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Access 12 and Windows SharePoint Services v.3 will enable out of the box “tracking applications” that can span the client and server or can run standalone on the client. A “tracking app” is a small data application that adds database functionality to the simple lists of data that many users keep in Excel today. These out of the box apps will give customers the broad reach of SharePoint online, and the rich client of Access. SharePoint will provide a set of simple building blocks that are useful on their own (e.g. the Issues list) and that can be combined into richer tracking applications using Access and potentially incorporating rich server-side components authored in SharePoint Designer.
Although in some sense, everything that someone might do with a database is a “tracking app”, we mean something much more specific. An Office 12 Tracking App consists of the following:
We're still working on the full list of applications that will be in the box, but the following is a representative sample:
The next post will look at the Issues tracking application in detail and we'll see how Access's new features are used in the applications. After that, we'll look at how the applications can be extended.
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So these 'tracking applications' require SharePoint? That doesn't sound like 'out of the box'. 'Out of the box' should mean the applications run with just MS Access! Will users/developers still be able to create new applications without any trace of SharePoint?
I'm getting more than little concerned with all the Sharepoint integration talk across all of the Office applications. It seems to be just another administration nightmare on the way. Sharepoint right now is slower and more complicated for users than it needs to be. How many small shops are going to want to put in SQLserver and the expense of a machine to run it, not to mention finding someone who knows Sharepoint administration? Everyone I've tried to get to use the system, and everyone I've talked to at other companies who tried to use Sharepoint was very dissapointed. It has a good "wow" factor, but after that wore off it turned out people much preferred their old ways of sharing data.
Looks like I wasn't clear about SharePoint, sorry about that. The tracking apps work great on Access standalone, right out of the box. No need for SharePoint at all. SharePoint adds some cool multi-user scenarios, the ability to do business logic using workflow on the server, and easier manageability, but it isn't required to get great value from the tracking apps. I understand the SharePoint concerns and the WSS team is doing a lot of work to address them. We find SharePoint is worth it for many customers today and believe that pool will grow significantly. But we continue to believe strongly in Access as a standalone database tool and love Access-only scenarios. The tracking apps work just great all on their own, with no server at all.
Thank you for clearing that up. I like the idea of Sharepoint, but the reality of it so far has left me a little cold, especially in the enviornments I am used to working in (smaller shops). Also thank you so much for the blog
I could imagine some nice integration with Office Live for the smaller shops. Is anyone working on that?
Thanks for the clarification - and relief. There are a great many businesses (and Access developers who create software for them) that will never want - let alone afford - SharePoint.
OfficeLive is a great opportunity for small businesses to leverage the benefits of WSS especially within Access. We are working with that team on a number of different opportunities.
I assume the ability to take data offline and resynch it when you come back does depend on Sharepoint?
Yes, taking data offline and resynching does depend on SharePoint.
Hi Erik
Thanks for the blog. Does OfficeLive mean a company's data has to be housed on a Microsoft server somewhere? I don't know how businesses with sensitive data would feel about that? Cheers Nigel
There is a range of services offered by Office Live, some of which have your corporate data hosted and some don't. For example, you may want to use the service mostly for hosting an external website. Alternately, you may not want to manage the infrastructure for internal collaboration and scheduling services, so you could move that to live as well. In that case, you would be moving some of your data to the service. It just turns into a cost / benefit decision, where for some organizations & some data it makes great sense to use a service, where others may decide not to. For companies that want to keep everything close, the traditional model of setting up some servers, etc. still works great. Cheers, Erik
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