title: Alternatives to decompiling MS Access MDE files
body: <p>I've been tasked with finding a suitable tool to decompile MDE files. The MDEs were created by staff who have since left (familar story eh?) and we do not have access to the originally MDB files. </p>
  
  <p>The reason we need access to the original code is that the data source is changing (the backend as well as some of the table and queries) and we need a way to update queries. An example of a change, in a SELECT statement where is the WHERE clause looks for zero as a string ("0") rather than an integer.</p>
  
  <p>I'm aware that unless you use the services of people like EverythingAccess.com its unlikely you will ever get the source code back. </p>
  
  <p>My main query is to ask for alternative methods to decompiling code. An example of the kinds of methods I'm thinking about is to spy on the traffic between the app the the ODBC DSN using tcpdump. I might then be able to write code to translate the data source queries between the old and new systems. </p>
  
  <p>Ideally I'd prefer a solution that is application centric rather than one that analyses all network traffic.</p>
  
  <p>I should add one caveat, no doubt most of you are thinking the best solution is to rewrite the code, based on its perceived functionality. This is the option we're not considering (at the moment).</p>