How to hide paths of hyperlinks?

[jobbie]

I have created a db that stores the paths of some docs on a shared drive. And these are presented to the user through forms in the form of hyperlinks. So if a user wants to access these docs he has to click the link in the form which opens that particular doc. The problem is the links that the user clicks on shows the entire path of the file. And since I have to give full rights to the users to the folder which stores the files it's possible they could locate the folder through the file paths and play some mischief with the files on the shared drive. So how do I prevent Access from displaying the paths while at the same time provide a link to the users to click on?

[ranman256]

Even if you hide the path in access, it will show anyway when the document opens, in the address bar of the web page.

[ranman256]

You could show a button, but the code will open the link

Paste this code into a module, and it will open ANY file in its native application.

usage:
OpenNativeApp txtBoxLink

OpenNativeApp "c:\folder\file.pdf" 'will open it in acrobat
and
OpenNativeApp "c:\folder\file.doc" 'will open the doc in Word, etc.

'Attribute VB_Name = "modNativeApp"
'Option Compare Database
Option Explicit

Private Declare Function ShellExecute Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "ShellExecuteA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpszOp As String, ByVal lpszFile As String, ByVal lpszParams As String, ByVal lpszDir As String, ByVal FsShowCmd As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetDesktopWindow Lib "user32" () As Long
Const SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1
Const SE_ERR_FNF = 2&
Const SE_ERR_PNF = 3&
Const SE_ERR_ACCESSDENIED = 5&
Const SE_ERR_OOM = 8&
Const SE_ERR_DLLNOTFOUND = 32&
Const SE_ERR_SHARE = 26&
Const SE_ERR_ASSOCINCOMPLETE = 27&
Const SE_ERR_DDETIMEOUT = 28&
Const SE_ERR_DDEFAIL = 29&
Const SE_ERR_DDEBUSY = 30&
Const SE_ERR_NOASSOC = 31&
Const ERROR_BAD_FORMAT = 11&


Public Sub OpenNativeApp(ByVal psDocName As String)
Dim r As Long, msg As String

r = StartDoc(psDocName)
If r <= 32 Then
    'There was an error
    Select Case r
        Case SE_ERR_FNF
            msg = "File not found"
        Case SE_ERR_PNF
            msg = "Path not found"
        Case SE_ERR_ACCESSDENIED
            msg = "Access denied"
        Case SE_ERR_OOM
            msg = "Out of memory"
        Case SE_ERR_DLLNOTFOUND
            msg = "DLL not found"
        Case SE_ERR_SHARE
            msg = "A sharing violation occurred"
        Case SE_ERR_ASSOCINCOMPLETE
            msg = "Incomplete or invalid file association"
        Case SE_ERR_DDETIMEOUT
            msg = "DDE Time out"
        Case SE_ERR_DDEFAIL
            msg = "DDE transaction failed"
        Case SE_ERR_DDEBUSY
            msg = "DDE busy"
        Case SE_ERR_NOASSOC
            msg = "No association for file extension"
        Case ERROR_BAD_FORMAT
            msg = "Invalid EXE file or error in EXE image"
        Case Else
            msg = "Unknown error"
    End Select
'    MsgBox msg
End If
End Sub

[jobbie]

Even if you hide the path in access, it will show anyway when the document opens, in the address bar of the web page.

yes but these are not webpages. these are pdf files saved on a shared drive. So will they still be able to see the path?

[ranman256]

If you use the code above it will open in Adobe, but the path will be in there if they want to find it.