Setting conditional compilation constants (Access 03)

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I have a database application that exists in two variants – a full version, and a cut-down “read-only” version for “guests”. Currently there are two versions of the front end, but for ease of maintenance I’d like to move to a single front-end application. I am considering using conditional compilation to remove unwanted functionality from the “guest” version. In Access 97, you could set a conditional compilation constant in the Advanced pane/tab of the Options dialog box and thus be sure it was set globally across all code in the database. This facility doesn’t seem to exist in A03 – you have to assign a value to the constant in each code module. Can anyone think of an efficient and reliable way to implement this kind of thing? (I’ll also need to enable/disable controls and menu items.)

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Why not use User Level Security ?

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That’s an idea. I use user-level security now to do things like preventing guests changing the data, but I could use it to disable certain modules and forms that guests aren’t allowed to use. However, I would like to alter the user interface in a more user-friendly way too, instead of leaving controls enabled for guests to try, and letting the User Level Security send its unfriendly messages.

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If you are using User Level Security, you can use the CurrentUser to see who has logged in and if you want, load different forms (like you say “more user-friendly”) if the user is a guest.

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