Hi FullName,

This message brings you good news and holiday greetings from ProgrammingMSAccess.com.  This will be the only message that you receive from us between now and Christmas.  Therefore, we are making a special effort to make it valuable for you.

Helping our site visitors

ProgrammingMSAccess.com initially started in 1999 as a site exclusively for Access developers and power users.  We gradually expanded the site to include support for SQL Server and Visual Basic .NET developers.  Between now and the end of this year, we are adding content for Visual Studio 2005 and the new Express suite components, such as SQL Server Express, Visual Basic Express, and Visual Web Developer Express.  If you program in VBA, VB.NET, Visual Basic 2005, or T-SQL we have content that can help you.

Our support comes in numerous forms, including book excerpts, slide decks, code samples, links to articles and notes at other sites, and FAQs.  All this content is available without charge.  You do not even have to lets us know who you are.  Of course, if you do share your email address with us, we will send helpful reminders, like this one, about the resources at the site.  The richness of our content and our liberal policy for making it available may explain why we have been serving content at the rate of 1.2 million pages annually for the past several months.  We are hoping to grow this number ever larger during 2006 as we add new content and opportunities that motivates even more persons to visit our site..

In the past four years or so, we added the Database Developers Group (DDG) as a special tier of site partners.  Many of the DDG members attended our seminars on database development topics.  All DDG members have access to a proprietary library of content that helps them learn the latest techniques and builds up their skills for traditional database development techniques.  Our DDG members have a broad range of backgrounds from business owners, to developers and administrators working for organizations, to full and part-time consultants who provide technical support and consulting services for organizations that seek professional development for a fee.

When you have a priority need with a budget to support its resolution, we invite you to submit your request for one-on-one technical support or consulting services.  You can expedite the processing of your request by indicating in your request message that you are willing to pay for professional support.  Your message will be forwarded to DDG members so that they can self-nominate themselves based on their knowledge of the topic about which you seek support and their availability to work on your problem.  Although we do require those seeking support to indicate they are willing to pay for professional support, there is no charge to submit a request.  You only pay what you agree to based on your agreement with the DDG member that you select.  You can learn more about our support resources from the site's Technical Support section.

 

SPAM Blocker from ProgrammingMSAccess.com

ProgrammingMSAccess.com is a business.  In fact, our business grew based on a heavy reliance on email, and it continues to depend on email to communicate with current and prospective clients.  As spam emerged as a significant percentage of our incoming email, we initially tried built-in support for blocking spam from Outlook Express and later Outlook 2000.  This support did not prove sufficient for our needs in spite our preference to continue using Outlook.  As a result, I crafted a program more than three years ago to block spam and other forms of unwanted mail, such as phising scams.  The current version of our SPAM Blocker is exclusively for Outlook 2000, 2002, and 2003.

As I monitored the success of my spam blocking application, I discovered that spammers and others sending unwanted email are very inventive.  As soon as I developed a good way of blocking their messages, they came up with another way of getting their messages into my Inbox.  Eventually, I developed hundreds of filters.  Next, I started a regular policy of removing obsolete filters as I added new ones.  If you only add new filters, your filtering process eventually takes an excessively long time to filter messages

The latest version of SPAM Blocker with a fresh set of filters was just posted at the site today.  This is the forty-second new set of filters posted at the site.  It is our policy to update filters about twice per month.  This allows SPAM Blocker users to download a relatively fresh set of filters as often as their needs dictate.  After you initially installing and configuring SPAM Blocker, getting a fresh copy of the application is as easy as downloading a zip file and copying over the existing code in a VBA module.

You can learn more about solution to blocking spam from the SPAM Blocker section of our site.  This section describes the application in more detail, gives you information about the different editions of our solution, and provides links for purchasing our solution.

 

New Free Access Download Available

The first August 2005 edition of our newsletter featured "An Interesting Access Application".  From my perspective, the heart of the application was a Bible search program that let users lookup verses containing a keyword.  See my earlier description of the application for more detail on the solution.  I thought it was particularly appropriate for Access developers because it was implemented in Access using common rapid application development techniques.  In addition, it served a very practical need for any Bible student.  Furthermore, the same general principles applied to searches of any body of material -- not just the Bible.

I initially announced the availability of the application on a gratis basis through its author, Keith Clayton.  We originally distributed the program by letting folks request a copy in reply to the first August newsletter.  I then forwarded the messages to Keith, and he sent out copies of his solution.  This program was immensely popular.  At least a couple of persons requested copies later in the year around the time of hurricanes in the New Orleans area.  Keith is from the New Orleans area, and the hurricanes interrupted his ability to send the application to those who wanted it.  In addition, my schedule was fully committed to finishing my upcoming book, which I mention in the next section.

With Keith's permission, I am making a copy available for download from the site.  It is still available without charge.  In fact, you can download it whenever you like, and you can freely announce its availability from the site.  The application is available as a zipped .mdb file.  It is in Access 2000 file format.  There is no support for the application, but I found it pretty self explanatory for basic use.  If you decide to download this application before or around Christmas, please accept this program as a Christmas present from Keith and ProgrammingMSAccess.com.

 

Sneak preview of Upcoming Book Content

As the interest of the ProgrammingMSAccess.com webmaster has evolved, so has the content at the site.  My upcoming book titled "Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express Database Applications with Visual Basic Express and Visual Web Developer Express" is due to become available for sale from Amazon.com and your other favorite booksellers around December 26.  After the publication of the book, I will actively promote it to site visitors.  However, registered site visitors receiving this message are getting an early preview of the book's scope and its content.

The content for the book consists of a FAQ with a reference to a detailed table of contents.  The FAQ includes a brief overview of the book and who it is for.  In fact, you'll learn not only who the book is for, but what the Microsoft Express suite components are for.  In addition, there is a brief technical note about a problem that beta and ctp users of any version of Visual Studio 2005 or its Express suite components can expect to have with the Data Sources window.  This note briefly describes the problem and gives you a couple of URL references detailing solutions to the problem.  The table of contents for the book includes first and second level headings within chapters.  In addition, page references are provided for all sections so that you can see the amount of coverage devoted to specific topics.

 

I hope that you found this message interesting, and I hope you enjoy your Christmas and new year holidays.  I encourage you to try some of the links in this message to visit ProgrammingMSAccess.com.  If you have a question about Access, SQL Server, VBA, Visual Basic .NET, or Visual Studio 2005, you may well find what you need at our site.  Content at the site is available for your perusal without charge.  Don't forget that we also offer custom database support for those who have a priority need and are willing to pay for a solution.  Also, take a moment to forward this message to one or more of your colleagues who may also be able to benefit from our website or professional consulting support.  You can also feel free to share the news about our Christmas present from the site (the Access-based Bible search application).  The present will be available from this site until further notice.  If you no longer wish to receive messages from ProgrammingMSAccess.com, just reply with Remove in Subject field.

 

Rick

www.programmingmsaccess.com