Working with Sharepoint Tables

[George-Bowyer]

I have an FE/BE db linked via sharepoint tables.

It works, but it is really slooow. Usually a pause of several seconds for every form change, every data entry, etc. After a while, every second seems like an eternity. (It's slow everywhere, but this is really compounded by the fact that my internet access fluctuates between poor and abysmal (170K download this morning)...

As I have the FE and BE on my own machine (the sharepoint business being because I have a small number of sporadic users elsewhere who occasionally need to access the system), is there any reason why I should not create a directly-linked local FE for myself, bypassing the sharepoint tables? I am worried about whether the sharepoint tables might somehow object to being bypassed?

Thanks

George

PS: recommendations for a better system than sharepoint also welcome...

 

[Minty]

The non-SharePoint copies would not be synchronised, would that not cause an issue?

Possible alternatives would be a SQL based server if you have somewhere to host it or for a cloud based solution an entry-level Azure SQL, or possibly MySQL/Postgresql/other flavours of cloud based RDBMS.

 

[George-Bowyer]

The non-SharePoint copies would not be synchronised, would that not cause an issue?

By that do you mean that if the BE was closed, changes I made via a directly-linked FE would not be uploaded to the sharepoint tables, until I opened it manually and synchronsied them?

If so, I think that that would not be an insurmountable problem. The other users use the db infrequently enough that I could make sure that they let me know before they did so.

 

[George-Bowyer]

Possible alternatives would be a SQL based server if you have somewhere to host it or for a cloud based solution an entry-level Azure SQL, or possibly MySQL/Postgresql/other flavours of cloud based RDBMS.

Would they be quicker than sharepoint?

 

[Minty]

With a correctly designed front end that passes most of the heavy lifting to the server then yes I would say it would be quicker, Sharepoint lists are pretty clunky in operation in my limited experience.

 

[theDBguy]

Hi. The reason SharePoint is slow is because it is not a true database system. Using SQL Server or Azure SQL or MySQL or others would definitely perform better.

 

[George-Bowyer]

Hi. The reason SharePoint is slow is because it is not a true database system. Using SQL Server or Azure SQL or MySQL or others would definitely perform better.

Thanks.

Which will be easiest for a neophyte to learn how to start using for the BE (keeping my Access FE as unchanged as possible)?

(Small applications keeping only a few thousand records and probably never more than a dozen users at it's highest, normally probably only a couple)

 

[NauticalGent]

I used SP to provide service from Italy to Spain and Bahrain. It worked ok, every once in awhile there would be issues with synchronization if the server was unavailable but it was manageable.

We upgraded to AC2013 and all of a sudden the link to SP would get "forgotten" once the user logged off. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth at their in ability to solve the issue, the IT department offered to create an instance on the SQL server and life was much better thereafter. I was very intimidated at the thought of "upscaling" but with help form this forum, the transition was no where near as difficult as I thought. The speed, stability, harnessing the use of pass-through queries and stored procedures and the maintenance plan that SQL Server provides made it a FAR superior option.

If at all possible, make the switch and you will be glad you did...

 

[MajP]

I have not work SP for a while, but it was quite popular for sometime. So I am a little confused here. I always had mine toggle between on line and offline, that is a built in feature. As the db opens it ask if you want to work offline (lots of updates) and synchronizes. Then when you close it asks if you want to resynch. This is more of a foot stomp because 9 times out of ten you want to resynch on close.

 

[Isaac]

Yes, try sql server if you can. I am forced to use a lot of sharepoint lists as if they were back end tables, they're notoriously slow and clunky.
In fact it's one of the examples where I actually prefer unbound forms, a database.execute statement seems to work better than live binding.

Anyway, this is especially true if you have more than a few thousand records in the sharepoint list, or maybe it slows down even prior to that.

 

[George-Bowyer]

Thanks for all the answers.

Can anyone please recommend a good easy-to-follow guide to how to get going on setting up a mySQL backend for my Access Front Ends?