Using SharePoint 2013 with Excel and Access

Working with an Access app in the browser

Once you have designed the Access app in Access, it can be used in the browser to create, read, update, and delete the data associated with your app. Users mapped to the Contribute permission level on the site where the app was added can complete these tasks; these users will not need to have Access installed on their computers to work with the data.

In the browser, the Access app page is divided into a number of sections. Depending on the view and the relationship between the tables, not all of these sections will be shown in all views:

• Table list Each table is presented by a link in the table list. Using Access, you can rearrange the order that the tables appear, and hide those tables that you do not want to be displayed in the browser.

• View selector Lets you select a specific view of items stored in a table.

• Search and filter text box Lets you search and filter the items displayed in the view.

• Action Bar Lets you add, delete, edit, save, and cancel changes. The Action Bar is the same in each view. You can customize the Action Bar in Access by replacing the five default commands with custom commands. You can even hide it, if you prefer.

• Item pane Lets you browse the items displayed in the view. For each item, up to three properties can be displayed. In the list view of the Employees table, the primary field is the First Name and Last Name, and the secondary field is the Company. No property is assigned to the thumbnail field.

• Item Detailed pane Lets you view, create, modify, and delete the properties of an item.

• Related items Displays items from other tables that are related to the item displayed in the Item Detailed pane.

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When the Back to Site link in the top left of the page is clicked, the home page of the site where you added the Access app is displayed. Click the cog icon in the top right of the page to customize the app in Access.

To display the Access app within Access, on the Home tab, click Launch App, or you can use the browser by going to the Site Content page and clicking the app. In the browser, if the background color of the Access app is not solid red, but the text below the name of the app—We’re adding your app—is red, then SharePoint is still creating the Access app.

You can use the following keyboard shortcut keys when working with the Access app in the browser:

In this exercise, you will add data to an Access app using the List and Datasheet views.

1. On the Home tab, in the View group, click Launch App to open the app in the browser.

2. In the table list, click Employees, and create a new employee item using the values in the following list:

   Label	Value
   Employee Number	I0001
   First Name	Peter
   Last Name	Connelly
   Company	Wide World Importers
   Email	peter@wideworldimporters.com
   Job Title	IT Director

   

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3. Click the Save control on the Action Bar.

4. In the table list, click Categories, and then click Datasheet in the view selector.

5. Under Title, type Desktop, and then press Enter to go to the next row.

6. Repeat the previous step to create two other categories: Tablet and Smartphone.

   

7. In the table list, click Assets and create two new asset items using the values in the following table. To save each item, click the Save control on the Action Bar, and click the Add control on the Action Bar to display the form to add the second item.

   Label	Asset 1	Asset 2
   Item	Computer	Phone
   Location	HQ	London Branch
   Manufacturer	Contoso	Adventure Works
   Model	C0369	A0123
   Acquired Date (use the data picker)	Today’s date	Today’s date
   Current Value	400	300
   Condition	Good	New
   Category	Desktop	Smartphone
   Owned By	Peter Connelly	Peter Connelly

   TIP

   As you type the values for the Category and Owned By fields, the controls display a list of items from the Categories and Employees tables to help ensure data integrity.

8. With Assets still selected in the table list, in the view selector, click By Category to summarize the assets by category.

9. Under Item, click Computer to display a dialog to view all the properties associated with the computer asset.

   

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