Two Versions Of A Form

[jschping]

Hi,

I have an Access file that I use with some college counselors at my school.
They enter info about students into a main form that has embedded subforms.

I set up a back-end/front-end solution so I can update the front-end to add
new functionality without disrupting the data itself. It works great.

Now the principal wants to be able to see the data. I don't want him to be
able to change any of it, since he is not so great with computers, and there
is no way to recover from any changed he might accidenetally make (especially
with no one knowing he did it.)

I could lock all the controls and give him that file, which is what I did.
But today i want to add a few pieces of code to give the form more
functionality. I don't want to have to do it twice. Nor do I want to have to
go lock every control after I'm done in a separate file again.

Is there any smart way to do this? I want to be able to make changes and
updates to a front-end, and then easily create a copy of that form, just that
prevents any changes. But, I need unbound controls to stay alive so
navigation still works. Is there any easy and quick way to do this without me
having to code it each time?

Thanks!!!

John Schping

 

[Daniel Pineault]

What version of access are you running?

If you are using access 2003 simply implement user-level security and create
2 users: 1- Full access, 2- Read-Only. Can be done in under 5 minutes!
--
Hope this helps,

Daniel Pineault
http://www.cardaconsultants.com/
For Access Tips and Examples: http://www.devhut.net
Please rate this post using the vote buttons if it was helpful.

 

[jschping]

Access 2010 Beta.

I still want them to be able to use unbound combo boxes to navigate the
records. Will that still work?

 

[John W. Vinson]

Hi,

I have an Access file that I use with some college counselors at my school.
They enter info about students into a main form that has embedded subforms.

I set up a back-end/front-end solution so I can update the front-end to add
new functionality without disrupting the data itself. It works great.

Now the principal wants to be able to see the data. I don't want him to be
able to change any of it, since he is not so great with computers, and there
is no way to recover from any changed he might accidenetally make (especially
with no one knowing he did it.)

I could lock all the controls and give him that file, which is what I did.
But today i want to add a few pieces of code to give the form more
functionality. I don't want to have to do it twice. Nor do I want to have to
go lock every control after I'm done in a separate file again.

Is there any smart way to do this? I want to be able to make changes and
updates to a front-end, and then easily create a copy of that form, just that
prevents any changes. But, I need unbound controls to stay alive so
navigation still works. Is there any easy and quick way to do this without me
having to code it each time?

Thanks!!!

John Schping

Unfortunately A2007 and A2010 lack the Workgroup Security feature that Daniel
recommended - it would be ideal for the purpose!

Lacking that, I'd suggest - rather than redesigning the *form* for each user -
that you redesign the *query*. Give the updating users a form based on an
updateable query (the default); give the manager (I'm *struggling* not to call
him a PHB but...) a form based on a Snapshot query returning the same records.

 

[jschping]

Hi,

Thanks for replying.

That sounds great, but I have about 8 different subforms, each with their
own query. If I make major changes then I need to change the query to each
subform each time I want him to have a copy of the application?

 

[John W. Vinson]

Hi,

Thanks for replying.

That sounds great, but I have about 8 different subforms, each with their
own query. If I make major changes then I need to change the query to each
subform each time I want him to have a copy of the application?

well... one way or another you need to change what you need to change. I don't
have any bright ideas for how to do a one-click toggle of nine forms'
updateability!

 

[Mike Painter]

I suspect you are treading on thin ice with this but you should be able to
make the forms read only by setting AllowEdits, AllowDeletions, and
AllowAdditions properties to No.
Create a table of users and passwords, hide it if needed.
Create a full page logon form, and use that info to set Allow... to yes for
everybody but the principal.
This will stop the vast majority of users.
What are you going to tell the principal when he or she asks why the
information can't be changed?

 

[David W. Fenton]

Unfortunately A2007 and A2010 lack the Workgroup Security feature
that Daniel recommended - it would be ideal for the purpose!

Um, no, they do not lack ULS. You just have to use MDB format (which
is a native format for them) instead of the ACCDB format, which
disables ULS (the ACE database engine obviously still supports it
since it can deal with MDBs and the ULS that is a built-in part of
Jet).