536 CHAPTER 18 iNtegratiNg the office 2010 clieNts With sharePoiNt 2010 All three of the list default forms are automatically changed to be displayed with the new colors and title. This example shows an EditForm.aspx fi le of an existing list item. Think of the possibilities! No client software is required to work in SharePoint lists that have been customized in this manner, as the forms are browser-based by default. INTEGRATING SHAREPOINT 2010 WITH MICROSOFT VISIO The Microsoft Visio application enables the creation of advanced visuals such as charts, diagrams, fl owcharts, and even fl oor plans and network diagrams. This section covers several ways that you can use Visio and SharePoint in conjunction. Chapter 25 explains how SharePoint workfl ows integrate with Visio Services. The Visio Graphics Service is a service application in Central Administration. SharePoint users can create Visio diagrams on their client machines and publish them to the server, after which point the client software is no longer needed. After the diagram has been published to the Visio Graphics Service, the server can take care of refreshing that diagram and maintaining the data connections inside of it. Visio Graphics Service Confi guration In Central Administration, click Manage Service Application, and see that the Visio Graphics Service is listed. Click the Visio Graphics Service link to get to the Visio Graphics Services Management page. There are two different pages here, where service customization options are located: Global Settings — This page contains settings such as the maximum diagram size, maximum and minimum cache sizes, and the maximum data refresh duration. Also, if external data connections are to be used in Visio graphics, there is a section here for an unattended service account’s Application ID. Trusted Data Providers — This page contains a list of default data providers, with databases such as SQL and Oracle. You can add new, custom trusted data providers here. You can save Visio fi les as web drawings. You can view these fi les in the browser. They have a fi le extension of .vdw. Visio Web Access Web Part When added to a page in SharePoint, the Visio Web Access Web Part is used to display Visio fi les that have been saved to SharePoint as a Web Drawing (VDW) fi le. Follow these steps to insert a Visio Web Access Web Part on a page and confi gure it: 1. At the top left, click Site Actions and choose Edit Page. 2. On the Ribbon at the top, click Insert Web Part. 3. In the Business Data category, select Visio Web Access, and click the Add button. Integrating SharePoint 2010 with OneNote 537 4. Click the link that says Click here to open the tool pane, and the Web Part tool pane will appear on the right side of the screen. Figure 18-25 shows some tool pane settings. 5. Click the ellipses button next to the Diagram URL box, navigate to the document library in which the VDW file exists, select the target file, and click OK. 6. Click OK at the bottom of the Web Part tool pane. Figure 18-25 shows an example of a Visio diagram being displayed in a Visio Web Access Web Part. You can make further customizations in the Web Part tool pane. In addition to the settings displayed in Figure 18-26, there are sections to configure the Toolbar and User Interface, and the Diagram Interactivity. INTEGRATING SHAREPOINT 2010 WITH ONENOTE OneNote is an Office application that is used to quickly take notes and organize them. Not only are there note typing and writing capabilities, you can insert many different types of objects into OneNote files, such as images, links, and even video or voice clips. Putting notes in OneNote gives you a visually clear and easily searchable solution. The capability for OneNote to be shared and integrated with SharePoint and the other Office appli- cations makes it a very useful and easily accessible tool. The live co-authoring feature discussed at the beginning of this chapter also applies to Office OneNote. To create a new shared notebook for collaboration from a document library in SharePoint, follow these steps: 1. Click the File tab to open the Backstage view. 2. Click the New tab on the left side of the screen. FIGURE 1825 FIGURE 1826 538 CHAPTER 18 iNtegratiNg the office 2010 clieNts With sharePoiNt 2010 3. Choose Network, type a name for the new file, and choose the URL of the target document library. 4. Click the Create Notebook button. 5. Once the new file is created, OneNote offers you the option to send the link in an e-mail to someone. From this point on, users who have at least Contribute permissions on that document library will be able to open the file and make their notes. The left side of the screen contains a vertical button with the name of the current file. Right-click on this button to view several options, such as the capability to Sync this notebook now. INTEGRATION WITH ACCESS 2010 AND ACCESS SERVICES Microsoft Access is a small-scale relational database management system. It has historically been used to create relatively simple solutions; and in most cases, database creators need not have any programming knowledge. Access provides the ability to connect to any external data sources, such as SQL or other databases. Before delving into how this application relates to SharePoint, you should know about some basic Access objects: Tables — Tables are the location where the data itself is stored. Everything that you do in Access is going to be based upon the information in your tables. Queries — Queries provide a way to look at the data in one or more tables. For example, using a query you can filter and refine information, reference information from various tables, and define the way that common fields relate to each other. Forms — Forms are the means by which end users interact with data in the tables. These gen- erally consist of text boxes, drop-down menus, and other types of controls, such as buttons. Forms are the user interface when adding or modifying table data. Reports — Reports are used to display or print the Access data. Business users generally view reports in order to quickly assess numbers, using tables or graphs. In scenarios where multiple users are attempting to access and modify the data within Access data- base tables, which can be difficult to accomplish, SharePoint integration provides a solution. If you think of lists and libraries in SharePoint as tables in a database, it is easy to understand the natural integration with Microsoft Access. This section describes how to use SharePoint lists as tables in Access databases and the new concept of Access Services in SharePoint 2010. SharePoint Data As a Table The data in SharePoint can easily be connected to serve as live table data in an Access database, which can be queried and reported on. There are a couple of ways to accomplish this. In this section, you’ll learn the methods that you can use to establish communications between SharePoint and Access. Integration with Access 2010 and Access Services 539 Connecting to Access from SharePoint From a SharePoint 2010 list, on the List tab in the Ribbon, click the Open with Access button in the Connect & Export section. Figure 18-27 shows the screen that appears. If the desired database already exists, navigate to it or otherwise customize the name of the new database to be created. The option to link to the dynamic data is the default, but the data can optionally be exported from SharePoint as static. SharePoint libraries do not have the Open with Access button that exists in lists, but they can be connected to Access. Refer to the “Exporting to Excel” section and Figure 18-16 earlier in this chapter, which demonstrates how to access the hidden task pane. Connecting to SharePoint from Access 2010 When armed with the URL of the target SharePoint site, you can create a dynamic connection to SharePoint from within the Access 2010 software. This section describes the various ways to go about this. Figure 18-28 displays the External Data tab in Access 2010. Both the Import & Link section and the Export section contain drop-down boxes called More, each of which contains an option for SharePoint List. FIGURE 1828 Data can be imported from SharePoint into Access, and it can even be exported from Access, to become a table in SharePoint. Using the Create tab in Access 2010, you can also create several different types of SharePoint lists right from Access! The Database Tools tab contains a button called SharePoint, which you can use to move the tables to a SharePoint list and create linked tables in the database. In previous versions of Access, this was a manual operation, per table. The last step, which is new in Offi ce 2010, is to upload the database fi le to a SharePoint document library, where it can be opened and interacted with. FIGURE 1827 540 CHAPTER 18 iNtegratiNg the office 2010 clieNts With sharePoiNt 2010 A REALWORLD EXAMPLE A project management department at a small company has an Access database on a fi le share, which they have always used to enter new projects. Some fairly complex Access reports are run on the project data. These reports are based on multiple tables and queries, are full of advanced calculations, and need to be shown to the company president every month. The problem with this archaic solution is that it is not easy for multiple people to enter data at the same time. This is a good scenario in which the tables can be added to SharePoint as lists, and connected to Access. The Access database itself can then be uploaded to a document library, and the original copy on the fi le share can be deleted. Multiple users can access the Project Management SharePoint site and enter and edit project data, and those monthly reports can still be run from within the Access database in the document library. Note that changes to the database design itself (not the data) will require that the database fi le be downloaded, changed, and then uploaded to the document library again. When multiple users change the database design simultaneously, one user’s version of the fi le can be overwritten. Access Services There seems to be something missing when it comes to the way Access and SharePoint work together. How can legacy Access databases be fully translated into purely SharePoint applications? It shouldn’t be necessary to have to keep queries and reports in Access, and only tables in SharePoint. SharePoint 2010’s answer to this need is called Access Services. Table 18-1 shows the additional functionality that Access Services brings to SharePoint. TABLE 181 Additional Functionality with Access Services FUNCTIONALITY JUST SHAREPOINT SHAREPOINT AND ACCESS SERVICES Data in SharePoint lists ✔ ✔ Centrally deployed interface ✔ ✔ Collaborative design ✔ Web forms in the browser ✔ Web reports in the browser ✔ Server-side macros ✔ Integration with Access 2010 and Access Services 541 Existing Access databases can be published to Access Services, which will convert them to SharePoint web objects. The SharePoint user and permissions model is leveraged, and the databases then become more collaborative. For design and structure changes, the database is only locked per object, as opposed to per the whole database. One user can redesign a report while another user modifi es a form or creates a new one. Once a database has been published in Access Services, the database objects are all run completely within the web browser, and no client software is needed, except for those users who will be redesigning the database. Access Services Web Service Application In Central Administration, Access Services is listed as one of the Service Applications by default, and is considered a middle-tier service that handles the query processor and the data access layer. Access Services also manages communication between the Access application and the SharePoint content database, which enables the use of large lists. In addition, SharePoint 2010 adds some advanced database concepts to SharePoint lists, which were fairly basic in the past. These new capa- bilities are relationships between lists, unique column constraints, and data-level validation. Access Services are confi gured like other service applications, which are dis- cussed in Chapter 7. You can confi gure numerous settings to optimize the performance of Access Services as an applica- tion. For example, there are several query settings, such as maximum columns per query, maximum sources (lists) per query, and maximum calculated columns per query. The setting called Maximum rows per query enables you to control how many rows can be viewed at once. For instance, if there are 2 million rows, a default of 50,000 rows per query is a good setting. Another setting called Maximum records per table enables you to set a limit on the table’s size. For example, the IT depart- ment may want to reassess the use of a database when it reaches a certain size. At that point, it can be further determined whether the data may be better suited to a different type of database, such as SQL. There are several settings related to the maximum number of sessions, and even a maximum size for the log fi le. To access the settings described, go to Central Administration and click Access Services. To get started publishing an existing Access 2010 database to Access Services, follow these steps: 1. In the database, click the File menu. The Backstage view will be displayed. 2. On the Save & Publish tab, click Publish to Access Services. 3. Click to Run the Compatibility checker. Some items may be fl agged as incompatible with the web, such as certain types of characters in fi eld names. When there are incompatibility issues, a new table called Web Compatibility Issues is automatically created. You will need to resolve any issues before the database can be published to the web. 542 CHAPTER 18 iNtegratiNg the office 2010 clieNts With sharePoiNt 2010 4. The database will be published as a subsite, so fill in the URL of the top-level SharePoint site. As shown in Figure 18-29, enter a site name, and then click the Publish to Access Services button. 5. Once the Access database ACCDB file has been published to Access Services, it is not needed anymore and can be deleted or archived. FIGURE 1829 Note that during the web compatibility troubleshooting process, you can right-click on any object in Access, such as a table, and run the compatibility checker on just that object. This enables you to gradually work through the issues, especially when there is a long list of them. One of the first things that is apparent on the New tab of the Backstage view in Access 2010 is an option to create a new “Blank Web Database.” Once SharePoint 2010 with Access Services has been deployed in the organization, users can be trained to get in the habit of always choosing Blank Web Database when creating new databases. When creating these databases, the design interface is trimmed down to only allow for functionalities that are web friendly. This will ensure SharePoint compatibility going forward, with no web compatibility issues to work through when it’s time to go live with the database. After databases have been published to Access Services, they can be saved as templates to be used later, which is a similar concept to saving a SharePoint site as a template. Follow these steps to save the template and deploy it: 1. On the Settings page of the published database in SharePoint, click the Options drop-down and choose Open in Access. 2. Click the File menu, and on the Save & Publish tab on the left, click Save Database As. SharePoint 2010 Workspace 543 3. For the format, choose Template (ACCDT). 4. The Create New Template from This Database screen will display (see Figure 18-30). Type a name for the template, and at the bottom optionally choose to include the data in the template. 5. The template file can then be uploaded to the Solution gallery on a SharePoint site, and activated. 6. From that point on, when users click to create a new subsite, there will be a new option with the same name as the template that was created. The nice thing about this method is that the person creating the new site based off the Access template need not have Microsoft Access installed on his or her client machine. SHAREPOINT 2010 WORKSPACE Previously known as Microsoft Office Groove 2007, SharePoint Workspace is an application that enables you to take a SharePoint site’s data offline. With this tool, SharePoint sites, along with all of their content, become convenient and portable. SharePoint content can be set up for automatic synchronization that is able to be customized at a granular level. Although some list types are not compatible with offline synchronization, for the most part this is a wonderful tool for those of us who are frequently on-the-go. Earlier in this chapter, it was mentioned that some list types and document libraries can be con- nected to Microsoft Outlook for use from within the Outlook client and offline. Compared to the offline capabilities of Outlook, SharePoint 2010 Workspace provides a much more granular syn- chronization interface, and the capability to select an entire SharePoint site for offline accessibility. The Site Actions menu on a SharePoint 2010 site contains an option called Sync to SharePoint Workspace. Also, from within each document library in the browser, the Library tab in the Ribbon contains a link to Sync to SharePoint Workspace. The same goes for lists, and the button is on the List tab in the Ribbon. The first time the SharePoint Workspace software is elicited, the user is prompted to create a new account or restore an existing account. This “account” will contain the user’s connection settings for the different SharePoint sites to which they need to have offline access, and which libraries and lists are set up to synchronize to this offline copy. The user’s e-mail account is used to initially con- figure the account, or an Account Configuration Code can be used in conjunction with an Account Configuration Server. FIGURE 1830 . section describes how to use SharePoint lists as tables in Access databases and the new concept of Access Services in SharePoint 2010. SharePoint Data As a Table The data in SharePoint can easily be. establish communications between SharePoint and Access. Integration with Access 2010 and Access Services 539 Connecting to Access from SharePoint From a SharePoint 2010 list, on the List tab in. pane. Connecting to SharePoint from Access 2010 When armed with the URL of the target SharePoint site, you can create a dynamic connection to SharePoint from within the Access 2010 software. This