How to prevent importing tables

[Connie]

Hello all. Thanks for all of the input. At some point, I think someone was
looking for an email. My msn account is (e-mail address removed). I am going to
read all of the responses to see if there is something that will work. For a
refresher, yes I want to protect the table and query design and don't really
care to protect the data. So again, thanks for the information.

Connie

 

[Tom Wickerath]

I asked how you get proof from potential users of the password

cracking tools that they are the legitimate owners of the database?

Answered in a private e-mail message that has been sent to you.

Tom
_______________________________________

:

You misunderstood. I didn't ask how your friend proves it to you. I asked
how you get proof from potential users of the password cracking tools that
they are the legitimate owners of the database?

--
Joan Wild
Microsoft Access MVP

_______________________________________

Tom Wickerath wrote:

Joan,

I don't have a need for my friend to prove anything. I gladly accept
this person's statement at face value. I have known the
owner/operator of QBuilt for several years. Do you require that your
friends prove every statement that they make to you? I certainly hope
not.

 

[TC]

I use Setup Factory as the installer.

The problem seems to be this. I do all my development in A97. When I
converted my final A97 mdb to A2k, 2k2, and 2k3, and produced an mde of
each, the conversions added a reference to OWC10.DLL, the office web
components library. The mde's worked fine on the pc where I did the
conversions, but they failed on about 30% of other pc's, with a missing
reference to that library. The failures were unpredictable and involved
most forms working but some forms not; inconsistently, from pc to pc.

I didn't know that a conversion from one version of access, to another,
could automatically add *unnecessary* new references. My A97 mdb does
not use anything from office web components.

Now I know better. And I have 100 expensively labelled coasters to
prove it!

TC

 

[Rick Brandt]

I use Setup Factory as the installer.

The problem seems to be this. I do all my development in A97. When I
converted my final A97 mdb to A2k, 2k2, and 2k3, and produced an mde
of each, the conversions added a reference to OWC10.DLL, the office
web components library. The mde's worked fine on the pc where I did
the conversions, but they failed on about 30% of other pc's, with a
missing reference to that library. The failures were unpredictable
and involved most forms working but some forms not; inconsistently,
from pc to pc.

I didn't know that a conversion from one version of access, to
another, could automatically add *unnecessary* new references. My A97
mdb does not use anything from office web components.

Now I know better. And I have 100 expensively labelled coasters to
prove it!

TC

Does that only happen when converting to 2K2 and 2K3? I convert from 97 to 2K
all the time and have never noticed any references like that being added.

Aside...since the 2K mde will run in 2K2 and 2K3, why do you bother to produce
those versions at all?

 

[TC]

Rick Brandt wrote:

Does that only happen when converting to 2K2 and 2K3? I convert from 97 to 2K
all the time and have never noticed any references like that being added.

I've only done two previous builds of this product. The problem did not
occur on either of those. But this time, I did not have access to the
necessary different versions of Access. So I hired a training room from
a local software training company. They set up one pc with A97, one
with a2k, one with a2k2, and one with a2k3. I took the A97 mdb to each
pc, in turn, and converted to that pc's version of Access (2k, 2k2,
2k3). I then created the corresponding mdes. I did not think to check
the references in the converted mdb's. I knew that the references were
fine in the a97 mdb, and it didn't occur to me to check them in the
converted mdb's.

When the corresponding mde's did not work, later, on other pc's running
a2k2 & a2k3, I copied the a2k2 & a2k3 mdb's (which I had saved on CD)
to those pc's, to look at them. When I tried to compile them, they
failed. When I looked to see why, I found the missing reference
described before. That reference is absolutely /not/ in the a97 mdb,
but it absolutely /is/ in the a2k, a2k2 & a2k3 mdb's that were created
from the a97 mdb, and which luckily, I had the foresight to save.

Since this has never hapenned to me before, but it defintely did happen
here, I can only assume that the problem was pc-related. There must
have been something about those pc's, which caused the problem.
Unfortunately they wiped them at the end of that day, so it is too late
to go back & look at them now.

Aside...since the 2K mde will run in 2K2 and 2K3, why do you bother to produce
those versions at all?

Um, good question! I knew that the 2k2 one would run in 2k3, but I did
not know that the 2k one will run in both those higher versions. Are
you absolutely certain of that? (I'd test it myself, but I'm back in
the situation of not having easy access to all of the versions.)

In particular, will an a2k mde recognize the automationsecurity
property? I use that prop on pc's with a2k3, to suppress the security
warnings.

Cheers,
TC

 

[TC]

Hm, I guess the question about whether an a2k mde will recognize the
automationsecurity property, is irrelevant. I imagine it won't - since
the prop did not exist then (?), and, a2k does not issue the warnings
that this prop is designed to suppress!

TC

 

[Joan Wild]

That's correct, and a 2000 mde will run in higher versions.

 

[TC]

Hmm, I've changed my mind about the automationsecurity question! I
think that it does need to be asked.

The automationsecurity property was unknown in 2000. But it is known in
2003. If I ran a 2000 mde in 2003, would that property still work
correctly?

Anyone care to do a quick test?

Cheers,
TC

 

[Jeff Conrad]

Hi TC,

Well I did a few quick tests and here were the results.

1. I created a 2000 MDE file and made the appropriate VBS
script to launch the file. I made sure the macro security setting
was on Medium in 2003. Using the VBS script file to launch the
database in 2003 did indeed open the file *without* any prompts.
However, the startup form seemed to be "lost"??? It was like
the form was invisible, but I pretty sure it was open. Hard to
explain. Also, the application window was smaller.

2. I did the exact same test with a 2003 MDE file and exactly
the same results. No prompts, but still the same weird behavior
with the form not showing and a smaller application window.

This was the script I was using:

dim o
set o=createobject ("Access.Application")
o.automationsecurity=1
o.opencurrentdatabase "Path to database file here"
o.visible=true
o.usercontrol=true
set o=nothing

Out of time for now and off to bed.
--
Jeff Conrad
Access Junkie - MVP
http://home.bendbroadband.com/conradsystems/accessjunkie.html
http://www.access.qbuilt.com/html/articles.html

in message:

 

[TC]

Ok, thanks for that Jeff. It seems that the 2000 mde does recognize the
2003 property. I may well change my setup program, to only inclding the
2000 mde.

You say that the application window was smaller. This is due to
starting the app from a script. You often get different sizing
behaviour, starting from a script, compared to starting from a
shortcut.

My app is designed to run full-screen, so I'm in the process of adding
this code: if screen is 800x600 then maximize the app, else use APIs to
size the app to 800x600. I may even go the whole hog: if the user then
resizes the app bigger or smaller himself, make it dynamically resize
its controls accordingly, then save the new size in the registry for
next time.

You say the startup form did not appear. Not sure why that would be.
Maybe add a msgbox, to see if it is starting or not.

Thanks again!
TC

 

[Jeff Conrad]

in message:

Hi TC,

Ok, thanks for that Jeff. It seems that the 2000 mde does recognize the
2003 property. I may well change my setup program, to only including the
2000 mde.

No problem.
Seems to work just fine on bypassing the security prompts.

You say that the application window was smaller. This is due to
starting the app from a script. You often get different sizing
behaviour, starting from a script, compared to starting from a
shortcut.

Ok, I did not realize that would happen.
However, adding a AppMaximize did not seem to help.

My app is designed to run full-screen, so I'm in the process of adding
this code: if screen is 800x600 then maximize the app, else use APIs to
size the app to 800x600. I may even go the whole hog: if the user then
resizes the app bigger or smaller himself, make it dynamically resize
its controls accordingly, then save the new size in the registry for
next time.

Sounds cool.

You say the startup form did not appear. Not sure why that would be.
Maybe add a msgbox, to see if it is starting or not.

Did that.
A picture is worth a thousand words so how about some screenshots
to show you the results of my tests?


http://home.bendbroadband.com/conradsystems/accessjunkie/tcpage.html

 

[TC]

Hi Jeff

That is certainly strange.

Do you feel this is a problem in running the 2k mde in higher versions,
or, is it more like a side effect of starting the application via
automation?

Try adding o.visible=true before the o.opendatabase. That should fix
it.

PS. Like your website! I'll trawl around in there & see what I can
find!

Cheers,
TC

 

[Jeff Conrad]

in message:

Hi TC,

That is certainly strange.

I thought it was myself as well.

Do you feel this is a problem in running the 2k mde in higher versions,
or, is it more like a side effect of starting the application via
automation?

I got the same results when opening a 2000 MDE and a 2003 MDE
so I believe it was from the automation.

Try adding o.visible=true before the o.opendatabase. That should fix
it.

Ahh ha!! yep, that was it!
Everything works fine now.
No security prompts at all launching the 2000 MDE file in 2003.
The application window appears smaller for a brief second and
then is maximized because of the code I added.

PS. Like your website! I'll trawl around in there & see what I can
find!

Thanks.

 

[TC]

Excellent, thanks for your help.

Off to bed; Now!

Cheers,
TC