Chapter 35: Deploying Access Applications to SharePoint
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Access form rendered as a Web page inside a browser, with none of the usual Access user interface
objects (such as the Navigation Pane) visible, is an eye-opening experience.
Revisiting Access Services
In Chapter 34, and again in this chapter, you see several references to Access Services. As described
previously, Access Services is an intrinsic part of SharePoint Server 2010 and is responsible for
enabling Access applications to be published to SharePoint. An important part of Access Services is
how it supports collaborative development, which means that more than one developer can make
changes to an application at the same time.
One issue developers encounter when working with Access is that everything is stored in a single
database file. Without resorting to workarounds, it is difficult for two people to work on two dif-
ferent parts of an Access application without each person stepping on the other’s work. Access
Services makes collaborative development simpler and easier. When an Access application is pub-
lished to SharePoint, Access Services serializes (converts to a text stream) each Access object and
stores it separately in SharePoint. As you’ll see later in this chapter, this design makes it possible to
“check out” a single object, make changes to the object, and sync it back to SharePoint without
touching the other objects in the application. In this way, Access Services plays a role as a source
code controller, allowing more than one person to work on an application at the same time.
Using Compatibility Checker
When starting on an upsizing process, you begin with a working, completed Access application.
Access provides all the tools necessary for SharePoint deployment, and you need to do nothing in
SharePoint, other than making sure a destination SharePoint site is available.
Many things can interfere with the deployment process. For example, many Access applications
have complex logic in VBA procedures, and the Publish to SharePoint Wizard cannot always con-
vert this complex logic to JavaScript. Also, advanced features such as ActiveX controls may not
have .NET analogs, and the wizard cannot provide an appropriate substitute.
Microsoft provides Compatibility Checker to help you detect and respond to issues that interfere
or inhibit the publish to SharePoint operation. Unless the application is simple and contains a
small amount of data, Compatibility Checker is virtually guaranteed to reveal issues. Compatibility
Checker is so important to the publishing process that the Publish to Access Services button in the
Backstage area is disabled until Compatibility Checker has scanned the application and found no
issues.
Running Compatibility Checker is quite easy. Click the File tab in the upper-left corner of the
Access screen to open the Backstage area. Then, in the Backstage area, click the Publish to Access
Services button or the Share button (in the Navigation Pane to the left of the Backstage area) to
open the Access Services Overview area (see Figure 35.13).