Access Cookbook

Chapter 10. Multiuser Applications

Access offers native support, right out of the box, for multiuser applications. But this additional power brings with it some additional problems, chiefly those of coordinating multiple users who may be spread across a large network. This chapter explores some solutions to common problems in multiuser applications. You’ll learn how to use a shared database table to help your users communicate with one another and see how to find out which users are logged in at any given time. You’ll also learn how to implement basic transaction logging, how to determine who has a record locked, and how to prevent a user from locking a record for an excessive time period. Because multiuser applications often use Access security, we also explore the security system in detail. For instance, you’ll learn how to properly secure your database, how to keep track of your users and groups, and how to check if they have blank passwords. You’ll also see how you can maintain separate but synchronized copies of a database using Access replication.

Properly Secure Your Database

Problem

The database you’ve developed contains sensitive data to which you wish to limit access. You’d like to be able to create different classes of users so that some users have no access to this data, others can read the data but can’t change it, and still others can modify the data. At the same time, you don’t want to secure every object in the database this way; you’d like to apply security only ...