Long time ago Microsoft Access was frequently used for small application, being also known as a desktop database. After a while being in the dark, Microsoft decided to bring Access back to life, which is not a bad idea. Let’s have a quick look on how a regular user can create a time off requests application without writing a single line of code.
For the beginning, we need to start Microsoft Access and select custom web app from screen menu. In the dialogue screen we need to put the name of our application and URL of the SharePoint where we are going to host it.
Please note validation rule from the screenshot below marked in red. This is telling you how to make a field mandatory and how to set your validation message for a field.
The final step is to create the table containing the requests with a lookup field to the table we created on the previous step.
Please note again settings for “End Date” field, having a more complex validation rule, as it is compared the value with “Start Date” and throw an error is is not greater than it.
Everybody can now developed small application without advanced programming language. Of course this won’t replace big and complex application, but for a normal employee this can be a real help. And application looks great when it comes to design. 🙂
Popescu Andrei Vlad 