System Utilities affect the entire database and affect what other users see and can do in the system.

Archiving A Database
This utility runs on the CURRENT database; before using this utility to fully archive the current database, the System Admin should be sure that there are no other users logged into the database.

This utility differs from the 'Archive Data' utility on the Utilities menu on each page in that it changes all of the Security records to give all users EXCEPT System Admins Read-Only access to all Departments and tables.

You'll be prompted to cancel this utility when it starts; click 'Yes' to continue.

How Should You Use This?
This utility would be used to store a database as a historical reference. For example, if want to keep the current database at the time of some significant company change as a static history up to that point you would make a replica of the database, then Archive the replica so that you can be SURE that no one can edit it even though they may need to view the data from time to time.

Script Manager
The Script Manager utility is available to the System Administrator and can be used to edit or delete data directly in the database instead of going through the User Interface.  Click here for details on using the Script Manager.

Please Note:  The following two utilities are only available if you're connected to an Access database.

Backup Database
This will make a backup copy of your current Access database and allow you to select where to store it; just click the button and follow instructions.

Email Database
This will make a zipped copy of your Access database and automatically attach it in an Outlook email message. This process can also be used to make a backup of your database which can be stored in an online email account such as GMail or Hotmail.

When the email arrives in your webmail Inbox, just move it to another folder (or you can leave it in your Inbox). Because web email accounts store their messages and attachments on the web host's server, you will have a copy of your data 'off-site'. Saving your database somewhere other than on your working computer (such as an email attachment), protects your data in case your computer crashes or is stolen.

Using a free online webmail account to store a zipped database is a simple (and free!) way to utilize the benefits of off-site data storage.

NOTE: Each time you send yourself a new database email, you might want to delete older emails with these attachments as they can get to be quite large and can fill up your mailbox space.
 

Audit Trail Logs  (This setting may not be available in all applications)

This option allows the System Administration to turn Audit Trail logging on or off.  Click the button to open the dialog, then check the "Enable Audit Trail Logging" to turn the option on (or uncheck again to turn it off).  When enabled, a copy of every edited and deleted record will be written to the log file, including who edited or deleted it and the time & date of the action.

Click the 'Browse' button to choose a folder in a path that is available to all users of the system.  If the folder you chose is NOT available for any user (they don't have physical network access to the path), logging will be turned off for that user.  Remote users will NOT have logging on unless they have a matching path on their local computers.  If so, the log files will be written to their local computer, NOT to the files on your network. So best practice is to choose a shared NETWORK folder for the logs.

When a log file gets over 50MB in size, it will be copied as a backup to the same folder, then a new log started.  So you should create a separate folder for the log file when you set it up, as it may grow to multiple files quite quickly if you have a lot of changes being made.

You can turn off logging at any time, or turn it back on simply by unchecking or checking the checkbox.  These settings are stored in the System Settings table in the current database, and consequently need to be set for each database independently if you have more than one.

SQL Server Security Overview
To use SQL Server as the database storage type, you will need to setup a security login, also called an Application Role, on the SQL Server itself in order to allow this application's users to open, use and create a SQL database.

The following steps must be done by a SQL Server administrator using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. Please see the System Administrator's guide for more details.

1) In MS SQL Server Management Studio, expand the Security, Logins section, then right-click on the right side and choose “New Login” from the popup menu.

2) On the “General” page, enter the login name you want to use for this application, then check the “SQL Server authentication” option and enter and confirm the password that you will use for this login. Make note of these two values as you will need to update the SQL Server Security fields in the System Administrator Utilities page in this application.

3) Click on the “Server Roles” page and check the “sysadmin” checkbox on the right to give full access rights to this role.

4) Click on the “User Mapping” page and check the “master” Map checkbox in the upper list. The Database Role Membership setting for master will be enabled; the “public” option should already be checked; check the “db_owner” option as well.

5) Click “OK” to save these settings and create the new login.

The client login will be displayed in the Login list. Now the application has permissions to manage its own databases on the SQL Server.

On the System Administrator Utilities page in this application, in the SQL Server Security section, enter the login name from Step #2 above in the 'Role Name' field and the password in the 'Role Password' field. Also enter the name of the SQL Server in the 'Server Name' field. Click 'Save Changes' to save the information to the database.

This login information is now used by all users of this application without them seeing the login and password in the interface. This gives all users access to ONLY THIS APPLICATION'S DATABASE on the SQL Server.

Connecting To A SQL Database
On the Main Menu login, choose the SQL database type option, then click 'Browse' to display the 'Open SQL Database' login dialog. Each user will be prompted for the name of the database, which you will need to supply only the first time they log in. Once the user has successfully logged into a SQL database, the database name will be in the Database drop-down list whenever the user changes connections.

User Versions