Forum Discussion
New User - Looking for best option to share Access DB front-end using MS Teams
It occurs to me that an alternative approach to this requirement could be taken.
Your focus is on Teams and documents that can be searched through Teams. You didn't specify where those documents are stored, but it is logical to assume they could be on SharePoint.
That means a PowerApps application, running in Teams, and using SharePoint lists for the data, could be a good solution here.
Yes, we are running Sharepoint. I read something about being able to use Sharepoint lists to store the data for retrieval through the user interface built in Access, but it's all new to me. I hope to be able to allow Team members to access a search form from a tab in Teams and search for document names to see the instructions for processing them.
However, if there is an easier solution, I'm certainly open to it. Thank you!
I'm afraid it's either Access or Teams, not both. Access, as I said before, runs on the desktop under Windows and doesn't have a way to incorporate Teams, nor vice versa.
I know that PowerApps, on the other hand, does run under Teams. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-apps/teams/overview-of-the-power-apps-app
You could create your "tables" as SharePoint lists and connect a small PowerApps app to those lists to handle the data management tasks.
You could also create an Access database application linked to those same SharePoint lists for greater power and flexibility. In other words, the PA interface would support users wanting to look for documents. The Access interface, under your Team admin's Windows account on their own computer, could manage the maintenance of the document lists.
This kind of hybrid approach brings the best of both environments to the task.Ok. Thank you. I'm not familiar at all with PowerApps, but I will certainly check out the link provided. So, will I need to build multiple databases, or can I use Access and then move the data from there as needed? I'm sorry. Just trying to get a picture of how to proceed. I'm pretty good at figuring things out if I have instructions. I've built Filemaker dbs before, long time ago. So pretty sure I can get that done. Getting it to work across the network is another story. Anyway, if you know of any such instruction available, please share. If not, let me know, and if you recommend I mark as 'solution'. Thanks again!