HOWTO: Open an Access Database with User Security

• Microsoft Visual Basic Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions, 32-bit only, for Windows, version 4.0
• Microsoft Access versions 7.0, 97

SUMMARY

This article demonstrates how to open and view the contents of a secured Access database using Visual Basic. The steps below outline this process:

1. Secure the database: From Microsoft Access, set the appropriate user and group permissions to secure the database. For more information about securing a Microsoft Access database, see the REFERENCES section later in this article.



2. In your Visual Basic code, indicate where system database, system.mdw, is located. You can either set the SystemDB property of the DBEngine object or set the IniPath property to the registry location of the system database. For example:




   DbEngine.SystemDB="C:\MyApplication\system.mdw"
 

3. Open the database.


Note that opening a secured Access database is different from opening a database that is secured with the Microsoft Access user-level security feature.

MORE INFORMATION

This section demonstrates how to create a sample Visual Basic program to open a secured Access database. To use this sample program, you will need a secured database with the following attributes:

   Database Name:  Secure AccessDB.mda
   Database Table: Name
   Table Field:    Last Name
   User Name:      NewAdmin
   Password:       NewAdmin
   Member of:      Admins Group
   Permissions:    All 

Steps To Reproduce

1. Start Visual Basic, or if it is already running, click New Project from the File menu.



2. Place the following objects on the Form1 form and set the appropriate properties:




   Control             Name              Property         Value
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------

   Label               Label1            Caption          User Name:
                                         Height           255
                                         Left             120
                                         Top              120
                                         Width            855

   Text Box            Text1             Caption          <Blank>
                                         Height           285
                                         Left             1080
                                         Top              120
                                         Width            1455

   Command Button      Command1          Height           372
                                         Left             2760
                                         Top              120
                                         Width            1572

   Label               Label2            Caption          Password:
                                         Height           255
                                         Left             120
                                         Top              480
                                         Width            855

   Text Box            Text2             Caption          <Blank>
                                         Height           285
                                         Left             1080
                                         Top              480
                                         Width            1455

   Label               Label3            Caption          <Blank>
                                         Height           255
                                         Left             120
                                         Top              840
                                         Width            4335 

3. Copy and paste the following code to the Form1 Code Window:




   Private Sub Command1_Click()
      Dim MyWorkspace As Workspace
      Dim SecuredDB As String
      Dim slUserName As String
      Dim slPassword As String
      Dim db As Database
      Dim rs As Recordset

      'Set the location of the system database
      DBEngine.SystemDB = _
              "C:\Projects\Secured Database Article\system.mdw"

      'Create a new workspace object
      slUserName = Text1.Text
      slPassword = Text2.Text
      Set MyWorkspace = DBEngine.CreateWorkspace("New", _
                                                  slUserName, _
                                                  slPassword)

      'Open the database
      SecuredDB = _
             "C:\Projects\Secured Database Article\Secure AccessDB.mdb"
      Set db = DBEngine.Workspaces("New").OpenDatabase(SecuredDB)

      Set rs = db.OpenRecordset("Name", dbOpenDynaset)
      rs.MoveFirst
      Label3.Caption = _
                 "The first record is " & rs.Fields("LastName").Value

      'Close the recordset and the database
      rs.Close
      db.Close
   End Sub
 

4. Press the F5 key to run the project or, from the Tools menu, click Run Project. Enter a valid User Name and Password, and then click the command button. The first record in the Last Name field is displayed in the Label. If you enter an invalid User Name or an invalid Password, a run-time error (3029) occurs.

Possible Errors

Error: Run-time error '3028'
Can't start your application. The system database is missing or opened exclusively another user.

Debug: Set My Workspace = DBEngine.CreateWorkspace("New", _ "Admin", _ "")

Cause: You are setting the workspace using the global administrator user name and password. The global administrator may not have the necessary permissions to open the secured database.

Solution: Change the parameters to a valid user and password as specified in the system database.

Debug: DBEngine.IniPath = <path and file name of an initialization file specifying the location of the system database>

Cause: In 32-bit Visual Basic, this property requires the registry entry of the system database.

Solution: Set the property to the system database registry location or use the SystemDB property of the DBEngine object. Set the SystemDB property to the location and file name of the system database.



Error: Run-time error '3029'
Not a valid account name or password

Debug: Set MyWorkspace = DBEngine.CreateWorkspace("New", "UserName", _ "Password")

Cause: User name or password is not in the system database.

Solution: Add the user name and password to the system database. Refer to the chapter in the Access documentation listed in the references section of this article on how to add users to the system database.

Error: Run-time Error '3265'
Item not found in this collection.

Debug: Set db = DBEngine.Workspaces("New").OpenDatabase("SecuredDB")

Cause: New workspace was not appended to the workspace object of the DBEngine object.

Solution: Use the Append method of the DBEngine.Workspaces object to append the new workspace object to the DBEngine object. For more information, see the Append method in the Visual Basic online Help.

REFERENCES

Chapter 14 - Securing and Delivering Your Application, Building Applications with Microsoft Access for Windows 95.

Visual Basic Online Help - search on IniPath property, and then select the topic: DBEngine IniPath Now Uses Registry Entry (ReadMe)

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q161016 : INF: Using DAO to Open Password-Protected Database (7.0/97)

Additional query words: Access

Keywords : kbAccess kbVBp400 kbGrpVB APrgDataAcc IAPVBA
Version : WINDOWS:4.0,7.0,97
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto