Form security

[accessnewb]

I have set user permissions on forms. So basically if a user has only read access then certain buttons to open a form or delete records will be disabled.

Now the problem is even if a user does not have access to open a form, he can still go to the navigation pane and double click the form to open it. I have hidden certain forms. Also, I know that I can go to Access options-> Current database and uncheck the "Display navigation pane" option so that the entire pane is hidden. But a user who knows his way around access can still manipulate these settings and view forms/manipulate fields he is not supposed to view.



Any ideas to disable opening a form through the navigation pane. I am thinking of a message if user double clicks a form. Something like "You do not have permission to view this. Please contact administrator"

[boblarson]

Well, for one I would be locking it down so nobody could get into the navigation pane. But you can add a little trick by using the OpenArgs of the form. In your code to open the form, include the OpenArgs like:

DoCmd.OpenForm "FormNameHere", OpenArgs:= Me.Name

And then in the OPEN event of the form you can use:

If Me.OpenArgs = vbNullString Then
   "You must open the form from XXXX form"
   DoCmd.Close acForm, Me.Name, acSaveNo
End If

[accessnewb]

Well, for one I would be locking it down so nobody could get into the navigation pane.

How do I do that?? And i will try the other method u suggested.

[accessnewb]

The method doesn't work? I tried opening the form from the navigation pane and I could. This is what I did. Imagine I have 2 forms called Main and UserInfo. The form UserInfo cannot be seen by all the users, so if he tries opening it through the navigation pane, he should get an error.

So in the code to open the UserInfo form I wrote this code:

 
DoCmd.OpenForm "UserInfo", OpenArgs:= Me.Name

and in the open event of the UserInfo form, I used the code:

If Me.OpenArgs = vbNullString Then
  MsgBox "You must open the form from Main form"
   DoCmd.Close acForm, Me.Name, acSaveNo
End If

But I can still open the UserInfo form from the navigation pane

[Bob Fitz]

Hi

I think you need to change this line:

 
DoCmd.OpenForm "UserInfo", OpenArgs:= Me.Name

to:

 
DoCmd.OpenForm "UserInfo", OpenArgs:= "UserInfo"

[accessnewb]

umm, I am still able to open the form from the navigation pane

[boblarson]

Hi

I think you need to change this line:

 
DoCmd.OpenForm "UserInfo", OpenArgs:= Me.Name

to:

 
DoCmd.OpenForm "UserInfo", OpenArgs:= "UserInfo"

No, you are incorrect. Me.Name is supposed to remain AS IS - Me.Name because you want the name of the form that is OPENING the form, not the form being opened.

So, you might need to use this instead:

If Nz(Me.OpenArgs, vbNullString) <> "TheFormNameWhichItShouldbeCalledFrom" Then

so in the code that calls the form Me.Name is the code you use which passes the name of the form which you were on when you clicked the button to open the second form. The second part is going to go in the open event of the form that you don't want opened unless it matches. So in this case, instead of checking for a null or empty string, we are going to check to see that the OpenArgs matches the form name of the form that SHOULD have opened the form. If not, it will close it.

[accessnewb]

Ooooh! This code works. Thanks a ton. It would also be great if you could explain how I can do this:

Well, for one I would be locking it down so nobody could get into the navigation pane

[boblarson]

This should give you a start:

Locking down Access

But while that is good, they don't touch on the DISABLE BYPASS KEY which you should also do:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826765

[accessnewb]

thanks a lot again! This is exactly what I was looking for. I am gonna mark this thread as solved

[accessnewb]

Any idea how I can do that for the login form, that is, disable it from opening in the navigation pane. The login form is the first form that opens and so not sure how to code in that scenario.

[boblarson]

Is there a reason why the login form couldn't be called from the navigation pane? You could add this in the open event of it (to reset them and make them start all over):

Dim i As Integer
For i = Forms.Count to 0 Step - 1
   If Forms(i).Name <> "LoginFormNameHere" 
      DoCmd.Close acForm, Forms(i).Name, acSaveNo
   End If
Next

Then they would be stuck with just the login form open and have to follow it again because it would close every form (we could check for every object too).

[accessnewb]

I used your code and I got the error, "Run-time error '2456': The number you used to refer to the form is invalid."

Private Sub Form_Open(Cancel As Integer)
Dim i As Integer
For i = Forms.Count To 0 Step -1
If Forms(i).Name <> "F_Login" Then
DoCmd.Close acForm, Forms(i).Name, acSaveNo
End If
Next
End Sub

[boblarson]

When it happens check to see what the value of i is.

[accessnewb]

I printed it in the immediate window and I got the value of i as 1. I printed it before the if conditon because the error was in the if condition

Dim i As Integer
For i = Forms.Count To 0 Step -1
Debug.Print i
   If Forms(i).Name <> "F_Login" Then
      DoCmd.Close acForm, Forms(i).Name, acSaveNo
   End If
Next