Connect Microsoft Access front end to Retool Database

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I am moving my Microsoft Access database over to Retool, and using Retool Database as my new back end. However, as Retool doesn’t offer nice printable reports, I need to connect Microsoft Access to Retool Database to keep on printing reports from Access until such a type as Retool offers nice report building and printing.

Gemini suggests getting a PostgreSQL ODBC driver. PostgreSQL ODBC Driver for Windows, macOS, and Linux: Download connector for integration and sync Does this actually work? Just wanting to confirm this is the right path before I go and spend the money.

I understand that if I want to connect a variety of services to my backend, I should move to something like Azure SQL. But all I want to do is print 2 or 3 reports a week from MS Access, so I don’t want to buy and manage another subscription just for that. Especially if Retool eventually gives us the reporting features us MS Access users are used to…

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Hey @Mitchell_Loewen - at the end of the day, Retool Database is really just a generic PostgreSQL database that should be natively supported by Access. You can grab its connection string from within the Retool UI, as shown below, and then add it as a linked table within Access.

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I'm not familiar with the specific UI within Access, but let me know if you need any additional help configuring the linked table!

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Have you had a chance to revisit this, @Mitchell_Loewen?

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From what I could tell, Microsoft Access does not support a direct connection to PostgreSQL. Or at least, I couldn’t make it work. I think it would work with an ODBC driver, but for now, we can print data by downloading a CSV from a table, and then formatting in Excel. Not ideal, but functional.

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Glad to hear you have a functional workflow, at the very least!

I think I have a better understanding of your use case, as well. It's definitely possible and shouldn't be something that you have to pay for. PostgreSQL releases their own ODBC drivers that you can install locally.

1. PostgreSQL ODBC driver — download the psqlODBC driver from postgresql.org and install it on the Windows machine running Access.
2. Set up a DSN — open Windows' ODBC Data Source Administrator (search for it in the Start menu), create a new System or User DSN using the PostgreSQL Unicode driver, and fill in your host, port (default 5432), database name, username, and password.
3. Link tables in Access — in Access, go to External Data → New Data Source → From Other Sources → ODBC Database. Choose to link (rather than import) the tables so changes stay in sync with Postgres, then select your DSN and pick the tables you want.

This should give you a good place to start!

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Have you had a chance to revisit this, @Mitchell_Loewen?

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No, I just build a tablet app in Retool that we are using instead of printing out sheets.

And of course now I’m dealing with the fact that a most of Retool’s components aren’t really optimized for use on a touch screen. But it works.