1. Enterprise Friendly Office Applications Garry Stewart – Ajilon

2. Who are you? Garry Stewart http://www.garry-stewart.com http://www.twitter.com/garry_stewart

3. What is an “Enterprise Friendly Application”? Provides a home for a concept within a business Plays nice with others Allows IT to do their job

4. Application Maturity Model Opportunistic Tactical Strategic

5. Why can’t everything be strategic?

6. How can we have our cake & eat it? In scope: Reduce the cost of tactical systems Empower the end users Out of scope: Encourage an environment where users feel comfortable approaching IT with their business needs Educate and train users on how they can solve their own issues using the tools provided by IT

7. How can SharePoint 2010 help? SharePoint provides tools for the 3 main data concepts that users are familiar with Documents Form Libraries & InfoPath Document Libraries & Word/PDF etc. Reporting Services/ PerformancePoint Reports Visio Services Spread sheets Excel Services Document Libraries & Excel Tables Access Services SharePoint List based applications You are here

8. What is Access Services? Think InfoPath Form Services but for Access Allows hosting of Access tables, reports and forms in SharePoint Let’s you look at Access Forms & Reports through a browser without having Access on the client

9. So what is it doing? Generates a new SharePoint Site for your application Access Tables becomes SharePoint lists Data Macros become SharePoint Workflows Access Forms become ASPX pages UI Macros become JavaScript Access Reports become Reporting Services RDL Files Access objects are serialised and put into a SharePoint List (MSysASO)

10. Didn’t MOSS 2007 do this? Yes and no… Hosting Access tables as SharePoint lists is not new Web Forms and reports are new UI and Data Macros are new

11. Can I just migrate old Access DBs? Yes and no… Tables must be compatible with SharePoint lists otherwise they will not migrate New “Web” forms and reports end up on the web Client based forms/reports/external tables can co-exist, but you need to open Access to use them No VBA on the server

12. What happens to objects I can’t migrate? By opening the database in Access you can still use: Client based forms and reports Linked tables Custom code (e.g. VBA) Uses the Microsoft Sync Framework to ferry data and structure between the client and server Important: Can only have Web or client tables, not both.

13. How is this “Enterprise Friendly”? Allows a traditionally opportunistic tool to create tactical applications Applications can still be created by “power users” in a tool they are familiar with

14. What type of applications can I build with this? Table Centric “Leaf Node” Applications “Access Style” Reports, Forms and Navigation

15. Can I integrate Access Services with other applications? External data from within Access Access data from other applications

16. Why not create SharePoint apps? Access Services is effectively a SharePoint application generator One tool for end users to use Standard architectural framework It’s a familiar tool to many business users

17. Choice is not always good Endless debate is not appropriate for small scale projects Constraints make for predictable results Predictable results make for predictable costs They also make it easier to train both users of the system and the people creating the system

18. Can I leverage all the features of SharePoint Lists? Most standard list features are available SharePoint will only let you modify certain objects External Content Types don’t work out of the box

19. Demo

20. How does dev/test/prod work? First ask yourself “Does it need to?” If it does: Databases can be republished between environments Can test in Access then publish when ready Can use versioning on SharePoint lists Consider data migration!

21. What about source control? Use Access Developer Extensions for Source Control support http://bit.ly/bHKcuX Primarily TFS & VSS

22. <Insert Standard Anti-Access Comment Here /> Think bigger than the individual application Stick to the golden path Developers are not the big winner here; the Enterprise is This is about being able to respond quickly to work requests that provide real business value without costing the world

23. Questions

24. More Info Channel 9 Access Services Demo http://bit.ly/OI4OH MS Access Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/access/ MS Access on Twitter (Ryan McMinn) http://twitter.com/msaccess Using TFS with Access http://bit.ly/aDv12m

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