MS Access and Java mix like oil and water

[George Muammar]

I thought I would shed some light on the use of MS Access since it is
not very evident from the posts.
This is basically to explain that the MS Access application is not
linked to the PDA application in any way. The only interaction it has
with the PDA app is through imports/exports of xml files.

The original project, which was implemented in 2007, should have
consisted of a PDA application for collecting data and a server
application for preparing of the questionnaire.

At the time we were not totally sure on how to proceed with the server
application. We did not like the usual form builder applications that
we see around on the web. Here the issue is different it is not about
designing a form, rather it is about being able to put down about 1000
questions rapidly (copy & paste from a word document), in such a way
that they can be (a) altered quickly when the questionnaire authors
discuss and change their mind about something, like every other day,
and (b) re-used in a future questionnaire when a questionnaire author
decides against re-inventing the wheel.

The software developers were not sure on how to proceed on this
application, so I suggested I would make a prototype of how the form
building wizard and the MySQL database should be designed, and also
throw in some deployment and data harvest functionality as well. Hence
the MS Access application (it is very easy and quick and dirty to do
things in MS Access).

Actually the users felt more secure with an MS Access application than
with a server-side application that they had no control of (not being
server admins). This is understandable enough. In any case the Access
application stuck, and is being used now fairly extensively, even
though it is pretty user unfriendly.

I think the lesson to learn from this is that it is more important
that things are simple rather than cool

[Chris]

Been a while since RHOK, but just revisiting in the context of 2013, and whatever George thinks is relevant for field data collection...

I've been tinkering with verboice with Farm radio, and certainly an offline collection agent, geared towards audio, is important, as are things like coupons and polls...

Chris