SharePoint Apps Offline and Intro to SharePoint Designer
In the last post, I described how you can publish an Access database to SharePoint. This time, we'll look at taking that database back offline, making data changes while disconnected, and re-synching. I'll also briefly discuss updating the thin client version of the application using SharePoint Designer.
Opening the Application from SharePoint
When the database is published to SharePoint, it moves the data into WSS lists and the database front-end into a document library as described in the last post. Opening the app is as simple as going to the document library and double-clicking:
After double-clicking on the app, you'll be prompted to open read-only or for edit, and since we're making design changes, we'll choose edit.
This causes a local copy to be saved to your machine, so the SaveAs dialog is brought up and you can simply choose a location for the database.
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The database remembers where it came from in SharePoint, so it is easy to publish changes back to the server by clicking the "Publish to SharePoint Site" button.
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Working Offline
Taking the application offline, is available with one click from the External Data tab.
Since we've already saved a local copy, we're not prompted to do that again. When I click "Work Offline" the data from the web is brought down to the local Access file and cached in local tables. The links to the SharePoint tables are cut, but of course are remembered for resynch.
Now you're free to update the local data while offline, and the application behaves much like it did online.
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While the application is offline, of course other users may update data on SharePoint. They might do this through the browser or through the SharePoint web UI. Here they're using the Access Grid control:
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When you return to the network and want to resynchronize changes, it is again one click:
Now however, there are some data conflicts, so you're presented with conflict resolution UI.
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After resolving any data conflicts, the application is back online, and all changes are made directly against the linked tables.
Updating the Browser UI with SharePoint Designer
SharePoint Designer is a new product that makes it easy to design SharePoint web applications. You can use it to build a thin client that provides a similar experience to the Access thick client UI. The first step is to open the SharePoint site in SPD, then either start a new page or open one that you'd like to customize. In this case we'll customize the All Items view of the Issues list:
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Then we'll convert the view from a SharePoint List View to a "Data View", which allows extensive customization through XSLT. This is done from the right-click menu in SPD:
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Now the data view can be edited directly, and updating the columns and formatting is much like a grid view in Access:
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SPD has a data source task pane that is quite similar to the Add Existing Field taskpane in Access:
SharePoint Designer provides a rich set of tools for working with both the data and its presentation. It is based on web technologies, so writing code is quite different, but the general concept and much of the UI is very similar. For more information on SharePoint Designer, please see Alex Malek's blog and the Office SPD page.
Next Time
In the next post, I'll discuss building workflows in SharePoint Designer and using those in Access. After that, we'll move back to more Access client app developer focused topics.
