InfoPath Dev

I have an InfoPath form that is accessed on SharePoint and it communicates with an Access mdb on another server.

My question concerns how you go about securing the access database such that InfoPath will still be able to communicate with it.

What I want is to set up a new access workgroup file (.mdw) with groups of users and associated permissions and passwords. I have no problem doing all this in Access, the problem is regarding how InfoPath handles a secured database.

Usually, I will set my users up with a database shortcut file to allow them to temporarily join my secure mdw workgroup. But how do you accomplish this when the user interacts with the database indirectly through the InfoPath form?

Hi Smaur,

As long as the Access DB is in the same domain, you should be able to use some form of Windows Auth to get at it. InfoPath will popup auth dialogs for you to fill in when you access a machine outside of your domain. I'm not sure exactly how Access authenticates, though.

You can make the form full trust to access the Access DB, but this will limit deployment options (since you'll have to sign the form or deploy an msi).

The other thing you could do is to write some code to grab the user names and authenticate them but the form would likely have to be full trust here too because users would be authenticating.

A third option is to build a web service in your domain on top of the Access DB and access that using Windows Authentication.

Some random ideas... I'm not very confident that they will help you, but figured I'd respond anyway ...

Patrick Halstead [InfoPath MVP]
InfoPathDev