Solved Access changes form settings randomly (1 Viewer)

[Saphirah]

Hello everyone, i am currently developing an access application for a small company.
We are close to finishing the project and the database has quite the size. I am the only developer so i have full control over the whole application.
We split our database into a frontend and a backend, and i am providing the frontend as a "ACCDE" file, so the users can not edit the application at all.
Recently there were quite a lot of errors i have not encountered before, and that should not exist, knowing the logic of my code and forms.

For example we have a table showing all the current assignments.
Yesterday the continous form changed to a single form on one computer, but stayed the same on others. The user was therefore not able to access his current assignments.

Another thing that happened was queries disappearing on single machines. One user updated to the latest version (by drag and dropping the file) and worked for half a day when suddenly a query disappeared and threw an error.

Due to the file being "ACCDE" i can exclude user-fault, because they simply can not edit the frontend.
I am running "Compact and Repair" quite often, i am always compiling my code before distribution.

Did anyone else experience this behaviour? Is there a fix to this?

Thank you very much for your help...

 

[Minty]

Are you compiling to an accde file?
It doesn't completely stop access to the objects.

 

[Saphirah]

Ok i tested it out, you can delete queries in an accde file, but you can neither delete or edit forms. So where does the "continous form" problem come from?

 

[gemma-the-husky]

The continuous/single form option is a form property. A user may well be able to right-click the form header and select a different view. I can't actually see how you can change from continuous to single, but you may be able to. I am looking at a 32bit mdb, so it may be different with an accdb/accde. I can switch from form view to datasheet view, but I can't see how to toggle a single form/continuous form. You can also use File/Options - maybe there is something in there.

When you change to single view. you should still have the browse buttons to move through records, although I agree it's strange if you don't expect it.

Just talking out loud, but maybe you are still in continuous view, but with a large record size for some reason, so it appears as if you are in single view.

Yes, you can edit tables and queries in an accde file. Are you users deliberately deleting objects?

I doubt the changes in appearance will be "random". It will be a "user" option of some sort.

 

[isladogs]

You may find my article on security worth reading: Improve Security 2 - Mendip Data Systems

 

[Saphirah]

Thank you very much for your help everyone. The Article about security is very interesting and i will definitely implement some of it in the future.

 

[isladogs]

We are all glad to help

 

[gemma-the-husky]

@Saphirah

Can you enlighten us with the solution please? What was the cause?

 

[Saphirah]

I am not fully aware of the problem yet, to be honest. I think it is user fault.
The funny thing is, code that is running on my computer on others is not working on individual computers, even though they are doing the exact same thing. We are currently trying to repair the access installations, and check if all references are set correctly.

About the continous form error, my boss said he changed the caption of some fields, maybe he accidentally changed the form from continous to single. (This happens fast by pressing enter after entering edit mode...)

And this is why i am very interested in the security article. I am currently securing the database so that users can not edit the forms , queries and tables.


So... thank you very much for your help everyone.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

About the continous form error, my boss said he changed the caption of some fields, maybe he accidentally changed the form from continous to single. (This happens fast by pressing enter after entering edit mode...)

Do you mean he changed the labels on the form design? He didn't add a caption at table level, did he? Table level captions are the devil's own work, designed to make a developer's task impossible.