “Apply”.

Let’s review the example given on the ZIP file:

There are two things that you should take a look at from this demo:

1. The “modVirtualUI” module
2. Adding the VirtualUIStart method to your Main Form.

 Both are needed if you want to successfully compile your application with VirtualUI.

The “modVirtualUI” module contains the call to VirtualUI, and is expressed in the following way:

1.  Now, we need to add the “StartVirtualUI” method to the Main Form of our Database.

“StartVirtualUI” should be one of the first things Microsoft Access loads when it starts up. For this reason, it should be inside the main module of the database.

1.  In this case, the Main Form is Form_Contact List. Right below the “Form_Load()” method, we are adding the call to “StartVirtualUI”
   After you commit these changes, save the Access Database.

1. Now we start the second configuration stage, and it will be as easy as the first one!
   Open the Thinfinity VirtualUI Server Manager, navigate to the “Application” tab, and press “Add”:

1. In this new window, we’ll configure the Access Database to be published. Below you’ll see an example of how it’s done:

 Let me explain the following fields:

“Name”: The name you want the Web Application to display.

“Program path and file name”: In this case, we are using Office 16, so you’ll have to look for the MSACCESS.exe in the Program Files folder.

“Arguments”: Two things to take into consideration.
“C:\Apps VirtualUI\VirtualUI_Access.accdb”: This is the path of the database you want to load when Access starts.
“/x StartVirtualUI”: This is the name of the macro that calls the “vui.Start”.

1. Under the “Credentials” tab, configure a user that has read. Then, write permission on both the Program Files folder (where Access is ), and where the database is located:

1.  And under the Permissions tab, for testing purposes, click on “Allow anonymous access”:

1.  Click “OK”, and then click “Apply”.
2. Open a new browser window and navigate to: http://127.0.0.1:6580