1. Help me! I’m an Alphaholic...
Why and how we’re using
Alpha Five to put Access
systems on the web
Robin Bennett MA FIAP MIoD
Director, Start Software

2. Access: Suits you,Sir!
 Self confessed Access “nut”
 10 years+ software business
 Access is core of business
Disappointed with web offerings from Access
 Access/Sharepoint doesn’t suit us
 … and doesn’t suit our clients
 It might suit you though!

3. Alpha Five v11 (so good they numbered it twice)
 What is it?
 History
 Capabilities
 Went to v11 launch – impressed
 Trialled it, bought it, have been using it 6
months+
 Web data capture/analysis system for charity
 Order processing system for sportsgear supplier
 “Extranet” for national legal firm
 Office management system for insurance company

4. Let’s stress again…
 NOT replacing Access in my business
 IS providing productive route to web
 I still love Access
 Alpha Five is just my secret…

5. Let’s get stuck in
 Let’s build the Help Me! app
 Build in Access
 Build in Alpha
 Power through Properties
 Google Maps
 Calendar – insight into “built for developers”

6. Technologies
 Web server “Alpha App Server” (soon IIS?)
 XBASIC
 Any SQL/ODBC database
 Browser – HTML/CSS
 Javascript
 Ajax
 “Publishing” process
 Local
 LAN
 Remote (via FTP)

7. Stuff we’ve learnt along the way
 Alpha are very approachable
 Very responsive
 Very quick to turn around new releases
 Bugs reported today can be fixed by tomorrow
 Skype chats with lead developers
 Suggestions welcomed/implemented

8. And finally…
 Countrywide demo
 Metro UI
 Mapping
 Web security
 Free trial @ alphasoftware.com