SharePoint 2007 is a great platform for storing all sorts of information. SharePoint makes it very easy for users with the proper credentials to create many lists and document libraries without any thought towards organization, duplication of data, or site standards. So what happens when you have data that needs to be moved around or combined with more than one list? SharePoint does not provide a simple way to accomplish this.

1. Manipulating SharePoint Lists with
Microsoft Access 2007
White Paper
document library with the contact spreadsheet,
Overview
CONTENT grab the latest copy of the spreadsheet and look up
the person’s contact information.”
SharePoint 2007 is a great platform for storing all
Overview
sorts of information. SharePoint makes it very There were several problems with this approach.
Challenge easy for users with the proper credentials to create The two document libraries and the spreadsheet
many lists and document libraries without any had completely disconnected data. You could have
Approach thought towards organization, duplication of data, someone in the contact list that you did not have a
or site standards.
Wrap-Up resume for. You could upload a resume with
remembering to add that person to the contact list.
So what happens when you have data that needs to
You could edit the contact spreadsheet and
be moved around or combined with more than one
accidentally save a different version of it to the
list? SharePoint does not provide a simple way to
document library – now, which one is correct.
accomplish this.
I’m sure you could find some other issues with the
Challenge
“SharePoint is a great current approach.
I recently came across a SharePoint site used for
platform until users get
Approach
themselves in trouble“ recruiting. It consisted of a document library that
contained spreadsheets with lists of contact My suggestion to the primary user and business
information for candidates. In another document owner of this site was to:
library was a collection of resumes for those same
1. Add metadata columns to the resume
candidates without any metadata columns. The
document library to hold the contact
resumes were stripped of any contact information
information for each resume.
since they were used to submit to other clients. In
2. Transfer the contact information from the
both cases, these two document libraries only
contact spreadsheet to the new metadata
stored the contact spreadsheet and resumes - no
fields in the resume document library.
other content
So I asked “What’s the procedure when you have 3. Remove the document library that held the
a new candidate?” The answer “Well, we upload contact spreadsheet
the resume to the document library, then check out With this approach, the users of the site would
the spreadsheet from the other document library, have one location for the resume and the contact
add a row with the person’s information, then information. When the list of resumes was listed
upload it and check it back in to the site”. So on the site, the user would have the contact
begged another question “What do you do when information right there without having to take any
you find a resume of someone and need to contact additional steps to find/update the contact
them?” The answer to that question was “Well, information.
while viewing the resume we go back to the

2. Manipulating SharePoint Lists with
Microsoft Access 2007
White Paper
About the Author
MS Access 2007 Solution 6. Before I could create a query that joined the
David Gilbert has over 20 years two lists, I needed to populate the First and
There was no way to do this via the traditional
experience in Information Technology
Last Name fields of the resume document
SharePoint interfaces and although I could write a
and is a specialist in application
architecture, project management, library so I would have something to join on.
fairly simple Visual Studio project to move the
internet technologies and relational
I created an Update query (“Create”, “Query
databases. He has focused on the data around, it would still be too involved and be
application of technology to business
Design”) that set the First Name and Last
throw-away code.
functions in the areas of manufacturing,
telecommunications, financial services, Name fields based on the document name
Instead I used the new integration features of
insurance, supply chain and commercial
(with a little string manipulation). I ran the
software. His technical strengths include
Microsoft Access 2007 to SharePoint to make this
SharePoint, SQL Server, Oracle and
query and the name fields in the resume
web-based systems. happen. Here are the steps I followed:
document library was updated.
1. I found out two very import things from the
He can be reached at
7. With the Last and First Name fields
http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrgilbert
primary user of the site:
populated in both lists, I then created another
a. Where the current contact spreadsheet is Update query. I added the candidate list and
resume library as tables and then joined them
b. The naming standard they used for the
via first and last name. I set the metadata
resume filenames
fields in the resume library to the values from
c. The decision we came to was that the
the candidate list. I ran the query and resume
only way the two things could be
“MS Access 2007 is more library was updated.
connected was the person’s first and last
than just a simple database At this point, the resume document library had
name,
tool”
everything I needed, so I deleted document library
2. I created a new MS Access 2007 database to
that contained the contact list spreadsheets. I also
hold all my work.
created some new views on the resume document
3. I imported the contact spreadsheet into the library to make viewing the information.
new Access database as a table via “External
Wrap-Up
Data”, “Excel”. I called this table
“Candidate”. This table would contain all the MS Access 2007 is a great tool to use with
metadata to populate the resume document SharePoint for not only data manipulation, but you
library. can also create, forms, reports and anything else
you can do with a local database table against a
4. I connected the resume document library to
the Access database via “External Data”, SharePoint list or document library.
“SharePoint List” – make sure you link the
list and not create a copy.
5. Now everything that I needed was in a single
Access database.