Access Service for SharePoint Online is all about developing applications with the help of Microsoft Access database management system. The applications created using these services are easily accessible through a web browser.
Unfortunately, in recent times, an announcement has been made by Microsoft stating that Access Services for SharePoint Online will no longer be available from June 2017 onwards. Microsoft’s agenda for creating Access Services in SharePoint was to enable users having no programming skills to develop data-centric web applications.
Considering the dynamic technological trends, the expectations of users have never been constant. The Access Service offers mobile device support, line of business data integration and professional developer extensions. Owing to high user expectations, Microsoft discovered that Access Services missed the mark and hence decided to revoke its support.
The good news is that, one can still use Access Services with SharePoint Server 2013 and SharePoint Server 2010. Also, with the release of SharePoint Server 2016, Microsoft added new features to Access Services. These Access Services will be still supported by Microsoft Server applications even considering the future releases.
To add further, SharePoint Online users of Access Services can now use PowerApps and Microsoft Flow to build rich and integrated applications. PowerApps is a template-driven application development solution whereas Microsoft Flow is a workflow automation creation tool as similar to the IFTTT mashup service.
Additionally, Microsoft has appended a new feature to ease the PowerApps migration which allows the users to export Access Web app data to SharePoint Lists. Another possibility is to export all the Access Web app data to an Access desktop database and migrate Access Web app data to SQL Server.
Another benefit offered by Microsoft for smooth transition to PowerApps/Microsoft Flow is downloadable documentation. SharePoint Online users can seamlessly walk through the steps of PoweApps and Microsoft Flow migration using the documentation.
In coming days, Microsoft will be actively providing ways to the users who are struggling to migrate from Access Services.
Hope you have already strategized your migration. If not, then consulting an experienced third-party partner in providing SharePoint services can be valuable.