My agency uses Access databases on a shared drive. The data sources we use are imported text and excel files. We will no longer have access to the shared drive and have been told to migrate our data to sharepoint. From what I have read we should not store the databases on sharepoint.
Our tables are too large for sharepoint lists. Also, I don't know how we would continue to run the queries and reports we have in the databases. Some of the tables are created by queries that link several databases and tables- we run macros to get the reports.
We do not have access to SQL server at the moment. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Related
For my company there is a report that ends up in an access database format (.accdb) when it gets to my department. We want to deploy an SSRS with this information. While I was able to do it in Visual Studio the database manager questioned whether this can actually be deployed and work in the server environment. Can this this be achieved?
Are you talking about an Access report, or data inside of Access?
SQL server reports are not built in Access and have absolute nothing to do with Access. The only issue would be then since the report cannot be built in Access, then why attempt to have SQL server open an accDB file for the data source? You would be much better off to simply have Access transfer the table data to SQL server and then continue to use the reports built in SQL server.
So a report in Access has ZERO relationship to SQL server reports. As such, the reports in Access are of no use and if your plan is to use SSRS, then the reports have to be built in SSRS.
It is possible to place an Access accDB data file on the server and have SQL server connect such data, but it generally does not allow or work well with multiple users.
Keep in mind, the reverse is certainly possible and often recommended. You place and keep all data on SQL server tables. You then link the Access application to SQL server. In this setup then the data ALWAYS resides on SQL server, but the reports are in Access. And the general forms etc. built in Access will save + send their data to SQL server (and this works without having to write code).
The above thus suggests that the Access application with the reports has to be distributed to users that need such reports. And such users will thus all share only ONE copy of the data since such data resides on SQL server. And this setup would also allow one to create reports in SSRS without having to upload any kind of data, since the live operating data from the Access application always resides on SQL server.
So in summary:
Access reports are Access reports, just like FoxPro reports are FoxPro reports, and FileMaker reports are FileMaker reports. As such, these reports cannot be used, viewed, or utilized by SQL server in anyway.
However, the reverse is not only possible, but is a common solution. Thus the Access (front end) is linked to SQL server and the data tables for forms, code, reports etc. for the Access application now resides on SQL server.
If you place the actual accDB data file from Access ON the SQL server, then SQL server can read the data, but any code, forms, reports etc. from Access cannot be used by SQL server. So a report in Access is of ZERO use to SSRS.
So if SSRS is a goal, then anything built in Access from a user interface point of view cannot be used. SSRS thus can only consume the data in tables.
Since SSRS can ONLY consume data from Access (and nothing else), then a far better solution in place of moving up a accDB file to the server is to simply push up the data from Access tables to a SQL server tables. And if such a data transfer is to occur often, then likely better is to ALWAYS keep the tables and data in SQL server, and have the Access front end part “link” to the data on SQL server. Access reports, forms and even VBA code will in most cases run as before, but the live data always resides in SQL server. You thus eliminate all the dance and song of attempting to transfer data between two systems. The SQL server data is thus always “live” and update to date, and only ONE copy of the table data EVER exists.
Most Access applications and reports and forms can work with very few (if any) modifications when you place the data tables on SQL server, and have the front end Access part “link” to SQL server.
Since a given specialized report in SSRS is going to require a pre-determined and non changing table structure, then the most prudent solution would be to have Access link to and use the data from SQL server tables (not the other way around).
So Access reports can ONLY be used by those with Access (or the free runtime) installed on each client desktop computer. Such Access reports have to be 100% re-built if your goal is to have such reports be used with SSRS.
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).
I have an MS Access database on a network drive with a userform which has multiple users (All using at the same time)
The form runs an update-query which will add data into a raw data table.
Does anybody know how I can make this work if two(or more) users run the update query at the same time? I assume this has to be done using temporary tables...
Thanks,
James
Just to add some pages from my website to this discussion.
You want to split the MDB into a Front End MDB containing the queries, forms, reports, macros and modules with just the tables and relationships in the Back End MDB. The FE is copied to each network users computer. The FE MDB is linked to the tables in the back end MDB which resides on a server. You make updates to the FE MDB and distribute them to the users, likely as an MDE.
See the "Splitting your app into a front end and back end Tips" page for more info. See the free Auto FE Updater utility to make the distribution of new FEs relatively painless.. The utility also supports Terminal Server/Citrix quite nicely. Also visit my Access Performance FAQ page.
Access does not behave well if the entire database (front end forms plus backend database) is accessed by several users from a network share.
Try splitting into a front end (one on each client machine) and a single backend (tables) on the network share, and use linked tables in the front-end.
How to manually split a Access database in Microsoft Access
Information about query performance in an Access database
Microsoft Access Performance Tips to Speed up Your Access Databases
Tony Toews' Microsoft Access Performance FAQ is well worth reading.
I've been playing around with hosting on discountasp.net and am in the process of hosting my second web app. Being that discountasp charges you per database and not per sql server or total space used by all of your databases, both apps need to share one database
I need to create all of the tables from the database used by the second application in the live database. I can't just import the mdf file because that would drop all of the data already stored by the first application. Is there a way to automatically generate the scripts or simple sql commands to create the tables in the mdf file from within visual studio?
Also, since multiple applications will ultimately use the same database I'd like to add a prefix to each table names - like App1_Table1. Is there a simple way to rename tables inside VS 2010? Further is there a way to rename the tables but have the entities framework ignore the prefix when generating it's classes?
Thanks for your help, your answers will save me a ton of time I could be programming with :).
There are many options available to you.
In Visual Studio there's database schema compare functionality.
ScriptDb is a simple console app written in C# that uses SQL Management Objects (SMO) to script all the objects in a database. It will work against any SQL Server 2000 or 2005 database. It creates a directory tree structure with a similar hierarchy to that in Object Explorer in SSMS, with a separate file for each object.
There's also an option to script database objects from SSMS. Right-click on a database -> Task -> Generate scripts.
I'm usually not working with Microsoft products. I have an MS Access 2007 project here, and I know that the MSSQL Server with the Database has some procedures. How can I make them visible? I can just browse trough tables and views...
Thanks and regards,
Jan Oliver
When you say access project, are using the term that you have a project you're working on, or you do specifically mean you're working with an access data project? (ADP). The ms access term ADP has an specific meaning that's very important in your context.
In ms access a good number of developers simply use ODBC linked tables to data is sitting on SQL server. There's also an option in ms access to create what is called a Access Data Project (ADP). When you choose to create an access data project then any view design services such as the relationships editor, table design etc. looks like you're developing inside of the access desktop client, but in fact behind the scenes access is sending DDL (data definition language) commands to SQL server to make those modifications on the server side object. So, you CAN modify server side objects inside of ms-access. No local tables can exist when you create a ADP.
What this means that the version of access and SQL server have to be more closely matched then if you're not using an access data project. If you open up the access database and look in the query table, you should see stored procedures appearing in the list. Access should let you modify them.
So take a look of the file extension, if this is actually an access data project, then the file extension for the access database will be *.adp.
If the file extension is mdb, or accDB, then this is not an access data project, but is a traditional access database in which linked tables to SQL server are being used. This this case of non ADP, then the views and tables you link to will only appear in the tables table. Furthermore ANY design changes you make will be done using the SQL server management tools and NOT the access client. So, changes to tables and views and procedures etc. are NOT made and CAN NOT be made inside of the access client like they can when you're using an access data project. Despite this limitation, most developers prefer using linked tables as opposed to an access data project because of the loose tie between the version of SQL server. In fact you can use even different database servers in these cases such as Oracle or MySql. The other significant advantage of linked (odbc) tables is that the linked tables allows multiple data sources from local files, server based etc. And, you also can have local tables (ADP does not allow local tables in the client).
So your ability to edit or not edit the server side objects inside of access will be determined by the above scenario IF you are in fact using a ADP or not.