Documentation

Using Version Control in Microsoft Access

In the process of developing a more complex Microsoft Access database, you may find yourself wondering what changed when, or how you are going to collaborate with other developers. That's what this system was designed for. It basically exports your Access database into individual files representing the various tables, queries, forms, etc... in such a way that you can easily compare changes or revisions in the development process. Let's consider a couple use cases:

Export and Save

For some developers, they simply want to track the progress of their work on a database system over time. Using this Version Control add-in, you can simply export the project to source files, then commit those changes to GitHub (or other versioning system). If you are looking for something simple, GitHub Desktop provides a nice user interface for working with a GitHub/GitLab repository.

Collaborative Development

In other cases you might have a team of developers that are simultaneously working on the same Microsoft Access Database system. This Version Control add-in allows developers to work independently on their own copies of the database, exporting and committing changes to a repository. Changes are reviewed and merged at a source file level, and then the database is built from the source files to combine all the changes together.

A new feature in version 4 is the ability to merge new changes from source into an existing project without having to rebuild the entire project from scratch. (You must perform at least one full build before using the merge feature.)

Options

This add-in includes a number of options to customize your experience to your environment and workflow. These options are saved on a per-project basis, as well as allowing you to set defaults for new projects.

Click here for detailed Options Information.