How do I get ms-access to connect to ms-sql as a different user?

Question

How do I get ms-access to connect (through ODBC) to an ms-sql database as a different user than their Active Directory ID?

I don\'t want to specify an account in th

Answer 1

I think you can get this to work the way you want it to if you use an "ODBC DSN-LESS connection"

If you need to, keep your ODBC DSN's on your users' machines using windows authentication. Give your users read-only access to your database. (If they create a new mdb file and link the tables they'll only be able to read the data.)

Create a SQL Login which has read/write permission to your database.

Write a VBA routine which loops over your linked tables and resets the connection to use you SQL Login but be sure to use the "DSN-Less" syntax.

"ODBC;Driver={SQL Native Client};" &
       "Server=MyServerName;" & _
       "Database=myDatabaseName;" & _
       "Uid=myUsername;" & _
       "Pwd=myPassword"

Call this routine as part of your startup code.

A couple of notes about this approach:

• Access seems to have an issue with the connection info once you change from Read/Write to Read Only and try going back to Read/Write without closing and re-opening the database (mde/mdb) file. If you can change this once at startup to Read/Write and not change it during the session this solution should work.

• By using a DSN - Less connection you are able to hide the credentials from the user in code (assuming you're giving them an mde file you should be ok). Normally hard-coding connection strings isn't a good idea, but since you're dealing with an in-house app you should be ok with this approach.