Protecting a table from modifications

[John Faughnan]

I've been trying to figure out how to protect tables from
modifications. I must be missing something obvious; other than through
forms and VB script I don't see ways to write-protect a table, much
less a column.

The best I've been able to do is this (actually works pretty well):

1. Put the tables I want to protect in their own Access database file.
2. Make that database read-only (at the file level).
3. In another database, link to the tables in read-only file.

Performance seems fine and everything works surprisingly well. Still,
there must be a better way.

Any tips?

Thanks! (I have reviewed online help and a few texts. I think the
answer is in there, but I keep getting "noise" on my searches.)

john
(e-mail address removed)

meta: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, Microsoft access, write protect, columns,
values, tables, files

 

[Rick B]

If you have user-level sevurity, simply set the permissions for your users
so that they can't modify (or even read) the design of the tables.

You can also specify who can add data, delete data, view data , and modify
data for each table in your database.

In your current structure, if the back-end database is read-only, can the
users add records? I would think not.


Rick B


I've been trying to figure out how to protect tables from
modifications. I must be missing something obvious; other than through
forms and VB script I don't see ways to write-protect a table, much
less a column.

The best I've been able to do is this (actually works pretty well):

1. Put the tables I want to protect in their own Access database file.
2. Make that database read-only (at the file level).
3. In another database, link to the tables in read-only file.

Performance seems fine and everything works surprisingly well. Still,
there must be a better way.

Any tips?

Thanks! (I have reviewed online help and a few texts. I think the
answer is in there, but I keep getting "noise" on my searches.)

john
(e-mail address removed)

meta: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, Microsoft access, write protect, columns,
values, tables, files

 

[John Faughnan]

If you have user-level sevurity, simply set the permissions for your users
so that they can't modify (or even read) the design of the tables.
You can also specify who can add data, delete data, view data , and modify
data for each table in your database.
In your current structure, if the back-end database is read-only, can the
users add records? I would think not.
Rick B

Thanks Rick, "Security" is the key. I was searching for "write
protect" lock, etc. Wrong search terms!

I looked through the Access security setup. It felt odd to me -- no
way to copy privileges, unclear what's user and what's group, and what
to configure at the user vs. group level, etc. Mind you, I've had the
same problems with other systems security setups (I think OS X is the
best of those I've configured, the ASP/IIS/NTFS interactions the
worst)-- I don't think security configuration gets a lot of usability
attention.

Anyway, now I know what to read and study. This is a great help. If
you know of any "this is how an experienced person uses this"
references, (rather than "this is all the ways you can do it") please
fire them my/our way.

Since I wanted to strictly read the data I was protecting the
'read-only' attribute at the file level did most of what I needed, but
going forward I'll use the Access security model (once I understand
what's really going on).

Much appreciated,

john

I've been trying to figure out how to protect tables from
modifications. I must be missing something obvious; other than through
forms and VB script I don't see ways to write-protect a table, much
less a column.
The best I've been able to do is this (actually works pretty well):
1. Put the tables I want to protect in their own Access database file.
2. Make that database read-only (at the file level).
3. In another database, link to the tables in read-only file.

Performance seems fine and everything works surprisingly well. Still,
there must be a better way.

john
(e-mail address removed)
meta: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, Microsoft access, write protect, columns,
values, tables, files