[AccessD] Database vs Sharepoint

My biggest problem is that Sharepoint interfaces have browser limitations.  The good news is that almost everyone knows how to use IE.  Maybe when browsers become a bit more feature rich Sharepoint will be more useful.

 

Our parent corp runs a VPN environment for all our 8 offices and they rely heavily on Sharepoint but use separate applications developed in PowerBuilder for all their payroll, reporting, accounting and management tasks.  I purchased a 'For Dummies' book on Sharepoint but was not able to learn much as I lack rights to try even the most basic things using it.

 

We switched over to a SQL Server back end for our Access application in Oct '08 and I just got access to SQL Management Studio for our data about 2 weeks ago.  The reason for the access is we are migrating to a new multi virtual server environment and no one over at parent is familiar with the data systems we operate.  About 70% of the functionality of what I've written has to do with document managment and automation of MS Office products and supposedly this is a Sharepoint forté.  I can't begin to imagine how one would use Sharepoint to do any of the data - automation - file system interfacing we do.

 

What I've found is that our data and file migration requires a great deal of dependence on good old shell commands and scripting.  It seems that some of the old tools are still most functional.  There's nothing like fc, robocopy, dir *.pee /s > parsefile.txt and basic file i/o to get things done.  The good news is that MS Access can be used to run the whole upgrade at the call of a procedure that sequences and coordinates every step of the procedure.  It could also be done with Excel with a reference to DAO, or even Word I suppose.  Try that with a browser.

 


Ciao Jürgen Welz Edmonton, Alberta jwelz at hotmail.com


 
> Date: Thu, 7 Jan 2010 16:57:16 +1100
> From: Darryl.Collins at anz.com
> To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
> Subject: [AccessD] Database vs Sharepoint
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> We have a new sharepoint guys working with us who is pretty sure that
> sharepoint can do everything our database does, only better, faster and
> neater. However, I am less sure. From what I understand Sharepoint is
> very good at sharing documents, document control and management,
> creating and dealing with simple lists and the like. But AFAIK it
> cannot deal with relational, normalised data in any way that we know and
> understand. Or high level transactional data?
> 
> I am just a luddite and old school? Or is sharepoint being used like
> Excel. That is, it can hold data, therefore it is a database as far as
> the users are concerned?
> 
> A quick Google seems to support my theory, I was wondering any there are
> any 'war stories' out there. I need to learn more about this upstart
> software!
> 
> Anyone got any thoughts on this?
> 
> Cheers
> Darryl. 		 	   		  
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