Note: This is the first part of a three part series, you can find the second part here and the third part here.
Hello Access with SQL Server blog readers! This is my first post since joining the firm and I look forward to many more! Both Juan and I will be blogging here on Access, SQL Server and SharePoint and we love reading your comments, so please leave us feedback below.
My specialty is Access and SharePoint, so what better way to get started than with a Series on both?
Access and SharePoint
If you’ve been working with Access for a while, it’s hard to miss the push Microsoft has been putting behind SharePoint integration with Access. The integration started as early as Access 2003, continued through 2007 and has blossomed with 2010. Without question the number one feature in the latest release is publishing your database to the web with SharePoint. In this first post I’m going to discuss what is SharePoint and why was it used to publish Access web databases, replace the Jet Replication and other integration features.
So what is SharePoint?
If you were to go over to Microsoft SharePoint page, you may see a long list of features and success stories described in nebulous terms. Indeed, there is no one simple definition to tack SharePoint to. Instead of discussing its capabilities, I believe we’re better off discussing the intention behind its capabilities, and I’m going to use Access as an analogy.
SharePoint is to Web Apps as Access is to Visual Studio
Why do we use Access instead of Visual Studio? Isn’t Visual Studio more powerful and lets us do all those cool things in code? Or better yet, why not just hire a professional to set up everything for us? The fact is, Access is accessible (excuse the pun) to *non*-programmers; people who need to track their data as part of their job and this is the crucial difference. To use Access, you’re not required to be a professional to get started, and because you can do it yourself. You don’t have to go and talk with your IT department who may be overworked with other, more important projects. Precisely because of this ability to create something on a worker’s desktop, Access is has become the most popular database in the world. Some of you may be thinking, “but there are complex Access applications that requires specialized consultants out there!” – Well, yes, but that usually comes later in the Access databases’ life and not all Access databases out there end the same way and to me that’s the beauty of Access – it enables companies to develop a line-of-business applications at far less risk, whether monetary or time & effort than if we opted to use Visual Studio.
SharePoint solves a different set of problems exactly the same way as Access does: it enables *non*-web-designers to build web pages quickly and without any specialized knowledge because it’s merely a part of their workflow and not their livelihood. Likewise, it enables workers to manage files without having to think about the organization of the files, backing up the files and how they would find the files again. SharePoint helps the company saves money by reducing the overall IT administration in contrast to traditional file sharing/networked hard drives, management of documents and so forth. Some people has suggested that SharePoint be thought of as a platform providing easy-to-use building blocks, and suddenly the analogy from Access is much more accurate; we get to build web applications or develop a certain document management strategy at far less risk and expenses than if we built one from scratch.
In fact, when you examine the difference between Jet Replication and the Offline mode with SharePoint, it’s impressive in how simple it is. All you have to do is just use SharePoint as your data source and everything else about working offline and synchronizing is automatic. No manual configuration. No coding or additional installation. This truly demonstrate the raison d’être behind Access and SharePoint; solving IT problems for common people. And that’s just one of many integration points between Access and SharePoint.
SharePoint is not a relational database
Access and SharePoint are very similar when we look at how they can solve business problems. Given the similarity in the audience both programs addresses, it seems conceivable that they’d be peas in pod, right? Well, here’s the other thing. Many professional Access consultants are actutely aware that SharePoint is anything but a true relational database system and they’re right. Even though SharePoint is powered by SQL Server, it introduces additional abstractions in the form of “lists” which are not similar to a SQL table and has some ramifications on how we can use lists in Access. That’ll be addressed in a future post.
SharePoint 2010 + Access 2010 = Instant Web Database!
The latest version of Access will allow you to publish your work to SharePoint 2010 with just one URL and a click. Gone are the days were you needed to upload files, configure security, configure the web server and countless other details. Granted, not all of the functionality of Access made it into this version of SharePoint’s Access Services, but we expect improved functionality in the years to come.
Sounds great! So why isn’t SharePoint used in small businesses?
Price is another point where SharePoint and Access diverge, SharePoint’s cost are much higher, both in terms of licensing fees and man hours required to support and maintain it. Microsoft has made some headway in this area by offering Office365 which essentially promises to brings SharePoint functionality to small businesses. Of course, there’s also AccessHosting which specializes in hosting Access web databases and we provide consultation for developmental work on web database that get hosted. This inevitable reality of moving services off the desktop and into “cloud” will also be examined in a future post.
My second post will discuss SharePoint lists in more detail.
Thanks for the blog and the well written posting re:SharePoint and Access: How do they fit together?
So, how do they fit together? I am the non techie that you described who needs to get one database shared between 6 users, 3 in the same office each with a pc and 3 who are working from home.
Tom,
You could use SharePoint’s Access web services, but then that would limit what you can do. Another alternative is to use SQL Server hosting in the cloud, but you are new to Access so that may be to daunting. If considering the former please checkout AccessHosting.com. If you need help with the latter give us a call to discuss.
Thanks
Juan
This is what I want!. Finally I understood. I am a Sociologist so you can imagine that this is not my field. I just need to 3 forms for my customers ands suppliers registration, and then connect it to my local data base. Therefore the publics forms are only to collect information. I really appreciate if you could write or send me and link for the cost of the service. Thanks!
information about the cost for these services.
Hi Maria,
Great to hear from you! I have sent you an email with my contact info, please call me to discuss how we can help you further.
Kind Regards,
Juan
This may be similar to a prior question. But I need to create a database that will hold implemented projects and the details behind each project. Not many users in my company use Access, but I was wondering if my answer solution would be to: create the database myself (I have Access 2007); create forms for other people to fill out with their idea information; then upload the Access database to our intranet/Sharepoint site; and once there all those within the company that we grant access to will be able to input their information themselves? Does that sound reasonable or am I missing something?
Thanks & I appreciate your blog!
I think we need to more precise about how we plan the infrastructure, especially with different version.
With Access 2007 / Sharepoint 2007 (aka WSS 3.0), the only thing you can do is the following:
1) Create a front-end client with linked SharePoint lists
2) Upload the file and store it in a document library for easy download/update. Users then download the file off the document library and open it in Access. When the file has been uploaded this way, there is a message bar to save the change and thus automatically update the copy in the library.
Note that you can do either one or both as you choose.
With Access 2010 / SharePoint 2010 (specifically the Enterprise edition), you can do the above in addition to:
3) Create a web database with web forms & reports & macros and make it available for people with web browser to use.
4) Create a hybrid web database which also contain client objects. Unlike #2, the changes to the objects are immediately synchronized and do not need to replace the file entirely.
I hope those help illustrate the choices available to you for solving the deployment question. Let me know if I can provide more details.
In order to build an access sharepoint webdatabase, do you have to have the Enterprise edition of sharepoint 2010? My company says that it has the standard edition but yet i was able to create the database and publish and it was working fine. Now it is not showing my lists, but it still shows the form that i built as a main tabbed menu. (I used the template Issues management dbase as a template.)
I am using Sharepoint 2007 and Access 2007. Are you saying that in the 2007 version, it is neccessary to save the Access database to my computer to update it and then upload the updated file to sharepoint?
Great question, Shannon!
No, it is not necessary to do so. There are different ways to interact with SharePoint, even with 2007.
You can opt to use SharePoint as a place to store your data, in which case you just link SharePoint lists in your Access database and use it like a regular Access table.
Likewise, you can opt to use SharePoint as a way to distribute your Access database by uploading it to a Document Library and emailing everyone else the link to the Document Library’s URL. When you use that feature, you will see changes in how Access behave such as displaying “Save to SharePoint Server”, allowing you to quickly upload any changes you make to your Access database. That may not be desirable when you’re building Access applications for other to run in which case, you would suppress the dialog by removing “PublishURL” property.
Either can be used in tandem or not, so you have choices. I hope this helps clarifies what you can do with SharePoint.
I appreciate your reply.
I work for a jewelry store and we use an Access database to maintain our customer information (history of purchases, repairs that we have done, appraisals, mailing addresses, etc.). We add/edit our database using forms. When I open the database from sharepoint, I click on the database and “Edit in Access.” The database then opens in Access on my computer, but in a Read Only format. In order to edit it, it requires that i “Save As”. We need to be able to edit the database without doing a Save As and then uploading it back to Sharepoint because it takes too long to download then upload (15,080 KB) and doing so creates version control issues for us. So…is it possible to edit the database Access 2007 using sharepoint 2007 without the downloading and uploading of the database or should I explore the Access Hosting you mentioned in a prior post?
Thank you in advance for your response,
Shannon
Clarify – are your data actually saved in SharePoint Lists or are you using Access tables to hold the data along with the forms you have?
To tell the difference, a linked SharePoint list would have a orange table icon while regular Access table would have blue/white table icon. If it’s the latter, that may be why it’s so big because you’re moving both forms and data from one place to other. Having it in a SharePoint Lists would make your Access file smaller and thus easier to move around.
As for being in Read Only — do you have permissions to write to the library where your Access file is stored in? Especially to edit an existing file?
If you’re still stuck, please feel free to contact us and we can provide a quote for the assistance. Thank you!
Shannon, U can simply have your data in an Access file, while this file is stored on a SharePoint server, simultaneously you can use an other Access file, that has linked tables into the primary Access file. This way, the “DATA” of the primary Access file is updated through the interface of the secondary Access file (in which tables are linked.)
Just notice that the primary file could be reachable via a path similar to \SharaePointServerADocLibPrimary.accdb
Shannon,
you could simply have your data in an Access file, while this file is stored on a SharePoint server, simultaneously you can use an other Access file, that has linked tables into the primary Access file. This way, the “DATA” of the primary Access file is updated through the interface of the secondary Access file in which, the tables are linked.
Just make sure that the primary file is reachable via a path similar to \SharaePointServerADocLibPrimary.accdb
and also avoid storing data into the secondary (let’s say interface-only) Access database.
I am looking at uploading an Access program with linked Sharepoint lists, to Sharepoint itself so that multiple users would be able to use and update the Access program. However, if there is a need to download the copy before publishing the changes to Sharepoint, there will be a risk of changes being overwritten by different users, right? Is there a way to curb this?
Yes, you would use SharePoint permissions to prevent design changes by those who shouldn’t be making such changes. If you use the same technique that AccessHosting demonstrated in blocking the users from downloading an Access, you can disable the Modify Application permission which if I recall correctly will prevent users from publishing their changes to the copy saved on the SharePoint.
An alternative is to instead of publishing, save an ACCDE file and upload to a Document Library. 2010-style publishing does not allow you to use ACCDE, and as AccessHosting’s video show, you can effectively secure a web database in a web browser. In client Access, you can only prevent publishing from happening but not necessarily users making changes (which then get lost next time they re-sync, of course).
Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2sgVzFlmJE&list=UUuDvDaG2xR3-tLaOrt49stQ&index=5&feature=plcp
Let me know if that helped.
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Glad this was useful for you, Kyle. We’ll definitely continue to add content on SharePoint to this blog so stay tuned! Thanks for commenting!
Thanks for this article. Just a question or 2. I am creating a customer-information / sales forecast / actuals, etc database in Access 2007. This database will be uploaded to Sharepoint, will my users that does not have MS Access, be able to update the information directly in Sharepoint, or do I need to install Access onto their local computers ? Sharepoint is version 2010. Thanks
Good question.
If you’re storing your data in SharePoint lists, then you could just either create a Data View page or use the built-in view list page to view and modify the SharePoint list in a web browser without requiring an Access installation.
The alternative when you need to do more than simply viewing and doing some basic editing is to download the free Access runtime & install it on the computer so they can then run your ACCDB file. Note furthermore that if you have a full version of Access 2010, you could just distribute Access 2010 runtime (runtime is free & available for either 2007 and/or 2010 but you have to choose which version you want to develop for to minimize any potential headaches from cross version differences).
I hope that helps.
Ben,
Thanks for your response, this solves a lot of questions.
W
Is there any way to have two front ends for an Access 2010 DB that has been published to SharePoint 2010?
I would like to take advantage of the features publishing a DB to SharePoint gives… (edit without having to download, don’t need the applications loaded on every machine…) but want to limit the vulnerability these same features come with.
I have the same DB being used by Employees and Customers. I would like to limit the Customers ability to manipulate data in the DB but still need them to have contribute privileges for other areas/files in an “external” SharePoint site.
Is it possible to create different forms and queries for each group (on respective internal and external SharePoint sites) that all point to the same SharePoint lists (stored on the internal [no Customers]site) using the Access forms to limit what fields can be edited)?
By definition, there can be only one ACCDB published to a SharePoint site.
You say you don’t want to download Access file, so if we’re doing it through web browser exclusively, then I would suggest that you’ll be fine with just one ACCDB file. In the web browser, they have no way of circumventing the security you may put in the place. You can use CurrentWebUser(), CurrentWebUserGroups() and IsCurrentWebUserInGroup() functions to determine if your user is a client or an employee and show/hide the appropriate objects.
You can have a desktop Access file point to a SharePoint site (or multiple sites) and therefore have an application that allows more functionality for your internal uses that can reference the same lists used in a published Access web database while limiting your external users to only what is allowed in your web interface.
I hope that help illustrate the possibility.
I am not a programmer, and have taken a couple of access courses, and created a couple of 2007 databases, that apparently were impressive, and user friendly. Therefore, I have been asked to create a membership database, for a non-profit organization. However, I very much consider myself at a beginner level as far as being an access expert is concerned. They have one laptop which is used to track members and events, with MS Office 2010. They have not purchased Sharepoint. My questions are below, any help would be much appreciated…
1) I were to create a web database, would each user/person accessing the web database also need to have sharepoint?
2) I am aware that with an access sharepoint web database some features are not the same. One of my major concerns is that the membership coordinator wants a certificate emailed to the member when they check in for the conference event…so I would create a macro that sends the form from access upon clicking the check in box. Is this same thing possible with the web database?
3) I was thinking of trying to find a way to put the database in the cloud by putting it in a free site, like digital dropbox and encrypting it with a password. What are your thoughts?
Thanks a bunch! :0)
Thank you for coming here!
1) Not exactly. You only need single SharePoint instance for your users to access. Depending on how you are getting SharePoint (e.g. buying a on-premise license or signing up for a hosted account), you may also need to consider how your users can factor into it. Some providers may let you share a single login with multiple users whereas in other cases, you may buy a login per user. Two popular hosting options are AccessHosting.com and Office365.
Access Hosting (only company that specialize in Access web database hosting)
http://accesshosting.com/pricing.asp#sharept
Office 365 (you need to start at plan P1 or higher):
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/compare-plans.aspx#fbid=qLEptzY7Iex
2) There is indeed capability to send email but last time I looked, you can’t attach a file to the email; it’d be text-based email only. Different approaches may be needed here.
3) I’d suggest that setting up a SQL Server Express (free) is your best bet both in terms of stability and simplicity balanced. While dropbox perhaps may work for one user, it simply is nonstarter if you need to let more than one user use it at same time and you’d have to program something to check if someone is using their file already. A SQL Server backend, OTOH, only need to have a modest workstation, a good network connection and understanding of networking (so you can open a firewall port to allow the traffic though) but otherwise continue to use your Access database as it is. It’s very easy to upsize and requires no changes to your application’s funcitonality, though it is common after upsizing that optimization need to be made to work better with a distant data source. If you don’t want to administer a SQL Server, you can also opt to sign up for a SQL Server hosting. We offer a hosting service:
http://accessexperts.net/services/sql-server-hosting-for-access/
When you choose this route, you can keep your original Access database and simply distribute it to your users once it’s upsized.
I hope those links help you find what you’re looking for. Let us know if you have any more questions.
Great blog…
Can you recommend any books that go in-depth with Access/Sharepoint development?
Hi Mark -
Thank you for the kind words about the blog!
As for books on Access + SharePoint; I’m aware of only one book that focuses on Access/SharePoint exclusively and that would be the book that I co-authored with George Hepworth and Tim Runcie. The book can be bought here:
http://store.advisicon.com/Microsoft-Access-in-a-SharePoint-World-p62.html
The other excellent source of information though not exclusively about Access & SharePoint is Access 2010 Inside & Out, by Jeff Conrad and John Viescas.
http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Access-2010-Inside-Out/dp/0735626855
I hope that helps.
Hi, interesting and well written article. We currently use Access 2007 in school and I have developed a couple of databases which are used successfully by a handful of users across our LAN.
I now have a new project to create a database to be used by users from several schools in the area. Each of them will be adding data for their school to the database and must not be able to see or use the data entered by other schools.
Do you think this will be possible using Access 2007 and Sharepoint lists serving as the backend? I have seen a technique for limiting the display of list items to only the user that created that item but in some schools several users from the same establishment will require access to their schools data.
Any input you could provide would be much appreciated!
Adam, good questions!
Yes, you certainly can provide additional filtering.
First, when we’re discussing security, it’s helpful to remember that the more complex your security is, the more work is required to read/write the data because adding one more unique permission means there is more computation for all users, whether they actually participate in this permission or not to pull that the data. So we want to keep this simple as possible.
You already spoke of showing only items to users that created that. I would prefer that route and I want to add that this applies only to regular users. Those who are granted Manage Lists can bypass this restriction so for users where you want to let them to read across and maybe even edit others data, you can assign them to a group where they are allowed to Manage Lists and therefore step outside that boundary. That of course implies high level of trust with those users.
The other alternative is to distribute an ACCDE file that differs among users by using Views. Views are filtered at server side and therefore you can have an ACCDE that links to different Views representing filters that are appropriate to their roles/levels. This is quite efficient way to segregate data. The downside, though, is that View are not a security construct so you’d be merely hiding the data so once again that implies a high level of trust with your users.
The last alternative where we actually secure is to use folders on the list. You would need to manually code your data entry form so that on the insertion, you insert into one of SharePoint defined field that describe which folder the list item should be placed into. You can then use SharePoint permissions to secure the folder and you can assign groups access (or deny them access) to each folders. Each users would be need to be member of appropriate group before they can access the folder. You then need to code your form to filter appropriate (you’d probably still want to use Views) and account for errors when users try to access restricted items.
So that’s your 3 major approaches you can pursue in segregating and possibly securing the data. I hope that helps.
how can i create an executable for an access 2012 data base.
You can’t. What you can create is what we call accde. If you do a search online you will find plenty of help on the subject.
Thanks
Juan
Someone may have asked this already, I didn’t get through all the comments.
All of the information I have read mentions linking Sharepoint to Access, what if I want to link Access to a Sharepoint. I would like to create a Sharepoint form, and have it populate into an Access database.
Is this possible?
BTW, thanks for the laymans explanations.
I think it’s easier to just use a SharePoint list as your data source for your Sharepoint form, then have your Access database link to the same SharePoint list to get the data.
Thanks Ben
Going through your article, I was able to create the Access 2010 database linked to the Sharepoint List.
I have created the VB application FORM accessing the local database. It works fine.. After sometime, If the FBA authentication session of the sharepoint portal expires, If the FORM tires to update the database through VB coding. It automatically launch the FBA form to re authentication. But, after submitting the credentials.. It completely hangs.. No other option other than killing the session.. Any help..
Regards
Venkat
Venkat, just so I understand – you’re using a VB app to access Access database that contains linked SharePoint lists? If so, I have to ask – why not access SharePoint lists directly using web services in your VB app? The other thing I would look at is instantiating Access.Application object as it’s possible that the authentication happens within Access object model, rather than in DAO/ADO object model.
Thanks Ben
I have tried to create instance of the Access application in Excel VBA, And authentication works fine.. It fails to reconnect when it gets disconnected to the sharepoint list due to connection interruption.
When the Access Database linked to Sharepoint list disconnects, Only way I was able to resync is opening the Access Application and reconnect the Tables. So there any way to handle this in the VBA program.
Thanks
Venkat
Sorry, Venkat but there is no direct programmatic approach to force re-sync. You see, when 2010 loses connection, it will automatically go into disconnected mode. When it later detects the connection has been restored, it determines whether there has been any changes made to the SharePoint lists. If there are none, then it will automatically re-connect without prompting. But if it finds that there were any changes, even if it’s only one row, it will not reconnect and wait for user to click Synchronize.
You have two possible approaches:
1) If you have access to Access web services and can publish a web database, you could use DoCmd.Runcommand acCmdSyncWebApplication which has the side effect of prompting synchronization and thus restoring the connection. However this method also ‘close’ and ‘open’ your database.
2) Instead of using 2010 caching, you can set your Access to use 2007-style caching. 2007-style caching allow you to manually disconnect / connect via another RunCommand (off the head, I think it’s acCmdToggleOfflineMode but not sure). However, you lose the performance benefit with 2010 caching. Furthermore, it cannot handle dropped connection as gracefully – you must manually toggle offline then do your work then toggle online to move the whole thing in a single batch rather than stay connected the whole time.
It’s possible that it may be better to use a temporary Access table for all your editing, then when your user is ready to commit, copy the content into the SharePoint List so it can be worked as single transaction, minimizing problems with connectivity. I hope that helps.
Thanks Ben
I can understand the limitations in the technology as of today.. As you suggested to use the local table and commit to the SharePoint list at later point. Does that means, you commit directly to the sharepoint list accessing the Portal or to the linked SharePoint list in Access Database.
Is there anyway to handle the SharePoint portal list in VBA.
Regards
venkat
Vendat, well, you could do either.
I was actually originally committing to linked table that links to your SharePoint List in your Access table but if you want to go directly, you could use web service. But if you’re using VBA for this, I have to warn that VBA isn’t really the best language to work with SharePoint web service; it can get very involved quickly. If you are comfortable doing, you could considering building an Excel Add-In using Visual Studio where you can use VB.NET or C# to connect to your SharePoint list using web service references and it may be more easier to manage the authenication in this context.
I hope that helps.
I have an Access Database that has been published to Sharepoint. Everything looks great and it was EASY. My problem is that I need to sync my tasks to Outlook. My database application is using a task table that will not sync (button is greyed out) but I see a task1 table in my Sharepoint site that will sync. Is there any workaround for getting my database tasks to sync – maybe by getting them into the task1 table? Thanks for the website – GREAT information!
Cindy, it sounds like Tasks table is one of default site objects that is used by SharePoint for other things. You’re correct that you probably want to move them into Task1 (perhaps renaming it to make it clearer what it is supposed to contains in contrast to the default Tasks). An easy way to do this is to link to both Tasks and Tasks1 in your Access database then copy’n'paste rows from Tasks to Tasks1 table.
Hope that helps!
Hi
I am working on a tool that requires user inputs in Excel GUI and using VBA these inputs are saved in Access database (using ADO connection). This requires the User to download the database on their machine. Is there a way that this database can be updated directly on SharePoint through Excel VBA or any other method. I don’t want User to download Access database on their systems.
Thanks !
Vineet Ahuja
I want to get a table created in a Word document (or created from an Access form) to synch into a SharePoint calendar.
Currently people type a weekly activity report (WAR) in Word. Part of that report contains information for people who are on travel. The report is posted to SharePoint and someone has to open each report, pull the travel info, and rekey into a PowerPoint slide for presentation at a weekly meeting. We want to automate the process so that once a person types the report the travel portion will automatically populate an excel spreadsheet in SharePoint that can then be used in the weekly staff meeting.
Is that possible? How do I do it? Then, I’d like to be able to put that info on a PowerPoint slide atomatically if possible.
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Ben: Where have you “ben” all my life (sorry for the pun .. but that’s truly what I felt when I came across your articles)!
Such great information! I’m one of those people who started with the basics and have grown into developing and using some rather mature SP and Access integrations … but I’m having some performance issues. I wonder if the features of Access 2010 can be leveraged to help me?
As briefly as I can put it, I use SP lists to “gather” data from ~ 70 users, spread across 3 continents. Specially I have users operating within a single corporate infrastructure but residing in North America, China, and the UK.
Currently I simply “link” my 4 SP lists via Access. (one “primary” table, and 3 related tables.) Users utilize MS Access for the system interface, not SharePoint.
In MS Access I run local copies of each table, and use VBA coding to copy data from the local tables into the SP lists, one “primary” record at a time, along with its related records from the other 3 tables. This “export” happens at a certain predictable point in the work process, eseentially when the user is wrapping up this ‘record’.
Then I centrally “download” all the data daily, by doing the reverse. I do this to drive overall reporting of the data collected from around the globe.
98% of the time this works extremely well. But when its bad… its really really bad. To help me diagnose the problem, I’ve installed a ‘test connection’ routine on a few users’ machines. The average test time so far (to run a standard query) is < 10 seconds. However I get blips as high 100 or up to 2100 seconds. The same user who had the 2100 result also had "normal" results just moments before and after.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Paul