Insights
Notes from the field on Access applications, getting them to users, and modernizing legacy systems.
Sep
29
How on earth do you version-control an Access app? From Final_really_fixed.accdb to a build from a commit
Final.accdb. Final2.accdb. Final2_copy.accdb. Final_really_fixed.accdb. If you've maintained an Access application for more than a few months, you've seen this folder. It looks like a mess. It's actually a version control system—the only one a single binary file allows without extra tools.
Around 2010, plenty of Access developers were asking the same question: how do you version-control an application whose forms, reports, queries and code all live in one file? That question is also where the road to Office SDK began.