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DbNetGrid
Reviewed by Robin Finerfrock
As I have just completed writing an extensive program in MSAccess for my company, I have to admit that I was very excited about reviewing this product. If only I had known about it sooner! One of my responsibilities is to track construction projects that we have built and all of the detailed information pertaining to construction development, project types, amenities, Owner / Developer comments and most importantly, staffing. This information feeds into our proposal generation by detailing our relevant corporate expertise and that of our key staff persons.
My department had been using a grid product in our previous database. I really wanted to try and use the same feature in the database so that the user environment was somewhat familiar to staff persons.
As I was not familiar with previous versions, I decided to begin my review by perusing the DBNetGrid website to understand exactly what the product promised in addition to how it actually performed on the manufacturer’s controlled environment. Even though I do not consider myself an “expert” in the world of databases (there is always so much more to learn), I found many topics and features that could be utilized in just about any standard project.
The product itself supports many of the widely used database systems on the market:
SQL Server (7, 2000), MySQL, MSDE, Access, DB2, Oracle and Visual Fox Pro. For my review, I reviewed the product in the Access environment. Installation was fully automated. The product installed perfectly.
One of the features that the manufacturer boasts as a great feature is the DBNetGrid: Designer. I have to say that I couldn’t agree more.
This environment contains an extensive set of options, making it intuitive and very simple to create just about any grid that you could think of. I was able to specify row colors for ease of viewing, column headings and page size settings. In addition, search properties and edit capabilities are set in design mode through the Designer, enabling a user to search for products and edit record information directly from the grid itself.
I also found the ability to set the language of the controls (English, Spanish, Dutch, Italian and German) amazing.
Once the grid itself was created, I tested many of the features available to the end user. I found the interface to be very intuitive. The product delivered as promised and allowed me to edit my data just by clicking on the item itself or by a drag and drop feature – this was GREAT.
I was able to add information to the description, delete information, change the name, etc. The grid also gives the ability to sort the information, decide which components that I wanted to see or not to see, and gave me the ability to export the grid for use in Word, Excel, HTML and XML.
All of this could be performed with the click of a button and was reliable with the information retrieved each and every time.
In summary, I hope that I have not simplified the product too much. However, DbNetGrid’s major strength is its exceptional ease of use. It pulls together many features that someone could spend hours setting up elsewhere in their application and bundled it all up together. I would highly recommend DbNetGrid to anyone needing to use a grid interface in their application.
Reviewer Biography
Robin FinerFrock is a Senior Marketing Coordinator at Hardin Construction Co., a national commercial construction firm. She is in charge of developing new applications needed to streamline the approach to obtaining new company business. She has spent the past 10 years developing new database solutions with some of today's most popular programs utilizing both Access and Visual Basic. If you need further information regarding this project please contact Robin at RF@tampabay.rr.com.