Beginning SharePoint 2013: Building Business Solutions

Chapter 13

Working with Access Services

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS CHAPTER:

• How to build an Access app using Microsoft Access 2013
• The main components of an Access database
• How to work with an Access database within SharePoint

Microsoft Access is a relational database product that has been around for many years. It has come a long way since good old Access 1.0 back in 1992. Over the years, and with the proliferation of networks and the Internet, the way that we get to our data has changed significantly. Access has always been a great tool for power users to create business solutions on the fly, but with more business processes taking place in a browser interface for the past few years, Access just didn’t fit the bill. SharePoint 2010 introduced Access Services. These web-based forms can be used in any modern web browser. These forms also don’t require any add-ins or extensions like ActiveX or Silverlight. This was a great improvement to requiring users to have the Microsoft Access client software installed on their computers.

In this chapter, you learn how to work with the new Access Services in SharePoint 2013, using Access 2013. This new version of Access has been tremendously improved over Access 2010. Many behind-the-scenes changes have been made, such as the structure and storage of the database, and also very obvious changes to the user interface.

All the step-by-step instructions in this chapter build on each other. The first Try It Out walks you through creating your ...