How to use an Access Database and VBA to work with Highrise (or other apps)

Garry Robinson wrote an article detailing how to use Microsoft Access to query and update web sites [Database Journal]. The application he uses in the demo is Highrise. Why? Because he loves Highrise:

In this article, I am going to describe how you can use an Access Database and VBA to manipulate a Web 2 application called Highrise, a customer relationship management (CRM) tool from the highly successful Web2 company, 37Signals. Why pick this online product? The main reason is that I love using it, it has a well-written Application Programming Interface (API) and it is free for your first two hundred contacts. Why might this be relevant and interesting to you, the reader? Because you will be performing these tasks on a database that is hidden behind the security of a website, something that has always been beyond the abilities of Access.

The reason I love Highrise, is that it orders my people specific tasks (e-mailing/calling) into a wonderful list of fuzzy dates comprising today, tomorrow, this week, next week, and later and fuses that with specific dates and times like 12-june-08 4pm (see the sample task list in figure 1). Highrise also keeps track of names, addresses, correspondence relating to people and companies in quite a versatile environment. Anyway, the functionality of the website is not important, what is important is that you can interact with the data in the Highrise website through the API by posting and retrieving XML. This allows you to extend the feature list of the online application and it allows you to merge information on a website with other applications on your desktop. More than likely this is going to be a Microsoft Access database if you are reading this article.

Read the whole article to learn more about using an Access Database and VBA to work with a web app.

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