[AccessD] Using macros - good thing or bad?

Asger Blond ab-mi at post3.tele.dk
Wed Feb 24 17:17:50 CST 2010


>What's the big deal about creating a Trusted Location on the user's
>computer?  Only has to be done once, and has never caused a problem for me.
>In my book, that is not a reason to base your programming decisions on.

Couldn't agree more!
As for security: does anyone know why MS is considering VBA an issue especially in Access? And more disturbing: why does MS consider Access itself a security issue even without VBA?
Why would VBA be more risky in Access than in all other Office applications? And why do we in Office 2003 get this annoying security warning for an Access db which is not holding any macros or VBA code?
Is Access per se a threat? To whom? MS?

Asger

-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] På vegne af Steve Schapel
Sendt: 24. februar 2010 19:47
Til: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Emne: Re: [AccessD] Using macros - good thing or bad?

Hi Jim,

Thanks a lot for digging that up.  I had not seen that emphasis before.

Basically, I think the focus in this article on "you should try to avoid 
including programming tools that require the user to specifically grant 
trusted status to the database" is just plain silly.  What's the big deal 
about creating a Trusted Location on the user's computer?  Only has to be 
done once, and has never caused a problem for me.  In my book, that is not a 
reason to base your programming decisions on.

Regards
Steve


--------------------------------------------------
From: "Jim Dettman" <jimdettman at verizon.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 2:38 AM
To: "'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'" 
<accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Using macros - good thing or bad?

> Steve,
>
>  Found it:
>
> Get started with Access programming
> http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/HA012142131033.aspx
>
>
> Read through the section "Should I use macros or should I use VBA code?"
>
> And the statements from that section that I had in mind when I made my
> comment:
>
> "To help ensure the security of your database, you should try to use 
> macros
> whenever possible and resort to VBA programming only for operations that
> cannot be accomplished by using macro actions. Furthermore, you should try
> to use only macro actions that don't require granting trusted status to 
> the
> database in order to run. Limiting the use of macro actions in this way
> allows your users to be confident that the database does not contain any
> programming that could harm their data or other files on their computers.
>
> Partly to encourage the wider use of macros, Office Access 2007 contains
> many new macro actions that allow you to build more powerful macros than 
> you
> can build by using earlier versions of Access. For example, you can now
> create and use global temporary variables by using macro actions, and you
> can handle errors more gracefully by using new error-handling macro 
> actions.
> In earlier versions of Access, these types of features are available only 
> by
> using VBA. In addition, in Access 2007, you can embed a macro directly 
> into
> the event property of an object or control. An embedded macro becomes a 
> part
> of the object or control and stays with the object or control if it is 
> moved
> or copied. In earlier versions of Access, macros must be maintained as
> separate objects, which sometimes makes your database more difficult to
> maintain."
>
> Whether they actually could get rid of VBA I would find highly doubtful,
> but the fact that they are encouraging the use of macro's over VBA and are
> trying to move away from the use of VBA is beyond doubt.
>
> Jim.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Steve Schapel
> Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 5:32 PM
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] Using macros - good thing or bad?
>
> Jim,
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Jim Dettman" <jimdettman at verizon.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 10:35 AM
>
>>  Microsoft has already stated that they want Access apps to use macros
>> rather then VBA because macros can be secured through sandbox mode where
>> as
>> VBA code cannot be.
>>
>>  I'll did out the reference...
>
> Thanks a lot, I would be very interested to see this information, so would
> very much appreciate if you could point us to it.
>
> Regards
> Steve
>
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