SPS Kansas City - MS-Access and SharePoint - The new old thing - November 2013

SPS EVENTSKANSAS CITY 2013

AccessThe New (old) Thing for SharePoint

Ruven Gotz - Avanade

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Ruven Gotz

@ruveng

spinsiders.com/ruveng

[email protected]

About me

Buy the Book (or Kindle):http://amzn.to/JnxlcC

A little history

Microsoft Certified Trainer for Access

Teaching development in Access Basic

Doing independent consulting with Access Solutions

It was capable of a lot

But it was a dangerous tool

IT Guys hated it

Ugly data entry forms (This is one of the better ones)

Backup often planned

But recovery: Not reliable

Mission Critical Data: Lost!

Microsoft went back to the lab…

Access 2010

What was the goal?

Industrialize it…

Tried to use SP as the database

A real breakthrough (hopefully)

Turned out weak

Who is the target audience?

My Assumptions

• We are looking at Access as a power-user tool• We are not looking at manipulating the underlying

code for Access• In today’s talk, I am examining the likelihood that

you will want to use Access to build solutions or to release to your power users to take the load off of IT

Microsoft went back to the lab…

AGAIN

Access 2013

A new architecture

Classic DesktopArchitecture

Access ServicesArchitecture

Jet Desktop DatabaseFile BasedRequires Access or Access Runtime

SQL Server DatabaseRuns in BrowserRedistributable as an App

The new architecture

View and Edit Data

Database Design

Access Service

s

Advanced Reporting & Integration

• Desktop Access Reports• Excel• Power View• Crystal Reports• Custom Websites (.NET, PHP,

etc.)

SQL Azure

The new layout structure

4. Add and edit items

3. Search and filter

2. Choose view

1. Choose table

Presents a polished, consistent interface. But flexible?

Access services on Office 365

Browser

O365

BrowserBrowser

SQL Azure

Web app 1

Web app 2

Web app 3

…

Access IDE

runtime

design

Access services on premises

Browser

SP On Prem

BrowserBrowser

SQL Server

Web app 1

Web app 2

Web app 3

…

Access IDE

runtime

design

Getting Access Services setup on-prem is REALLY, REALLY HARD

Getting Access Services to work in Office 365 is REALLY, REALLY EASY

Let’s do a walkthrough

• What’s it like to interact with Access Services• What are the pluses• What are the limitations

A brief glimpse at a custom app• Tracking the boats and races at the yacht club.

Customization example

What is good about Access?• Microsoft has created a really slick tool• They tried to protect the user from him or herself• Very structured page layouts• It uses SQL Server for back-end safety, management

and performance HUGE• Comes with a bunch of pre-built objects that can be

very quickly snapped together and slightly modified• It RUNS in most BROWSERS HUGE

What are the downsides

• Very difficult to change things from the Microsoft design template• The pre-built items have capabilities that are very

difficult to figure out: Creating your own custom entities has limitations• You can’t read/write to SharePoint lists (read-only)• Can’t run SP workflows, can’t send an email from

an action

My hope: Squeeze some additional juice out of SP

• Access would be a great ‘form builder’ tool for power users, allowing them to create good looking forms with relational lookups, enhanced validation, parent-child relationships, etc.

Meeting the burden:• I said to you up-front:In today’s talk, I am examining the likelihood that you will want to use Access to build solutions or to release to your power users to take the load off of IT

Sorry

• No

Conclusions

• I contacted a few MVP’s and others and asked them: Do you see great use-cases for Access Services in SharePoint?• It’s too disconnected from SharePoint• It’s too unintuitive for power users to figure out

without wasting a lot of time• As is, it’s just not ready to be a broad-based end-

user or even power-user tool for

But

• Don’t lose faith• Microsoft is hearing us• The ‘cadence’ of delivery

is changing• New SP capabilities &

features are rolled outall the time• I am hopeful that Access

will, in the not too distantfuture, be the tool wealways hoped

Ruven Gotz

@ruveng

spinsiders.com/ruveng

[email protected]

Special thanks to:Reza Alirezai, Laura Rogers and other unnamed experts for help and insight in the creation of this deck

Download this deck from:www.slideshare.net/ruveng

Thanks!