Developer Extensions Question

[Damon Heron]

I am considering getting the VS Tools for MS Office, and am curious about
the backend of an Access db. Does it remain the same - as a mdb file - or
is it converted to an exe also? And if it is an mdb, then the user would
not have access to it unless they had Access on their pc, right?

Damon

[Tony Toews]

"Damon Heron" <da******@hotmail.com> wrote:

I am considering getting the VS Tools for MS Office, and am curious about
the backend of an Access db. Does it remain the same - as a mdb file - or
is it converted to an exe also?
Neither the FE or the BE is converted to an EXE. Instead msaccess.exe with different
registry keys is shipped along with your app.
And if it is an mdb, then the user would
not have access to it unless they had Access on their pc, right?

Access to the BE MDB in what sense? The runtime would still be able to use it for
data storage purposes. If you have a startup form in the BE MDB it will still show
up. I have a start form in my BEs that basically states "Go away"

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

[Tony Toews]

"Damon Heron" <da******@hotmail.com> wrote:

I am considering getting the VS Tools for MS Office, and am curious about
the backend of an Access db. Does it remain the same - as a mdb file - or
is it converted to an exe also? And if it is an mdb, then the user would
not have access to it unless they had Access on their pc, right?

Oh, almost forgot.

Microsoft Access (Office) Developer Edition FAQ
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/developereditionfaq.htm

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

[Damon Heron]

Thanks, Tony. I unnerstan now. I was under the mistaken impression that
the mdb's were converted to exes, but this is simply a runtime version of
Access for a specific db.... If the user clicks on the "be" file, it would
still open and they would be able to mess with the tables, unless some other
security is installed, right?

Damon
"Tony Toews" <tt****@telusplanet.net> wrote in message
news:av********************************@4ax.com...

"Damon Heron" <da******@hotmail.com> wrote:

I am considering getting the VS Tools for MS Office, and am curious about
the backend of an Access db. Does it remain the same - as a mdb file - oris it converted to an exe also? And if it is an mdb, then the user would
not have access to it unless they had Access on their pc, right?

Oh, almost forgot.

Microsoft Access (Office) Developer Edition FAQ
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/developereditionfaq.htm

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

[Tony Toews]

"Damon Heron" <da******@hotmail.com> wrote:

Thanks, Tony. I unnerstan now. I was under the mistaken impression that
the mdb's were converted to exes, but this is simply a runtime version of
Access for a specific db.... If the user clicks on the "be" file, it would
still open and they would be able to mess with the tables, unless some other
security is installed, right?

Correct.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm

[Larry Linson]

"Damon Heron" wrote

I am considering getting the VS Tools
for MS Office, and am curious about
the backend of an Access db. Does
it remain the same - as a mdb file - or
is it converted to an exe also?
Niether the back-end nor the front-end is converted to .exe; they are
distributed in their original form, which may be MDB, MDE, ADP, or ADE, but
with run-time support.
And if it is an mdb, then the user would
not have access to it unless they had
Access on their pc, right?

You can access the data in an MDB from code in several Microsoft and some
other products... Excel and Word are two examples. If you do not want the
tables and data to be easily accessible, apply Access' security and
distribute the .MDW file, or give them access only via queries. Still, you
should be aware that it is relatively inexpensive to obtain software that
will break Access' security.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

[Ima Lostsoul]

In article <%R****************@nwrddc03.gnilink.net>,
bo*****@localhost.not says...

"Damon Heron" wrote

> I am considering getting the VS Tools
> for MS Office, and am curious about
> the backend of an Access db. Does
> it remain the same - as a mdb file - or
> is it converted to an exe also?

Niether the back-end nor the front-end is converted to .exe; they are
distributed in their original form, which may be MDB, MDE, ADP, or ADE, but
with run-time support.

> And if it is an mdb, then the user would
> not have access to it unless they had
> Access on their pc, right?

You can access the data in an MDB from code in several Microsoft and some
other products... Excel and Word are two examples. If you do not want the
tables and data to be easily accessible, apply Access' security and
distribute the .MDW file, or give them access only via queries. Still, you
should be aware that it is relatively inexpensive to obtain software that
will break Access' security.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

I like the concept of using a custom mdw file. Remove all right from
the default user and admin. Then disable bypass, etc. Write a function
to enable/disable bypass and fire it of an obscure function key which
also requires a case sensative PW.

[Larry Linson]

Why ever enable "bypass"? Just retain a developer copy in MDB form without
the final security tweaks. Add those final security tweaks only to a new
release just before you distribute it, but always keep the developer copy.

Still, it is inexpensive enough to obtain software to break security and get
at the data that you would be unwise to trust Access security for that
purpose. And, it is easy for most experienced Access developers to recreate
a typical Access application just from observing it run.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

"Ima Lostsoul" <[e-mail]> wrote in message
news:MP***********************@netnews.comcast.net ...

In article <%R****************@nwrddc03.gnilink.net>,
bo*****@localhost.not says...

"Damon Heron" wrote

> I am considering getting the VS Tools
> for MS Office, and am curious about
> the backend of an Access db. Does
> it remain the same - as a mdb file - or
> is it converted to an exe also?

Niether the back-end nor the front-end is converted to .exe; they are
distributed in their original form, which may be MDB, MDE, ADP, or ADE, but with run-time support.

> And if it is an mdb, then the user would
> not have access to it unless they had
> Access on their pc, right?

You can access the data in an MDB from code in several Microsoft and some other products... Excel and Word are two examples. If you do not want the tables and data to be easily accessible, apply Access' security and
distribute the .MDW file, or give them access only via queries. Still, you should be aware that it is relatively inexpensive to obtain software that will break Access' security.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

I like the concept of using a custom mdw file. Remove all right from
the default user and admin. Then disable bypass, etc. Write a function
to enable/disable bypass and fire it of an obscure function key which
also requires a case sensative PW.