Hide Switchboard items

I have a switchboard built with all the items needed. I have a query that captures the current user, compares that to a table and gets the info for that user. If the user is a member of a certain group, say purchasing, I want to hide all switchboard items except for purchasing. Is there a way to do that?

re: Hide Switchboard items

Hi. If you are using the built-in switchboard manager you can't do much in the way of such customisation with it. The switchboard items are stored in the table called Switchboard in the application itself.

The Switchboard wizards that built the switchboard form for you (which is just one form, no matter how many apparently different sets of options are defined) have already generated VBA code to manage the selection of switchboard items. You would not be able to maintain the switchboard using the built-in wizards if you try to set further options for restricting the display of options under your own control.

You would need to devise a custom switchboard for yourself and show/hide items under program control. If you have a look at the code behind the built-in switchboard form you will see that this is not necessarily as straightforward as you may imagine it is.

A better option may simply be to define individual custom forms with suitable buttons and options for each group of users, opening and closing these under program control according to the user group to which the user belongs. You can use DLookup in code to lookup the value of the usergroup from your user query (the one you mention in your post that has all the details about the user and the group to which he or she belongs).

-Stewart

re: Hide Switchboard items

Thanks Stewart, I figured as much. How can I hide menu options on a custom form? Do I have to use the form "on load" event to set up if then else's for each user group (there's <10) or what?
Thanks
Emil

re: Hide Switchboard items

1. I'm assuming that you have a single, Access Generated Switchboard with 7 Default Buttons on it named Option1, Option2, ...Option7. If this is not the case, things get a little more complicated.
2. The trick is not to 'Hide' the Switchboard Buttons but to 'Disable' them depending on the User.
3. The following code, placed in the Switchboard's Open() Event will enable all 7 Buttons for the Admin User, and disable all Buttons except 5 and 7 for the User named Purchasing:
   
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   1. Dim intCounter As Integer
   2.  
   3. 'You can't disable a Control that has the Focus, so divert the
   4. 'Focus to another Control on the Switchboard
   5. Me![cmdViewHistory].SetFocus
   6.  
   7. Select Case CurrentUser()
   8.   Case "Admin"           'Enable All Command Buttons
   9.     For intCounter = 1 To 7
   10.       Me.Controls("Option" & CStr(intCounter)).Enabled = True
   11.     Next
   12.   Case "Purchasing"      'Disable All Buttons except 5 and 7
   13.     For intCounter = 1 To 4
   14.       Me.Controls("Option" & CStr(intCounter)).Enabled = False
   15.     Next
   16.       Me.Controls("Option6").Enabled = False
   17.   Case Else
   18.     'You tell me
   19. End Select
4. To precisely identify what Buttons were clicked on which Switchboards, I initialize Global Variables to the Caption of the Switchboard and the specific Button Clicked (Lines 4 and 5) which is defined by intBtn in the HandleClicks() Function, as in:
   
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   1. Private Function HandleButtonClick(intBtn As Integer)
   2. 'This function is called when a button is clicked.
   3. 'intBtn indicates which button was clicked.
   4. gSwitchboardName = Me.Caption
   5. gButtonClicked = intBtn
   6.  
   7. 'Constants for the commands that can be executed.
   8. Const conCmdGotoSwitchboard = 1
   9. Const conCmdOpenFormAdd = 2
   10. Const conCmdOpenFormBrowse = 3
   11. Const conCmdOpenReport = 4
   12. Const conCmdCustomizeSwitchboard = 5
   13. Const conCmdExitApplication = 6
   14. Const conCmdRunMacro = 7
   15. Const conCmdRunCode = 8
   16.  
   17. '...yadda, yadda, yadda
5. Let me know how you make out, and if this is what you are looking for.

P.S. - I'm making the assumption that you can handle the Lookup Code for Users/Groups yourself.

re: Hide Switchboard items

Thank you for the code. I seem to be lost in Access land. whenever I try to run the code it keeps asking me for a macro! I can't run it in step mode or anything else. Then when I try to open the form, it's giving me an error about the cmdviewhistory field. What is that? What do I change it to? The rest of the code makes sense to me except the macro part and the cmdviewhistory part.
What am I dong wrong????
Emil

re: Hide Switchboard items

1. Quote:

   Then when I try to open the form, it's giving me an error about the cmdviewhistory field. What is that?
2. Replace cmdViewHistory with the Name of another Command Button on the Switchboard. The idea is to re-direct Focus to an Object other than a Switchboard Command Button.
3. Replace Admin and Purchasing User Names with those appropriate to your situation.
4. The code is for Command Buttons named Option1 thru Option7 (Default). If this does not apply to you, rename.