mullerc said:
I am new to Access 2007.
I have down loaded a Template "Customer Service" I did notice that I can
link to a SharePoint site and got a Wizard with the Question: What
SharePoint
do you want to use?
I suppose it is asking for an http:// address
I will appreciate to be explained on the subject
thank you beforehand
It is asking you for the http address of your SharePoint site, but that
assume you have a SharePoint site!
So, that question about using share point is not limited to that particular
template. You can use share point with just about any access application you
build.
There is a "free" on line version of SharePoint that you can sign up for
here:
www.officelive.com
Your company may also have setup a SharePoint site (check with your IT
people).
In a nutshell if you don't know what it's for, then you probably not ready
to use it at this time.
What is SharePoint?
If you're wondering what share point is, think of share point as a Face Book
system for business. While face book allows you to collaborate and exchange
messages, pictures and keep in touch with your "list of" friends as a group,
Share Point does the same thing, but is tailored towards you doing this with
your co workers, or even your business clients.
Thus, if you are working with a few business people and you have say 15
documents related to that project, and you are working with 3 people, then
you will be constantly emailing revisions and documents, but it becomes
REALLY difficult to share those documents if your working with MORE then one
other person. How can you manage 3 people making changes to those 15
documents? Who has what copy and who is changing it? it becomes VERY
difficult to do this with email. As I said, if you are just dealing with one
person..not a big deal, but the instant you have a few people that need all
of those documents (word, pdf's, excel, etc) then sharePoint makes sense.
Note that often many companies will setup a shared folder on the network,
and there you can find word documents, pdf brochures etc. The problem is
this type of system breaks down when you on the road. And, it also breaks
down when you out of the office (say working at home). And, what about when
the group of documents you need to share is not just for internal office
workers, but with a customer/client that your building a project with?
So, SharePoint would solve this problem, and you could simply put all these
documents on a SharePoint site. Then the 2-3 people that need to work with
these 15-20 documents can do so. SharePoint allows you to create a "mini"
web site JUST for those few people and that set of documents. So, you can
place documents and information into that one location or central site, and
then all people working on that project can use and see the documents. You
can even setup blogs, or an area for discussion..and again this often can be
better then email.
So share point is a web based collaboration system in which it allows you to
share information among a group of people, and it does so through a web
space.
SharePoint has great potential uses for ms-access, since you can run your
application on your desktop, but the data is on the SharePoint site. Thus,
you can "link" your tables to a SharePoint site (that's what the question
your being asked). That means that you, and a sales person on the road could
run the application on your computer(s), but the data for the forms/tables
etc comes from SharePoint. Your application would be multi-user and shared
between you. As long as you have any kind of internet access, then your
application would function, and you BOTH could use the application at the
same time and your data would be shared between each of you. With ms-access
you can achieve the same thing with linked tables to sql server, but now
with a the free office live, you don't need to purchase a server, or even
setup sql server to share your data. And, SharePoint handels
dis-connections far better then does odbc (in fact you can work without any
conneciton..and when you do get back to a connection, then your data is
synced with SharePoint (so, you can work on a airplane without a internet
conenciton..and contine to update the data).
SharePoint is thus an amazing system, and opens up a lot of doors in terms
of the types of solutions you can offer.
So, any application you create in ms-access could be installed on many
computers, but they all would be sharing the SAME data. For your typical
office network (if you have one), then you might not need SharePoint.
However, if you don't have that office network, then SharePoint can give you
one (and office live is free verison of SharePoint right now). So, the
instant you need to be on the road and perhaps away from your company
network, or work at home, or work with people in different locations who
might be at a coffee shop using a wireless connection, then moving the data
to SharePoint makes a lot of sense.
You can watch some demos and read up on SharePoint here:
http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/prodinfo/demos.mspx
I am starting to deploy some of my applications use the free SharePoint
(
www.officelive.com) right now, and it simply mind bogging that all I have
to do is simply install my access application on people's computers, and no
matter where they are, if they have internet connection, then my application
is multi-user. Even companies that have servers but too much red tape to get
approval are using my applications, and I just don't even care about having
a server now...as I don't need one with office live. Often, even just the
hassle of trying to get a shared folder setup on their netowrk is not worth
my time...and not I don't even care!!
And, it takes me less time to setup SharePoint via office live and link a
table to SharePoint then it does to write this post....
