Creating Business Processes using Access Apps in

SharePoint 2013Jeanne Hatton

Agenda

InfoPath – RIP?

The options

Access Web Apps

Demo

Reports

Q &A

Bio

Jeanne Hatton

Left IBM 17 years ago to start Uniti. Worked with SharePoint since 2005

Uniti Solutions Ltd – Collaboration Specialist providing customised training and consultancy to businesses both large and small for SharePoint, Office 365, IBM Notes & Domino and Social Media

Best job ever – running workshops in the Maldives

Worst job ever – in a rat infested hotel close to the Ural mountains where the clients were building a room around the computers – lost 1 ½ stone

Keep my sanity by painting pottery

Specialities Information Governance, SharePoint Governance, Information Architecture, Business Process no code solutions

Email: jeanne@uniti-online.com

twitter: @jeannehatton LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/ln/jeannehatton

Web site: http://www.uniti-online.com

Supported through the lifetime of SharePoint 2010 & 2013

Supported through Office 2013

Deprecated though will be supported till 2023

Still a very important product for forms – can have complex logic, workflows, content types and smart form capabilities

RIP

The Options?

Excel Surveys – Office 365 only

HTML 5 forms

InfoPath

App Forms (Access Web Apps

Access Apps

Aimed at the Power User who

Technically Competent

Understands Business Needs

Does not code for a living

In between the end user and the developer

Quick Useful inexpensive

Solves a common business need

Need to use a solution lifecycle

“Let's not write code until we have to write code”Mark Gills (Microsoft) - it's a philosophy

Massive improvement over Access 2010 and SharePoint 2010

How does it work

You can choose the site where it lives.

When you launch the app a SQL database is provisioned for all the objects and data that the app requires.

The database that is created is just for your app.

When you create a table in the Access App, a table is created in the database.

A query in the app, creates a SQL Server View.

A Macro in your app creates a Stored Procedure in SQL Server.

When you create a view in Access to show your data the view is stored in the database but as text - HTML and JavaScript rather than SQL objects.

Demo

A fully functional Access App running in #Office365 using your browser. Took me about 1 hour.

Reporting

At first glance – reporting options don’t look great – you cannot have Access reports in your App but have to create and use them in the Access 2013 Desktop.

However because it is a SQL Server database you can connect directly to the SQL db. The connection options contain the credentials you need to connect.

This means that you can connect in any way you would normally connect to a SQL Server database.

SSRS Excel Data Connection in

SharePoint Designer

Pros and Cons of Access Apps

Can create in Access a web based application either in the cloud or on prem

Creates a SQL database

No coding required

Security based on SharePoint groups

Data table templates

You can use SSRS BDC and Excel to general reports on your data

Great alternative to building a large list in SharePoint

Can pull in lots of data sources

Cannot trigger workflows

Cannot use SharePoint Search to query your data

If on-prem has to use SQL Server 2012 - If Office 365 all this is taken care of.

Needs Access 2013 running on Windows 7 or 8 to create Access Apps

You can't create a web database using Access Services 2010 in SharePoint 2013, but you can import Access 2010 web databases into an Access app

For on-prem need SharePoint 2013 Enterprise

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/12514.sharepoint-2013-access-services.aspx for requirements

Research

Episode 049 - SPTechCon Panel Recap - InfoPath Is a Dead End: What Form Should Your Forms Take?

Penny Coventry's blog

Microsoft Access 2013 Inside Out

SharePoint 2013 Building Business Solutions Amanda Perran, Shane Perran, Jennifer Mason, Laura Rogers

Q & A

Thank You