Professional Access 2013 Programming

1

Introduction to Access Web Apps and Architecture

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Defining an app
• Examining how apps are structured
• Identifying methods for distributing apps
• Listing deprecated components and new tools

With the release of Office 2013, Microsoft introduced major changes to the Office architecture, and Access is no exception. To make Office more accessible to an increasing number and variety of users, devices, and platforms, Microsoft continues to expand, provisioning Office “in the cloud” with an emphasis on making a seamless transition when running on different devices. One major frustration with traditional hosted environments has been that you had to accept everything out of the box; custom applications or code might not run in a hosted environment or might run only in a restricted mode. New to SharePoint 2013 and Office 2013, the Cloud App Model (subsequently referred to as app in this book) is Microsoft's answer to the longstanding problem of enabling people to write and create custom solutions that can run in the cloud without the usual complexities that come with a client installation. With the new model, we now can create a new app, which is essentially a web application that has been prepared and packaged in a specific way. Apps can take many different forms, but essentially they are all web pages containing custom code and content that is integrated into Office, typically using Office 365. Access 2013 can create an app that can be used in the cloud. In this ...