Using a SERVER type data source

[jartman2]

I'm growing concerned about security issues with my multi-user application. Users can double click through Windows Explorer and open files. Even worse, they can delete tables or the entire directory. I don't see any useful way to restrict permissions in Windows or use the table password feature in Paradox to help with this, so I started thinking about a database server.

If I understand correctly, I could set up the BDE on the client machines to access the data through ODBC. Is it then possible to set up the ODBC server on my W2K fileserver, grant directory permissions to the account that's running the ODBC server (would that be the system account?), and deny permissions to other users?

What software can I get to act as the ODBC server? Can the BDE do that? Will I see a serious performance hit by inserting yet another layer of middleware? Is ODBC the best way to go about this?

-John

 

[zeebow]

Hi John,

I fully understand your security concerns, which however have been there for years anyway. With using windows explorer people can access not just Paradox files but basically any application file under the sun.

What I find as a solution though you may find drastic is an intranet application using Corel Web Server OCX. The tables and data can be put on a server remotely and in a secure place, while the front end can be a normal browser.

In recent years I have been using paradox mostly in this way, and have found it to be secure, robust and can also be used over the internet.

regards
Chris

 

[jartman2]

I thought about that, but my application has many inter-related forms, which call each other, do rather involved calculations that affect multiple tables, etc. There's hardly a field in the whole application that doesn't have ObjectPAL behind it. Would this still be reasonable in terms of speed and usability in a web browser front end?