Database Login Using Windows ID - Citrix and Thin Clients

[IncidentalProgrammer]

Hi, all!



I'm currently buidling a database in Access 2007, which will have its back-end stored in SQL Server 2012. The project has ballooned from something that just my small department woulduse, to something that's going to end up including tools used around the office. NOW I find out we have some people on "thin clients". Here's the trouble:

I have programmed two ways to login: 1) standard, manual login with name and password, 2) button to login using Windows ID (compares the ID to the user table). My boss REALLY likes the 2nd option for security reasons, but we're thinking it's not going to work on these thin clients.

Basically, the thin clients can get online, go to Citrix, login, and access just what they need to do their work, and apparently they don't have Windows IDs. I just looked at one though, and when the user hit the Start button (within Citrix), it showed her name, just like mine does.

Does anyone know how to do a Windows ID type login for Citrix users that don't have Windows IDs? Is there a way to make Access check Citrix for a user ID?

[pbaldy]

I had apps running on Citrix for a while and I was still able to grab a windows login. Among other things I used it to make sure each user was running their own copy of the front end.

[IncidentalProgrammer]

Citrix in and of itself isn't the problem, because the login does work fine on mine. The issue is going to be the thin clients, who don't have Windows IDs. I talked to one of the girls with a thin client, and she said she doesn't even have to log in to the computer itself, and all the desktop will do is let her get to the Citrix website, and she logs into just Citrix. So there's no Windows ID on on the computer, itself. Her name shows up in Citrix when she hits the Start button, but that's it.

I do have some code to clone the front end when people access it, I'm just not able to use it until I split the database, and I'm not ready to split it quite yet.

[pbaldy]

There may be different ways of setting Citrix up, but our people were also using thin clients and still logged into the network, though perhaps it was wrapped into the Citrix login. They got email and such which required a network login.

[NTC]

Terminal Services / Citrix is a deployment technique and doesn't affect Windows. The Access front end file cannot be located on the physical thin device - it must be located in their virtual desktop - and it will be running on a full Windows OS there. From the Access perspective nothing changes. Each user must have its own, exclusive Access front end file - and these all link to the single common Access back end file. The Access front end file does not know (or care) that the end user is getting to the Front End via terminal services technology. One can pull the same Active Directory ID regardless of deployment technique.

[pbaldy]

I would reinforce the comment "Each user must have its own, exclusive Access front end file". Don't put a file on the server at "C:\Whatever\AppName.accde" and assume that because Citrix theoretically gives each person their own copy of it you'll be okay. Unless something has changed, they don't truly get their own copy when they run it. I had twitchy issues until I made sure each person ran their own by putting them in subfolders:

C:\Whatever\pbaldy\AppName.accde
C:\Whatever\JoeBlow\AppName.accde

[IncidentalProgrammer]

In regards to the individual front ends per user, I did find some code a while back that is supposed to clone the front end whenever someone opens it, so that should take care of that.

After a thorough round of testing, I found that NOBODY was able to log in, but me. I've since fixed the module that pulls the ID, and isolated what I believe to be the only remaining issue. The DLookup that's supposed to compare that ID to the user table is only looking at the first row in the user table, so it's only letting me in. When I switched names around and put mine in the next row down, it wouldn't let me in. Does anyone know why it would do that?

I'll post the DLookup here, when I can. As of right now, Citrix has been kicking me out all morning, so I can't really get into the database. (And because my life is full of irony like that, there's a Citrix advertisement in the banner over this box, as I type. Go figure.)

[pbaldy]

Does the DLookup() have a criteria? Doesn't sound like it, and it needs one.

DLookup Usage Samples

That's context sensitive advertising at its best!

[IncidentalProgrammer]

Well, that'll do it! Still very new to this stuff, and missed a criteria. Those are good examples, but I'm at a loss as to how to compare it to the name returned by the other module. Here's what I've got:

      'Call GetUserName module to login via Windows.
    GetUserName.fOSUserName     'Compare Windows login to user table.
    If fOSUserName = DLookup("UserID", "tblUser") Then
      'Close login form & open switchboard.
     DoCmd.Close acForm, "frmLogin", acSaveNo
     DoCmd.OpenForm "Switchboard"

Am I at least on the right track?

And yeah, I wish they'd put as much work into the product, as they do into their advertising! I felt bad for the IT guy this morning, bless his heart; I'll probably be able to hear him yelling all the way from the bowels of the IT office, if he gets one more email from me about Citrix today. LOL

[pbaldy]

Along the lines of

If DCount("*", "tblUser", "UserID = '" & fOSUserName & "'") > 0 Then

[IncidentalProgrammer]

That fixed it! You are a miracle-worker. Thank you!!!

[pbaldy]

Happy to help!