Friday, September 29, 2006

SharePoint and Access

This post will concern SharePoint for once in a while!

As most of you know, it is possible to link SharePoint lists to excel, however, it is also possible to link SharePoint lists as tables in Access. This is very usefull since you can then create more advanced views using complex SQL. Data can also be linked with data from other sources, if needed. There should also be some ODBC driver that could be used to fetch data from a SharePoint list, however, I havn't seen one. If I do, I will let you know.

How to link a SharePoint list into Access as a table:
1. Make a new view in SharePoint with all columns and all rows. Call it something nice like "everything".
2. In access, choose the file menu and then choose "Get external data" (I am using the swedish version of access, so excuse my translation) and then choose "Link tables". In the dialog that opens, you can choose SharePoint list from the filetype dropdown. Then enter the url for the site, not the list. You will then be prompted for which list you want to use and so on and so forth. When done, you will have one maybe more linked tables in Access which will work just as any other tables in access.

Happy SQL:ing!

Gustaf Westerlund
CRM and SharePoint Consultant

Humandata AB
www.humandata.se

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