I did have a really good time and met a lot of cool people at Access Day. I'm glad that Armen Stein with J Street Technology is planning "something" for after the MVP Conference in Redmond next March.

So, what was the lifecycle? Are we postmortem now?

Yeah. From Lord GPT:

Microsoft announced the discontinuation of Access 2013 web apps and Access web databases in Office 365 around 2017. Here's a breakdown of what happened:

1. What Were Access 2013 Web Apps:
   Access 2013 web apps were designed to allow users to create and share databases through a browser, using SharePoint as the platform. This was part of Microsoft's broader effort to extend Access functionality to the web, making it more collaborative and easier to access without needing the Access desktop client.

2. Reasons for Discontinuation:
   - Low Adoption: The Access web apps feature had limited adoption compared to the traditional desktop version of Access. Many users preferred the familiarity and feature set of the desktop environment over the more restricted web app experience.
   - Shift in Strategy: Microsoft decided to focus on other tools for data management and web application creation, such as Power Apps, Power Automate, and SQL-based solutions that are more scalable and modern for web and cloud use. These tools provided more robust integration with Office 365 and a broader feature set for creating business applications.

3. Timeline:
   - March 2017: Microsoft announced that new creation of Access web apps would be disabled by June 2017.
   - April 2018: The Access 2013 web apps and web databases were officially retired. By this date, Microsoft removed these services from Office 365, and users were no longer able to use their web apps.

4. Migration Options:
   Microsoft encouraged users to transition away from Access 2013 web apps. They provided some guidance for migrating data:
   - Users could export their data to a SharePoint list for continued use within SharePoint.
   - Alternatively, data could be migrated to a more modern platform like Microsoft SQL Server or a Power App, which offered better functionality for those needing web or mobile access.

5. Impact on Users:
   The discontinuation affected users who relied on Access web apps for lightweight database and web application needs. However, Microsoft intended the move to encourage the use of newer technologies that are better suited for scalability, cloud integration, and modern user interfaces.

Overall, the discontinuation of Access 2013 web apps was part of Microsoft's shift towards modern, cloud-based solutions that align more closely with the evolving needs of business applications. Microsoft Access continues as a desktop application for creating powerful local databases, but users requiring web and mobile capabilities are now encouraged to use solutions like Power Apps.

At around the time that web apps were popular, that's when I started making the advanced classes to cover macros. I was going to go even deeper into macros and make some lessons on web apps, but right around that time, they killed it. I still think it's good to learn macros for Access if you're a consultant because you might run into someone else's database with macros in it. Also, if you're an Access user yourself but you don't really want to get into VBA programming, macros are a nice little intermediate step. So it's still good to learn a little bit of macros.

One thing that I found really funny at this time, though, was all of the Access haters out there. You know, the companies trying to push Access users into a different solution, usually one they're trying to sell. All those haters decided to jump on this message that Microsoft was killing Access web apps to mean that they were killing Access itself. I had fun calling a lot of those guys out.

I remember reading about the WebApp. I got excited about it, then realized the feature had died a cruel death before I could even start learning about it. Around that time I was still using Office 2003 or something like that, and was thinking it's time to update.