SharePoint, MySQL and Access, oh my!

ElJeffe

I am someone with a very small amount of database experience. Like, I can set up a database with a few related tables, make forms, reports, queries, all the basic things. And I've only worked with Access.

We currently have a database set up in SharePoint meant to track various organizations, what populations they serve, what offices they work with, contact info, that sort of thing. I also, independently (because nobody knew we needed what I was working on to interface with the Share Point stuff) made my own version in Access. Mine is a pretty basic setup, with two tables (one for orgs and one for advocate offices) connected by a many to many relationship.

Except now we need my stuff to connect with the SharePoint stuff, and also someone mentioned MySQL (actually they mentioned something that was a bunch of letters and started with an M and was pronounced like a word but wasn't really a word), so now they want more information.

So.

Before I start dropping a bunch of time on research, I figured I would get any general thoughts in here. Does either Access or MySQL play well with SharePoint? We'd need to pull stuff off of SharePoint, add a bunch of stuff to it via (Access/MySQL), then stuff it back into SharePoint. Does this even make sense as a viable strategy? (They're committed to SharePoint because it's stuff that will be semi-publicly available, and they like it.)

Foomy

If your working with other MS products it would be better to look into MSSQL, it plays much nicer with Access/Sharepoint. It's probably already running on your server.

You can also just connect to the database using sharepoint if you add it as an external data source to a list, and then edit it from that, so you don't need to manually pull/push to it if that's what you were thinking.

Pailryder

yeah sharepoint itself isn't really a db (last i checked which i haven't messed with it in a while), it should be running an actual Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL). Access will work with sharepoint for pulling data from fairly well. if you are running the sharepoint app and just want to pull info from your access file. If you can write/run queries and tables in Access SQL, the transition to MSSQL shouldn't be too much of a challenge as many things are the same with just a few key differences (join statements being one of the odd differences for access versus how every other major DB does it).

Good luck!

ElJeffe

Cool, thanks guys!