Access 2013 - Office Web Apps

Good that the new tool Office Web Apps - Access 2013 might be a solution for the users who is looking to save the data in lists which are highly relational. But, before you considering to go or not to go to Office Web Apps - Access 2013 below are the observations you should check. Online I didn't find any limitations document/articles from Microsoft to give you the stats, boundaries etc, but below are the observations from my expertise.

Advantages:

1. Access 2013 has the capability of creating them and publish to Office 365. (It's available in Access 2010 as well but I see there are new templates with additional built-in features.)
2. The backend server they use is SQL Server 2012 and it has good capabilities compared to previous versions. 
3. You can package your App to publish to Microsoft App market place. 
4. Security can be added to the access database with the help of SharePoint groups. 
5. Of course, they support relational data. 

Disadvantages:

1. We can't use the SharePoint workflows in Access Web Apps. 
2. If you have existing database then you can't use Access Web App as a front-end to host the UI for existing database. 
3. You can't define the permission levels in Access Web Apps like who can only add records or who can only edit records on a particular table. If a user can edit records in one table which means they can edit all tables in the app. 

As my understanding there are some issues in using Access Web Apps. The recommendation from my side is if you have a requirement where you need to provide a form to user, collect data and show small reports then this solution works good, (which means for very simple databases). But, if you have complex design/tables with business data then this is not be the right solution (medium or large databases). 

SharePoint 2013 Vs SharePoint 2010 Boundaries and Limits comparison

Great post on Boundaries and Limits comparison between SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint 2010 versions. This should help to understand the improvements/additions better. A good helpful post for Architects and Developers.
http://www.khamis.net/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=91

Download SharePoint Designer 2013 RTM

For those who are waiting for SharePoint Designer 2013 RTM, here is the link to download from MSDN.

Download SharePoint Designer 2013 RTM

Side Loading of apps is not enabled on this site error while installing app

If you are trying to install an app to SharePoint 2013 RTM environment or to Office 365 then you might see the below error if you are trying to deploy the app to the site which is not developer site.

Error occurred in deployment step 'Install App for SharePoint': Side Loading of apps is not enabled on this site.

Solution: 
Always the app should be published/deployed to the developer site (A site collection with the Developer Site Template). And from this developer site you can add the App to your SharePoint site. 

SharePoint 2013 Cloud or no Cloud - What is your choice?

SharePoint 2013 come up with fantastic features with new UI, new architectures like App Model, Search Crawling and Shredded Storage etc. This new release is impressive and it's support very large and multi-server FARM support. Below are my views on whether to go for Cloud environment or to no go for it.

Why to go for Cloud (SharePoint Online)?

• Platform: As we already know SharePoint online for 2013 Preview build is available. RTM will be available soon.
• UI: The new UI is very easy to use, customize and add more functionality through CMS improvements compared to earlier versions.
• Tools: The Napa tools help us to quickly write the code (Client Side code) and publish them from browser in no time. Very quick development tools. 
• App Model: The new app model will give us the opportunity to extend our SharePoint system with custom coding. Earlier models supports Sandbox solutions and in 2013 we have both Sandbox and App models. 
• Design & Customization: It's as easy as uploading a background image and change colors to design a new theme for SharePoint site in 2013, until unless you want to change the master page for full extent. You can customize the master pages with tools like SharePoint Designer and deploy them to SharePoint Online. Themes are very easy to apply and customization is very simple. 
• Cost: If you like to maintain a FARM on-premises it will be more expensive to maintain the hardware and software. SharePoint online is too cheap compared to on-premises and will save thousands of $. 

Why to not go for Cloud (SharePoint Online)?

• There are no big new reasons why we need on-premises environment. :) If yours is big organization where many services are running like finance services, corporation intranet, file share and search crawling then we must need on-premises environment. SharePoint Online will not give control to run all these as there is  no authorization to Central Administration. 
• If an organization has big repository for the documents on file share and you like to crawl them to show results in Search then we must need on-premises.
• Multi-server FARM is only possible in On-premises and Farm level solutions are possible only in On-premises.

It's completely based on our requirements to decide whether to go for Cloud or not. Above mentioned are the possible reasons according to my view. SharePoint online (build in 2013) is a great product for CMS, small scale intranets. With new templates available in SharePoint 2013, you can build product catalog web sites etc. I believe SharePoint Online will grow fast in near future. 

Download SharePoint 2013 and Office 2013 RTM

Just last week we discussed about 2013 versions are reaching RTM and thought they will be released in mid-November. But, you know what the RTM are available to download in MSDN. Mine is in progress why are you waiting? Download yours too!

Download SharePoint Server 2013

Geolocation field in SharePoint 2013

Today I have played with this field and really fantastic to have this feature in SharePoint. It's going to be very useful in our applications.

I have wasted around 30 minutes of time to find where is the Geolocation field to manually add from browser. I searched in the Site Columns list and didn't find it. Thought I have to activate any features and searched Site collection features and site features.... But no luck.

After did some research and found that we have to add the Geolocation field through programming. Is it? really? Why? So many questions and started doing research more time and everyone given the examples in C# (Server side coding) to add Geolocation field to a list. OK. now what? Below is what I have did to check the Geolocation functionality.

Sorry there was something wrong with the download. Try adding it again error in SharePoint 2013 Apps

**Update: The issues is resolved in RTM release. The issues was coming only in the preview version.

I know everyone should get this error when they try to add an app from the SharePoint Store. Yes, it is a bug and whatever App you want to add to the SharePoint 2013 site you will see the below error.

Sorry, there was something wrong with the download. Try adding it again

SharePoint and Office 2013 RTM announced

Wow. It's too early than expected. Great! The Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013 RTM are announced and it will available from mid-November.
Office team says they provide Business customer with early access for testing, piloting and adopting office within their organizations and give feedback to improve their products.

• We will begin rolling out new capabilities to Office 365 Enterprise customers in our next service update, starting in November through general availability.
• Volume Licensing customers with Software Assurance will be able to download the Office 2013 applications as well as other Office products including SharePoint 2013, Lync 2013 and Exchange 2013 through the Volume Licensing Service Center by mid-November. These products will be available on the Volume Licensing price list on December 1.
• IT professionals and developers will be able to download the final version via their TechNet or MSDN subscriptions by mid-November.

You can stay tuned my blog for more information and news about the new products related to SharePoint and Office. Awaiting for RTM versions.