[rym_]

I was once (or maybe still am) one of these power users. Started out with writing VBA macro's in excel to automate some work, probably created some monstrosities in excel. Then migrated over to MS Access and eventually taught myself proper (MS-)SQL which I have been developing in for over 9 years.

One of my crutches is exactly that, that SQL is more or less the only language I have mastered and when I while I feel like I am skilled enough to develop complex databases, I am always lost at creating a proper frontend for end-users. Quite often I will resort to MS Access as a light frontend (holding no data and minimal coding), just a bunch of forms.

Does anyone know an alternative to this? If I just want some forms but don't want to dive into web-based applications, what alternatives to access exist?

[MayeulC]

If you don't need it to be on the web, Python + Sqlite isn't too bad. Then a GUI like pyqt could do the trick (with UI designed in Qt designer). It still requires some coding, though.

If you need it to be on the web, php + Mysql is probably one of the easiest to learn. The cool kids might have moved to something else, like node or django, though. It also requires learning done basic HTML, but the complexity is reasonable.

[rym_]

I've dabbled a bit in Python here and there and indeed I feel this is most likely the route I will take, before web (as this is not a requirement for me as of now).

[endymi0n]

Airtable is widely lauded at being a modern, web-based version of Access. Haven‘t tried myself, but it‘s looking promising.

[rym_]

I was checking it out just now but I feel quite happy with the SQL-Server side of things, I am basically looking for a more modern way to present forms to the user to interact with my database, without having to learn C#/VB.Net or web dev. Or maybe that's just what I need to do to move away from MS Access as a frontend.