Open an MS access table by Visual Basic code

[Mike Phan]

Hi,

I am writing a visual basic databse program, and need a code to open a MS access table which is protected by a password.

It can open the table without password. I need to protect it by password to prevent someone to open and edit it, but I have got a problem to let the visual basic open it by prompt the password automatically.

In short, if the table without password, everything works fine, and if the table is set by a password, the program cannot open that table so it displays an error message.

Please help. Thanks


Mike

 

[Sane]

If an MS Access database is protected by a password, you can provide the password to the OpenCurrentDatabase method:

oAccess.OpenCurrentDatabase(filepath:="c:\myDatabase.mdb", _
                            Exclusive:=False, _
                            bstrPassword:="MyPassword")

A couple warnings.

Firstly, the password is case sensitive.

Secondly, a hacker could read the compiled binary executable and find your password. A simple private key would help, but not prevent.

Although if the database commands are streamed through a port, attempts to stop a hacker from seeing the password are futile. Unless, of course, MS Access uses a private/public key encryption, which I somewhat doubt.

This is all assuming that your password isn't worth only a few pretty pennies.

 

[Mike Phan]

Sane,

Thank you for the help. Could you please explain liltle bit more about this method? How to add this to a Visual Basic 6.0 code?

I defined this function, and call it from the main form_load(). I changed the path to correct directory and change the password too. It still doesn't work. Sorry, I am not a programmer (EE)

Thanks a lot

Mike

 

[Sane]

It's quite straightforward, actually. First, find where the method "OpenCurrentDatabase" is being called. For instance, you might find this line somewhere in your code:

oAccess.OpenCurrentDatabase(filepath:="[color=red]c:\myDatabase.mdb[/color]")

Then add an additional parameter, "bstrPassword", with a value equivilent to the password. The following code turns the above code into an example where the password is thisIsmyPassword ¹:

oAccess.OpenCurrentDatabase(filepath:="[color=red]c:\myDatabase.mdb[/color]", bstrPassword="[color=red]thisIsMyPassword[/color]")

If this doesn't answer your question, it would help to post your code.

¹ Red denotes a variable field.​

 

[Jheriko]

Sane,

Could you please explain liltle bit more about this method? How to add this to a Visual Basic 6.0 code?

http://msdn.microsoft.com

msdn is an excellent resource once you know the name of a particular method. There is a full description of exactly what everything does and if you are lucky there are sometimes some quite useful examples.

The problem of course is finding the name of a method... luckily the tree view on the left will usually lead to some list of all of the methods that are a part of some library.

Unfortunately the amount and quality of the VB6 help seems to be lowering all of the time... if you need VB.net though it is extremely useful.

A search for your method's name reveals http://support.microsoft.com/kb/235422/ as the second result (the first: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa221388(office.11).aspx is the actual reference for the method).

Hope this helps.

 

[Mike Phan]

Hi Jheriko,

Thank you very much. It is so cool. Now, my program is kind of opening a security Access database without prompt user password. However, I am still trying to DISABLE SECURITY WARNING BOX because it blocks the program. If you know about this, please help me some more. Thanks


Mike

 

[Sane]

Could you tell me more about this warning box? What is causing it to appear?