Part V: Access and Windows SharePoint Services
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On the CD-ROM
This chapter uses the Chapter32.accdb database. If you haven’t already copied it onto your machine from
the CD, you’ll need to do so now.
Introducing SharePoint
SharePoint is Microsoft’s premier collaborative environment, providing tools for sharing docu-
ments, calendars, messages, and other information across networks. SharePoint provides security,
user authentication, logging, and other administrative features. SharePoint is implemented as a
Web application. SharePoint Server runs on a Web server, using SQL Server as the back-end data-
base for the pages and documents.SharePoint is not a general-purpose Web development tool. It’s almost always deployed on corpo-
rate intranets and used exclusively by the company’s employees. Given that, it’s not surprising that
SharePoint’s features focus on workgroup and corporate needs, such as sharing calendars, docu-
ments, and messages.Access 2010 provides tools that enable you to publish Access applications as SharePoint Web sites.
This means that Access data, forms, and reports are available anywhere SharePoint 2010 is
deployed. Because SharePoint is almost entirely an intranet tool, your ability to expose Access
applications as “Web sites” is limited to SharePoint’s installations.Understanding SharePoint is complicated by the variety of terms applied to SharePoint and
SharePoint deployments. Microsoft hasn’t helped things by changing the product’s name several
times over its history.Microsoft uses the expression Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies to encompass all
aspects of SharePoint, SharePoint tools, and SharePoint usage. Microsoft continues to aggressively
expand SharePoint’s capabilities and to enhance all the ways that companies can use SharePoint on
their intranets.The SharePoint Server product is Microsoft Office SharePoint Services (MOSS), which provides the
server-side support for SharePoint sites. MOSS must be installed on a server operating system,
such as Microsoft Windows Server 2003; it can’t be installed on Windows XP, Windows Vista,
Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008.The previous name for Microsoft Office SharePoint Services was Microsoft SharePoint Portal
Services. Microsoft is apparently positioning SharePoint as an extension and companion to the
Office suite of applications.SharePoint is deployed on a company’s network as a series of SharePoint sites. Sites can be nested
within other sites in a hierarchical fashion. Figure 32.1 shows a typical top-level page in a
SharePoint site.