SharePoint 2013 Access App As Inventory

After publishing several Excel-tutorials I am back to SharePoint again, to tell you about another demo in the kalmstrom.com Tips section: how to use a SharePoint 2013 Access App to build an inventory.

Access database
Microsoft Access is included in the some of the Office suites. For extensive storage the database has severe limitations, but for smaller collections of data it is an excellent product that is easy to use.

The kalmstrom.com Outlook applications include an Access option for sharing and storage. When users don't have a more powerful SQL Server or a SharePoint site where data can be shared and stored, our product can create an Access database instead.

Access in SharePoint
There have been several attempts to integrate Access features in earlier versions of SharePoint, but it is not until now, with the Access Services of version 2013, that this integration has become really useful.

The Access Services make it possible to host databases in SharePoint. Access is used to create and design tables, views and so on, but the end-users can now browse to the Access app on their intranet and reach it from anywhere via the internet.

Inventory
As an example for my demo I have chosen to create an inventory, which often is convenient to have on an intranet. I show how to create the app, how to fill it with data – which is done in SharePoint – and how to create a view for it.

The view is created in Access and then launched, just like the database tables I want to use in the inventory, so as administrator of an Access app I will switch between Access and SharePoint. However, the end-users can read and enter data in SharePoint and do not have to bother with Access at all.



kalmstrom.com Tips
In the kalmstrom.com Tips section you can find a step-by-step instruction for how to create an Access Inventory app. There are also many other tutorials, on SharePoint as well as Excel, Outlook and more.

Please visit and browse around, and if you are a Member of the kalmstrom.com Community you are also welcome to suggest new tutorials. I will do my best to explain what you need to know!

By Peter Kalmstrom
CEO and Systems Designer
kalmstrom.com Business Solutions