Presented at SharePoint User Group UK, Manchester 7th September 2014

1. Creating Business
Processes using Access
Apps in SharePoint 2013
Jeanne Hatton

2. Agenda
 InfoPath – RIP?
 The options
 Access Web Apps
 Demo
 Reports
 Q &A

3. 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

4.  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

5. The Options?
 Excel Surveys – Office 365 only
 HTML 5 forms
 InfoPath
 App Forms (Access Web Apps

6. 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

7. 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.

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

9. 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

10. 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/arti
cles/12514.sharepoint-2013-access-services.aspx for
requirements

11. 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

12. Q & A

13. Thank You