I am just looking for information and advice. My manager is thinking about having me create a SharePoint website. However, I have never seen or used SharePoint before. He would like a program that can be used as an "engine". Where the salesrep could submit a form on the website, then the website will know where the form needs to go next (sort of like an automatic routing). He would also like to have the program date stamp the form at different stages in the process. If possible, we would then like to be able to run reports on this process. Is SharePoint a program that can do this sort of thing? If not, do you know of a program that will?

You might want to read this document (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-designer-help/create-a-workflow-HA010100591.aspx).

Thank you for the information. Have you by any chance used SharePoint? If so, do you like it?

I've only used it a bit. Not a whole lot. I do like it for certain things but I haven't tried using it much with an Access 2010 frontend on a 2010 SharePoint server. That is supposed to be much better than it has been. Any other versions together aren't very fast at all and can't handle much data, no referential integrity, etc. But 2010 is different in those respects, although I can't vouch for the speed issue because like I said I haven't used it (except in some early testing at the Microsoft campus).

Sharepoint can do everything you want. I've used it to create a ticket like system using Infopath forms that submit to the sharepoint site and route as necessary. It's a very handy tool for companies that can't create their own.

And I have used older versions of Access and Sharepoint together without much of an issue too. What I did was have Access write to Sharepoint through linked tables, worked a charm.

I guess it also depends on where your users are as well. If they are on a LAN it shouldn't be a problem. If they are not on the LAN but either on a WAN or just via the Internet, then it can have performance issues.

I guess it also depends on where your users are as well. If they are on a LAN it shouldn't be a problem. If they are not on the LAN but either on a WAN or just via the Internet, then it can have performance issues.

And when I say that, I mean as a backend to Access. By itself, it works fairly well through a web browser regardless of location.

I guess it also depends on where your users are as well. If they are on a LAN it shouldn't be a problem. If they are not on the LAN but either on a WAN or just via the Internet, then it can have performance issues.
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And when I say that, I mean as a backend to Access. By itself, it works fairly well through a web browser regardless of location.

Hello all,

So, is it recommended that Sharepoint be your back end? I was thinking to publish my front end to SP.....

I have a back and front end database that I've recently converted to Access.

My intention in using Sharepoint (for our small database, with about 15 users) was that instead of deploying (a copy of) the database from their computer "desktop", they would open it (the front end) on our Sharepoint server.

Questions:
Would it make sense to publish my front end to Sharepoint?
If I do publish the front end to Sharepoint, would it interface with a back end that is migrated to SQL Server (something I'm thinking of doing)?

I've read the articles on this site, but they do not discuss a split database:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/access-help/move-the-tables-in-an-access-database-to-a-sharepoint-site-and-link-to-them-HA010131468.aspx?CTT=3

Unless you are working with Access 2010 / SharePoint 2010, you can't have them open a copy of the Access Db from SharePoint. That is only available in the 2010 versions.

You would need to give each user a copy of the frontend if on any other versions.

Unless you are working with Access 2010 / SharePoint 2010, you can't have them open a copy of the Access Db from SharePoint. That is only available in the 2010 versions.

You would need to give each user a copy of the frontend if on any other versions.

Thanks Bob,

The database is in Access 2010. Sharepoint is 2007.

So, would it make sense to continue to pursue this avenue and have them use the front-end database on Sharepoint?

From what I have read, I could get some of the security features I lost by converting to 2010 (from 2003): can assign varying levels of permissions; can grant reading permissions or full editing permissions; version history allows view of who changed/added data)

1. Unless you use SharePoint 2010, you can't use the frontend from SharePoint.

2. Yes, you can grant permissions to things on SharePoint and then the Access frontend will have to follow suit. It will not let you see or edit, etc. if you don't have the correct permissions. But again, unless you use SharePoint 2010, there is a lot that isn't available to you and it is much slower (although the SP2010 makes it better, it still isn't a speed demon).