Can access database with either System.mdw or Secured.mdw

  • Thread starter Thread starter W. Guy Delaney
  • Start date Start date
W

W. Guy Delaney

I applied user-level security, which worked fine. Admin did not have Admins
permissions. Users had no permissions. I had a Secured.mdw and a System.mdw.
I had a shortcut on my desktop that would switch from System.mdw to
Secured.mdw and appropriately ask for a password. If I tried to open the
database any other way than by using the shortcut, I was told that I did not
have the necessary permissions. All was well.

I split my database into a front-end and a backend. Now I can open my
database by using the shortcut on my desktop or by opening Access, clicking
File>Open, highlightinge file, clicking Open, and typing in the password.
Not even a hint that I don't have the appropriate permissions. When I check
to see which mdw file was used to open the database this way, I discover
that Access uses the System.mdw.

Can anyone reason me through this? I know that the database, if properly
secured, would insist on using Secured.mdw. Have I gone astray somewhere?
 
W. Guy Delaney said:
I applied user-level security, which worked fine. Admin did not have Admins
permissions. Users had no permissions. I had a Secured.mdw and a System.mdw.
I had a shortcut on my desktop that would switch from System.mdw to
Secured.mdw and appropriately ask for a password. If I tried to open the
database any other way than by using the shortcut, I was told that I did not
have the necessary permissions. All was well.

I split my database into a front-end and a backend. Now I can open my
database by using the shortcut on my desktop or by opening Access, clicking
File>Open, highlightinge file, clicking Open, and typing in the password.
Not even a hint that I don't have the appropriate permissions. When I check
to see which mdw file was used to open the database this way, I discover
that Access uses the System.mdw.

Can anyone reason me through this? I know that the database, if properly
secured, would insist on using Secured.mdw. Have I gone astray somewhere?
Click to expand...


The security settings of the original (non split) database will not
necessarily carry-through to the split database FE &/or BE - it
depends how you do the split.

One way or the other, if you can open a db (be it a FE, BE or
non-split db) with the normal system.mdw, then, that db *is not*
secured (or not properly secured).

Perhaps you have to re-establish security on one or both of the split
db's?

HTH,
TC
 
I used Tools>Database Utilities>Database Splitter to split the database. Is
there another way?

And--is there anyway to rejoin a database after it has been split?

And finally--It sounds as though it would be best to split a database before
applying user/group security? Is this true?
 
W. Guy Delaney said:
I used Tools>Database Utilities>Database Splitter to split the database. Is
there another way?
Click to expand...

Yes. There isn't a single thing that any of the wizards do, that you can't
do manually. Instead of using the wizard you could have copied the database
and named it database_be.mdb. Open this database and delete all objects
except the tables. Open your original database and delete the
tables/relationships. Then use File, Get External Data, Link Tables, and
select your database_be.mdb and all its tables. The benefit of doing this,
rather than using the wizard is that the relationships window layout will
not be messed up, and your security settings will not be lost - although you
may want to modify the permissions in the backend.
And--is there anyway to rejoin a database after it has been split?
Click to expand...

Yes. Open the frontend, and delete all the table links. Use File, Get
External Data, Import and import all the tables from the backend (security
settings on the imported tables will not be imported - rather the settings
And finally--It sounds as though it would be best to split a database before
applying user/group security? Is this true?
Click to expand...

Six of one, half dozen of another, in my opinion. If you secure and then
split using the wizard, that resulting backend will be unsecured (so you
have to secure it using the same mdw that you secured the frontend with).
If you split and then secure, you still have to secure both
frontend/backend.
 
Joan Wild said:
Yes. There isn't a single thing that any of the wizards do, that you can't
do manually. Instead of using the wizard you could have copied the database
and named it database_be.mdb. Open this database and delete all objects
except the tables. Open your original database and delete the
tables/relationships. Then use File, Get External Data, Link Tables, and
select your database_be.mdb and all its tables. The benefit of doing this,
rather than using the wizard is that the relationships window layout will
not be messed up, and your security settings will not be lost - although you
may want to modify the permissions in the backend.


Yes. Open the frontend, and delete all the table links. Use File, Get
External Data, Import and import all the tables from the backend (security
settings on the imported tables will not be imported - rather the settings
you have on <new tables/queries> will dictate what permissions the imported
tables have).


Six of one, half dozen of another, in my opinion. If you secure and then
split using the wizard, that resulting backend will be unsecured (so you
have to secure it using the same mdw that you secured the frontend with).
If you split and then secure, you still have to secure both
frontend/backend.
Click to expand...
 
why might you want to modify the permissions in the backend,

Guy,
All our users can open our FE application: they can't
'open' our BE files unless they have our 'Admin' permission.

In our case, that's pretty much the only difference between
our FE and BE security, but I also have applications where
there are audit tables where the FE users can only write, and
BE users can only read - and they don't even use the same
security workgroup.

I'm sure you can think of other examples if you try :-)

(david)
 
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