Design Advice for Security in Access 2007?

[Corta]

Hello, I am new to Access 2007 but understand programming and have a
fair amount of experience with VBA in Excel and Word, so I am hopeful
this knowledge will prove to be useful in Access.

I am about to start the design of a new Access 2007 application for
tracking customers, their orders, shipping, etc. for a small company.
I am thinking ahead and want to be able to secure the application to
the best of my ability and within the constraints of Access 2007 and
any other tools or utilities. I have read a lot of articles on this
newsgroup about the .accde file and it being a means for a global pw
to the database and the encryption component. I get the impression
from several other threads that if I truly want to secure my VBA code,
the database and much of the applications functioinality, that I would
likely need to use something like SQL Express 2005 on the back end and
Access 2007 as the front end as an .accde type file. I am not
familiar with the older MDB and MDE formats, but from what I can tell
there are additional options for security if I use this older file
format. I am concerned about functionality issues within 2007 if I
pursue this route. I want to be able to package my application when I
am done and have the users install it. If this requirement impacts
any security options I would appreciate the input as well.

Any tips, advice or ideas are appreciated.


Thank you,

Corta

 

[AnandaSim]

to the database and the encryption component. I get the impression
from several other threads that if I truly want to secure my VBA code,
the database and much of the applications functioinality, that I would

VBA Code can be protected like in Excel and Word - you can put a
password on the whole Project in the VBA IDE.

You can secure the actual Form and Report Designs by converting
the .accdb to .accde - This will also secure the VBA Code.

likely need to use something like SQL Express 2005 on the back end and
Access 2007 as the front end as an .accde type file. I am not
familiar with the older MDB and MDE formats, but from what I can tell
there are additional options for security if I use this older file
format. I am concerned about functionality issues within 2007 if I

The .mdb and .mde - All Access Objects can be protected if you employ
Workgroup Security. This creates a relationship between logon
usernames, user groups, Access objects and rights to these objects -
read, write, create, delete, design etc.... It's quite full flavoured
security.

If you use .mdb then some new Access 2007 enhancements will not be
available:

http://office.microsoft.com/client/...=2&ns=MSACCESS&lcid=3081&pid=CH100645711033#1

No multi-valued fields, attachment data type, basic memo field
features

pursue this route. I want to be able to package my application when I
am done and have the users install it. If this requirement impacts
any security options I would appreciate the input as well.

Packaging is a separate topic from these security issues.

HTH
Ananda

 

[AnandaSim]

Something for you to read:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/access/HP051882261033.aspx

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/165009

If you go SQL Server, that will have a different security model.
..mdb, .accdb can be deleted by the end user using Windows Explorer
because they can see it on the filesystem as Access needs to reach
it. SQL Server - the end user won't obviously know where the datafile
is because you don't connect via the filesystem. However SQL Server is
less intimately bound to Access Forms so it's more cumbersome in your
development efforts.

HTH
Ananda