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In Book III, Chapter 1, we look at the architecture behind Access Services,
and examine the settings that can help keep both your Access applications
and your SharePoint environment running smoothly. In this chapter, we hop
on board the Access Services train again to show you how easy it is to pub-
lish your Access applications to SharePoint Server 2010.
Designing SharePoint-Compatible Access Databases
Access 2007 provided the capability to publish an Access list into a
SharePoint list — you could manage and control your data directly from
SharePoint’s browser interface. With the Access 2010 integration features,
you can publish your entire database application into SharePoint — includ-
ing all the forms, queries, and reports associated with your application.
Before you can publish your Access 2010 database application to
SharePoint, it must be compatible (able to work seamlessly and play nice)
with Access Services. Fortunately, Access 2010 provides a lineup of tools to
help you ensure that compatibility:
✦ Access 2010 Web Database client template: When you create a new
Access database, Access 2010 presents you with a list of templates you
can use as the foundation of your database application. Selecting the
Blank Web Database template creates an Access 2010 Web database
application — which is compatible with Access Services by default (let’s
hear it for good software design!) and may be published to SharePoint.
All menu options in the Access client application are filtered automati-
cally; the only options enabled are compatible with SharePoint — which
helps keep your database application compatible. That way you’re less
likely to run into problems during the publishing process.
If you create your Access database application using another template
(such as the Blank Database template), you can still convert that appli-
cation to a Web database if it’s compatible with Access Services: Simply
publish it to SharePoint. If the database application publishes success-
fully, it becomes an Access Web database application automatically.
✦ Web Compatibility Checker: You can use this feature to check your
database application before you publish it to SharePoint so you can
make sure that all the objects, forms, reports, and code are compatible
and translatable to Access Services. The Compatibility Checker identi-
fies any issues that may prevent you from publishing your application
successfully. Armed with this knowledge, you can troubleshoot the
offending items before publishing to SharePoint. The idea is to keep that
experience clean and simple.
Designing SharePoint-Compatible Access Databases
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