Switchboard (Office 97)

[dreyes]

I have a switchboard setup for internal use for our department. My boss just asked me to give another dept. access to it but to limite them on which menus they can see and use. Is this possible?

[jacksonmacd]

You don't state explicitly in your post, but have you implemented user-level security on your database? If so, then you can use the CurrentUser() function to determine the identity of the current user. Then use code in the OnOpen event of your switchboard form to hide certain controls for selected users. Nothing automatic... you will have to code it for yourself.

[charlotte]

Just as an additional point, if the switchboard was built using the Switchboard manager, you wouldn't hide buttons on it since it's table driven and unpopulated buttons are hidden automatically. You would have to filter the records in the underlying table that drives it instead. You actually could do that pretty easily by adding a column to the Switchboard Items table that included the UserGroup, but you could no longer use the Switchboard Manager to modify your switchboard.

[Bat17]

Or just give them their own Front End with limited choices?

Peter

[charlotte]

That means they have to use the correct front end. Users have a way of NOT doing what you expect them to. <img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15>

[dreyes]

By giving them their own Front End do you mean another Switchboard? I didn't know we could use multi Switchboards.

[dreyes]

There is no security on the database. This was built as a db for our operators just to enter data and to see how much work was done. Since then it has grown and now other depts. want to "read" (view) what the current status is of each record.

I want them to only be able to hit a button and go to the folder where I list all the reports they can use. Nothing else and no where else.

[WendellB]

I think Peter has the right idea - create a separate front-end that only has the reports and a simple switchboard to preview them. Then apply security to both databases - it's quite useful to have a name associated with an entered data record so you can spot training or performance problems.

Neither of those is particularly difficult. There is a wizard in 97 that will split the database for you if you want to do it that way, or you can do it manually by importing the reports (and any queries they are based on) to a new database, and then linking to the tables with the Linked Table Manager.

The security wizard is an easy way to establish security on both databases. You may also want to lock down some of the aspects of the database by using the Tools/StartUp options, and you may want to prevent them from bypassing the Startup Options with the SHIFT key. NT file persmissions may also come into play here - you could give external users ReadOnly access to the MDB file. Hope this helps.

[jacksonmacd]

I agree - the separate front end would be a simple solution. Depending on the network design, you could locate the different frontends in different folders such that the users could only see their designated frontend. That would address the issue raised by Charlotte.

[charlotte]

No, he's talking about creating a separate application to use as the front end that those users could see and use.