Getting to Know Microsoft Access, Part 10 - Sharing your Data with Others
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To share your database with others you’ll need to put the database in a central server where everyone can access it and then split it up so only certain people can access certain objects. You may also want to replicate the database using synchronization, or put the database on the Internet. The easiest thing to do is to simply put the entire database on a shared, central server. Just put the database in a shared folder that everyone can access and then split up the objects so each user has access on their own workstation to only the objects they need. This reduces network traffic because only data is transmitted. Select the Tools | Database Utilities | Database Splitter to split the database.
Database Security
The main purpose of database security is to prevent unauthorized access and tampering. You can add a password using the Tools | Security | Set Database Password option, but this only really applies to a single user of the database, and besides, it only applies to the initial opening of the database. Security in a multi-user environment is more complex. Not all users get access to every object in the database, but one user must have access to all the objects. The best way to manage this is to organize users into security levels by group. This information is stored by default in the System.wif file. The Access user-level security model uses four elements: users, groups, permissions, and objects.
The default Access security level is ‘Admin.’ To enhance security, you first need to change this so certain groups of users have certain access privileges. You will use the User-Level Security Wizard to accomplish this task. The database is owned by the person who runs the wizard. Choose the Tools | Security | User-Level Security Wizard menu option to get started. Through a series of dialog boxes you’ll choose which users and groups get access to which objects in the database. You’ll also choose passwords and personal IDs for the users. Finally you’ll encode the database.
That’s it for this 10-part tutorial on Microsoft Access. I hope you learned something new and expanded your Access skill set. Let me know if you have any questions or comments. You can email me at sage@grantstation.com.
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