14 DAY TRIAL // With the second Beta development milestone for Office 2010 available since November 2009, Microsoft is inviting developers to build an Access Services application and enter a contest with a rather sweet line-up of prizes, including multiple editions of Windows 7. While the introduction for the Access Show developer contest is yet to be published, the Redmond company has at least made it perfectly clear that it is looking for real-world solutions designed to leverage Access Services.
“Any application qualifies so long as part of it is accessible in the browser through Web forms or reports. It can be something you’ve built before and are looking to extend to the Web, or a new app built completely from scratch. The possibilities are endless,” revealed Microsoft Access product team’s Clint Covington.
The grand winner of the Access Show developer contest will get an Xbox 360 Elite, Covington promised. For the 2nd place prize, Microsoft reserved a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, while the bronze winner will get a 32GB Zune. Devs that will end up anywhere between the 4th and 8th place will grab a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium. In addition, the software giant is prepared to offer an “I Love VBA,” “I Love Access,” “I Love Macros” or “Macro Enthusiast” T-shirt to no less than 20 runners-up. (Official rules are here)
“Here are the steps you need to take to be considered: Build a real-world Access application using the Access Web designers and publish it to a SharePoint Server so it runs on Access Services. Record a walkthrough of your application using Community Clips recorder or a recorder of your choice. The walkthrough should be less than 5 minutes. Submit the video to a public facing website, such as YouTube, and email us your submission. In your submission, include any and all feedback or bugs found during the app building process along with a link to your video,” Covington stated.
Office 2010 Beta 14.0.4536.1000 is available for download here.