preventing users from accessing tables and design

[christinamasalha]

Hello all,

I am wondering if anybody can help me with a question I have.
I am planning to create an Access database application, this application will be used to keep simple records and stored locally on the users computer. What I want to do is the following:
1- When the user opens the application I want only a form to open, and from this form all the other forms may be accessible.
2- I don’t want the user to be able to even see that there are tables and forms and so on, and therefore keep them from changing the design of the forms and deleting any record from the table.


Is this possible? I would really appreciate the help.
Thanks in advance,
Christina

[MMcCarthy]

Hello all,

I am wondering if anybody can help me with a question I have.
I am planning to create an Access database application, this application will be used to keep simple records and stored locally on the users computer. What I want to do is the following:
1- When the user opens the application I want only a form to open, and from this form all the other forms may be accessible.
2- I don’t want the user to be able to even see that there are tables and forms and so on, and therefore keep them from changing the design of the forms and deleting any record from the table.


Is this possible? I would really appreciate the help.
Thanks in advance,
Christina

Create a master backup of the mdb file as you won't be able to alter the file about to be created.

1. Create a backup copy of your "filename.m db"
2. Go to Tools - Startup and set the startup form to the switchboard/menu form you've created. Uncheck the "Display Database Window". If you have created a custom menu then change menubar to the custom menu and uncheck the "Allow Full Menus" and "Allow Toolbar/Menu Changes" boxes. Please note that if any of your users are experienced users they may find ways around this. It would require an experienced developer or some time to explain and code them out fully.
3. Go to Tools - Database Utilities - Make mde file. This will create an executable version of the file and this cannot be altered structurally by you or anyone else.

Mary

[ADezii]

Hello all,

I am wondering if anybody can help me with a question I have.
I am planning to create an Access database application, this application will be used to keep simple records and stored locally on the users computer. What I want to do is the following:
1- When the user opens the application I want only a form to open, and from this form all the other forms may be accessible.
2- I don’t want the user to be able to even see that there are tables and forms and so on, and therefore keep them from changing the design of the forms and deleting any record from the table.


Is this possible? I would really appreciate the help.
Thanks in advance,
Christina

1- When the user opens the application I want only a form to open, and from this form all the other forms may be accessible

Look into creating a Switchboard. This can be the central point from which all other Forms are open, and with the help of the Switchboard Wizard is very easy to create. If you need further help, let me know.

[NeoPa]

Mary's answer gives very strong protection. If you don't need that much but just want to hide the database window and show a form automatically, look in the Tools / Startup section and there are a number of options that will enable you to do that.
As ADezii says, the usual way to do that is to start with a Switchboard form (Create one, then set that in Startup as your starting form).

[christinamasalha]

Thank you all for you help.

Mary i have tried to convert my database to an MDE file but it keeps returning an error and refuses to convert. Im not sure what the problem is. Could you possibly help me with this. I have pasted the message from the error below.

This error is usually associated with compiling a large database into an MDE file. Due to the method used to compile the database, a considerable number of TableID references are created for each table. The Microsoft Jet database engine version 4.0 can only create a maximum of 2048 open TableIDs at one time. Exporting a database as an MDE potentially can exceed this limit if the database has a large number of objects (table, macro, form, report, etc).

Thanks alot.
Christina

[MMcCarthy]

Thank you all for you help.

Mary i have tried to convert my database to an MDE file but it keeps returning an error and refuses to convert. Im not sure what the problem is. Could you possibly help me with this. I have pasted the message from the error below.

Christina

1. How many tables are there in the database?
2. What is the saved file size of the database?
3. Did you compact and repair the database recently?

Mary

[christinamasalha]

Dear Mary,

im sorry for the late response.
These are the answers to the questions you asked:

1- the size of the DB is 9 MB
2- I have 15 tables
3 - I compacted and repaired the DB but i didnt see any changes in the size or anything so im not even sure it did it right.


Thanks alot for you help. I apreciate the help.
Christina

[MMcCarthy]

Dear Mary,

im sorry for the late response.
These are the answers to the questions you asked:

1- the size of the DB is 9 MB
2- I have 15 tables
3 - I compacted and repaired the DB but i didnt see any changes in the size or anything so im not even sure it did it right.


Thanks alot for you help. I apreciate the help.
Christina

OK, size shouldn't be the problem then. Have you set up extra indexes on the tables? Another thing to try is to open the VBA editor and try to compile the database and see if this produces any errors.

Mary

[christinamasalha]

Thank you Mary,

Turned out i had a code error that showed when i compiled the DB. After i corrected it i created the MDE file and it worked.

All is good :)

Thank you again very much!!
Christina

[MMcCarthy]

Thank you Mary,

Turned out i had a code error that showed when i compiled the DB. After i corrected it i created the MDE file and it worked.

All is good :)

Thank you again very much!!
Christina

You're welcome Christina. I'm glad everything is working for you now.

Mary