I have linked tables in Access, linked to a SharePoint list that has a lookup to itself (a parent hierarchy relationship). I can't refresh this without Access crashing.
In one case it's an organization list with a parent field that has a lookup referencing the same list, i.e. organization. I added the linked table in Access after adding the parent column, and now I can't refresh the link without Access crashing.
I've been here before but never found a solution. Microsoft proposes using 2010 compatible caching, but that makes no difference. I also tried the "Never cache" option.
I'm using Access 2022 64-bit on Windows 11, with linked tables in SharePoint Online (Office 365).
Is there anyone out there who have found a workaround for this, except for replacing Access or SharePoint?
Related
I have an Access 2013 database that is stored on a remote computer. I do not have it set in a back-end/front-end setup. I have a SharePoint 2010 list linked to it as a linked table. I have 2 users that need to have access to the database at all times, others may need in it at a later date. When I link the table, only 1 user can be in the database at a time. Prior to adding the linked table, all users were able to use the database simultaneously. Now, after the first person gets into the database, subsequent users get the message:
The database has been placed in a state by user 'Admin' on machine '[computername]' that prevents it from being opened or locked.
For testing purposes, I tried creating a blank database that is connecting to that same table and tried to open it from another computer. I received the same error and all that is in there are the 3 tables needed for the SharePoint list.
Is there anything I can do to be able to have multiple users in my database again? I have full control to make changes as needed to the database, but I have no access to be able to change anything server side on SharePoint.
This is because of the 2010 SharePoint caching format.
You can avoid this behavior by going to Options -> Current database -> Caching Web Service and SharePoint tables, and untick Use the cache format that's compatible with Access 2010 or later.
Note that the different cache formats come with different features. The old (XML-based) cache format supports multiple users, the new (table-based) one doesn't. The old cache format can be taken offline manually and needs to be synchronized manually if offline, the new one automatically goes offline if SharePoint is unavailable and synchronizes automatically as soon as SharePoint becomes available. The new one supports adding fields in table view, the old one doesn't.
Through VBA you can mix caching formats for different lists, but that's generally not recommended.
Looked around quite a bit before posting this - I just can't seem to get this seemingly very simple question answered (I think I missing something!)
From within MS Access 2007 I have several related tables that deal with inventory of products. I simply want to export that table data into a SharePoint List (or Lists), and link them. Users will generally just use the SP lists in order to search, view, and sometimes modify the data (i.e. mark a product as exhausted). For our work group this is preferential to opening MS Access repetitively.
The problem I'm having is that the linking features within Access don't make sense to me! I seem to be missing something fundamental here, despite reading over the MS documentation and various sources.
One can export a table, but there is no linkage between the created list and the original table. Changes made on the SP list will not be reflected in the original table which makes this a lot less useful?
One can import a list, but that linked table that is generated is NOT the original data table that I started with (the new, generated SP-linked table is a different entity than the original table. Updates to that new SP-linked table are not reflected in any original table that I had). This method seems very backwards, as you ought to have your relational DB setup correctly before attempting to make SP lists that surface that data. It seems backwards to me to make SP lists that are then wedged into an existing DB without any consideration to the existing DB structure?
So - I think that there is something fundamental that I'm missing here. It would seem that one ought to be able to just use SP to surface/provide views/editing of existing Access tables.
Isn't there just a simple way to have a SP list directly linked to an existing Access table, so that changes in the SP list are reflected in the original Access table?
I believe the solution you're looking for is the ability to "Publish" an Access DB to a SharePoint site. If you're using SharePoint 2007, the published copy will be read-only in SharePoint but users can still do everything else you described.
Details on this type of Publish are in the Office Help here:
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Publish-a-database-to-a-SharePoint-site-8287ed04-9c65-46c4-bbdb-c965c56b018c
To quote from it:
Click the Microsoft Office Button Office button image , point to
Publish , and then click Document Management Server.
Type the URL of
the SharePoint site where you want to publish the database. If you
used the same location the last time you opened Access, the database
appears in the Publish to Web Server dialog box.
NOTE: This option is available only if your database is saved in Office Access 2007 format.
Select the library, such as a document library, where you
want to publish the database, and then click Open.
In the Name box,
type a file name for your database.
Click Publish.
If you have SharePoint 2010 or newer, users in SharePoint can have full CRUD (Create, Read, Update & Delete) capabilities to both the data and even the DB design without having to touch Access once the DB has been published. This is described in more detail here:
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Build-and-publish-an-Access-database-to-SharePoint-e68bf007-410c-43b2-bf21-322ddbcf5411
The steps to do so are simply:
Open the Access file
Click 'Save and Publish' in the File menu
Choose 'Publish to Access Services' under the Publish heading
Specify the URL to the SharePoint site you wish to publish it to
Using Access 2013, Sharepoint 2010 OnPremise
I have an Access database that uses Sharepoint 2010 for a back end using Linked Tables.
A few months ago there was a request to have a field contain multiple values, and I stupidly implemented that change, not fully understanding all the issues behind that. Initial research lead to it being "ok" for Sharepoint Lists.
Due to the company architecture, this application needs to be accessible on a Kiosk machine that doesn't have access to the Sharepoint site, but still is connected to the internet.
If the computer runs the application while connected to the internet it will hangup/stall when opening because it's trying to resolve the connection of the linked tables or trying authenticate.
But if the computer runs the application while not connected to the internet it will operate as it should in an offline mode. All data is accessible.
Since we can't/don't want to disable the internet of the Kiosk machine the solution was to convert all the Linked Tables to local tables and issue it to the machine that way.
But now a few months later when trying to make the offline mode application we get the following error:
You cannot enter that value because it duplicates an existing value in the multi-valued lookup or attachment field
I think it has to do with that multivalue field, which has turned into a huge headache, but can't be undone for at least a couple more months.
The Offline mode functionality was created long before the multivalue change, unfortunately that part of the application wasn't tested against this changed field.
So I need to know if there's a way I can convert the table, or if there's another way to Force Access 2013 into an offline mode.
Thanks,
Dennis
Afternoon,
My company makes use of Microsofts Sharepoint facility to organize documents and such; we also use Sharepoint to hold project specific resources used by multiple people.
Question
Is it possible to access Sharepoint from within MS Access? I don't mean open it, I mean actually writing to or reading from files that are stored on it? If it's possible is there a particular module I should read up on or am required to import into any projects? (Example code or related resource would be appreciated)
Potential Use Case
Employee A makes a change to a table in a database (adding a record) which may be required by Employee B in the future. Employee B should be-able to retrieve it directly from Sharepoint without having to open a browser, download the file and manually add the table.
Thanks for any information you can give me as I know this is an odd one...
SharePoint does have MS Access integration. You can setup access to use SharePoint lists as their datasource, allowing you to edit the data from Access or from the browser.
This link provides some video tutorials on how to publish an Access web database to SharePoint. Essentially you create and edit the database in Access and you publish to SharePoint. This works well for simple databases, but it doesn't work as well for more complex databases.
HI!
Does anyone have any idea how to synchronize MS Access data to SharePoint portal. I would like to link both of this together and trigger a workflow upon receiving a new data entry.
Hope you could advice on it.
Thanks!
In Access you can have so called "linked tables". You can have access linked tables with a Sharepoint installation. In Sharepoint this linked table manifests itself as a regular list, so you can have a workflow trigger on each new item created.
There is a nice tutorial here: How to Link SharePoint Server 2007 Lists with Microsoft Access 2007 and for Sharepoint 2010 and Acccess 2010 Microsoft hast written something nice: Synchronize a SharePoint 2010 list with Access 2010.
Additionally let me show you some Screenshots from Access. When you go to External Data > Export > Sharepoint List (see next screen)
When you click on that button you get the following dialog where you can select where to export your table to:
The same dialog you get when you Right click on a table, go to Export > Sharepoint List.
Now if you want to synchronize your data, you need to link that created Sharepoint list to your Access DB. So you click on External Data > Import > From Sharepoint List and you get the following dialog:
When you have a linked table it is synchronized with Sharepoint.
I think you are looking for this article.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-designer-help/add-a-database-as-a-data-source-HA010100908.aspx
Basically, you need to create a new Data Connection Library (pick from the Library list in the "Create" page). And then follow the steps depending on the connection method (i.e. Single Sign-On, custom connection string, or user id/password).
The process involves migrating your access tables to SharePoint. So if you moved or migrate a table in Access to SharePoint AND THEN choose to link the table, then it is a live connection to SharePoint. This is a bi-direction synnc of that table. So any change in Access (any update to that linked table) will see changes sent to the same table (list) in SharePoint. This is a VERY different process then trying to sync a whole file. So power-point files, or even a Access file does not work well at the FILE level, and you don't get any kind of multi-user setup.
However, if you migrate the tables to SharePoint lists, then any sql query you build in Access against that linked table will work just fine. And that includes append query, update query, or just a select for data.
And you can even work against these linked tables in off-line mode. This means that you can continue to update the tables even without network connection. When you do finally get wi-fi or some internet connection, then the data will auto-sync (both ways) and tables will update missing or changed data.
Note that you can even migrate and maintain related data, and SharePoint now supports relations and maintains those relations for you (referential integrity between tables is supported when using Access 2010 (or later) and SharePoint 2010 (or later).
VERY careful steps are required to migrate related tables. Access will migrate and send related tables of data to SharePoint (and maintain the relations for you). You simple have to ensure that your relations are of a type that SharePoint supports.
This means your PK has to be a autonumber ID type, and the foreign key has to be standard long data type. Since this setup is the vast majority of Access relationships, then these types of related tables move rather well to SharePoint. However, if you PK/FK setup is say a string, then such relationships don't work in SharePoint.
The other issue is to keep in mind that performance issues can arise when the row count exceeds 5000 rows when using Office 365 or hosted SharePoint. If your SharePoint system in on-premises then you can turn off some of these limits.
Migration of related data tables is easy, but you need to ensure you setup the relationships using the table lookup wizard in most cases. Sometimes you can use the relationship window, but in most cases, you need to re-build the relationship in a correct way BEFORE you migrate the tables to SharePoint. If your don't have related data, and just a few tables, then you don't really have to do much of anything in Access before you migrate such tables.
As noted, once migrated to SharePoint, then any sql query you execute against such linked tables will work fine. So no need to update the table local, or on SharePoint - the whole process is fully automatic and synced for you.
This video shows how to migrate related data tables to SharePoint if that is your requirement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wdjYIby_b0&t=0s&list=PL27E956A1537FE1C5&index=3
Edit
Given that the tags are for SharePoint 2007, then you will find that access 2010 (or later) and SharePoint 2010 (or later) is required for referential integrity to work. And pre Access 2010, you find performance of linked lists to be rather slow, and table row counts needs to be keep small. (under 10,000 rows).