Linking Access to Internet without SharePoint?

[McArthurGDM]

Hi,

I currently utilize my company's LAN structure to run my Access database from. The LAN structure is abhorrently slow. So slow that often the database crashes upon opening or can take many minutes to complete a menial command.

I realize that connecting my database to the internet would be a better solution (as our internet connection seems to work better). This would allow many users to interact with the database more easily as well. I also realize that SharePoint is the standard method of connecting the database either by linking tables or publishing the database itself. However, my company does not have SharePoint and I am tired of battling with them on obtaining it.

Is there another way to connect/link Access tables to the internet without SharePoint? One that is FREE. I know with Access 2003 you could connect Access to an HTML webpage, but I think Microsoft got rid of that functionality with 2010 and beyond to force users into utilizing SharePoint.

I guess it would be nice if I could connect to Google Docs/Drive or some other cloud-based site, but I don't know or think that's possible.

So, any thoughts? (Other than leave my company)

-Thanks

[rpeare]

You can create a 'web database' in 2007+, but you would lose a lot of functionality if you run VBA code. web databases will only tolerate macros so you can't run vba code directly. Apart from creating a web database specifically then finding a host for it I don't know that you have many options outside of sharepoint.

[June7]

Only other alternative I know of involves strong knowledge in web programming using apps like ColdFusion, PHP, Apache, IIS, ASP.Net to build data interactive web pages.

[John_G]

One caveat to June7's comment above -

If you want to try the dynamic web page approach, make sure the server where you have the web pages has the required MS Access driver installed, otherwise your code will fail.

[CJ_London]

and free? sharp intake of breath. Suggest you investigate Azure, not free, but not expensive. Things like dropbox won't work successfully. Other alternatives are terminal server/citrix, again, not free, but almost as fast as having the backend on your machine

[McArthurGDM]

I didn't realize, but SharePoint Foundations 2013 might be a possible solution.

As I can not publish the database or use Access Share Services, I can at least use Foundation to host the data tables and have respective front-ends on each person's PC.

Are any of you aware of this as a possible solution to at least hosting the database back-end tables on the internet?

-Thanks

[ItsMe]

I am not an expert in it but I do not think SharePoint utilizes the Jet DB Engine or Access files as a BE. There is a distinction between a desktop app and an Access Web App. A Web App is basically an FE that can connect to things like SharePoint Lists and SQL Databases.

When you create an Access Web App, I believe, you are limited to connecting to SharePoint Lists and SQL Databases. The way I understand it is you can create an Access Web App and use an Enterprise version of SharePoint that has Access Services. You can also create an Access Web App using the upper end versions of Office 365 which will use Azure SQL Database as the BE. I believe that SharePoint plays a role in Office 365 and Access Web Apps.

If you need a lot of functionality you might find Access Web Apps too limited in the features arena. Another approach would be to create an Azure account and use Azure SQL Database as a BE to your Client Rich Access Desktop App. You can pay as you go with an Azure DB for about $10 per month. The cost depends on how powerful of a DB you need and how much data traffic you will generate. The only problem with a Desktop App is it requires the Access Run Time and cannot utilize an Internet Browser as a UI.