(5) Setup the clients computers for basic database-server access:
(5a) Install OpenOffice.org on each client and run the applicable installer while de-selecting both "new database" options. Also make sure you select any HSQLDB upgrades used on the server-host to ensure driver compatibility. If you're using HSQLDB 2.0, you can skip the basic installer (mydb.jar) and use hsqldb2_OOo.jar exclusively on each client.
(5b) Make a copy of your latest Base front-end file (.odb) and modify the connection setting (Base > Edit > Database > Properties... > Data-source URL) to reflect the IP address (or hostname) of the computer running the database engine (containing the database files and running HSQLDB in server mode). Here's where the detail of this post (step 3) comes in. Don't change the user name and don't check "Password required" just yet.
(5c) Run 'START.vbs' on the host computer and leave everything running.
(5d) Move the reconfigured front-end file (mydb.server.odb) to a client computer and open it in Base and click on Tables to begin testing.
Troubleshooting may involve host file-share settings, firewall-port settings, URL syntax, etc.
(6) Optionally, setup database access control; Adding user names & passwords, roles & privileges:
(6a) Setup users and passwords as desired using SQL (in Base > Tools > SQL...).
This could be a tutorial in and of itself, but suffice to say that you can create a user with default access to the entire database using:
CREATE USER <user name> PASSWORD <password>
(6b) You can then add that user name and check-off "require password" as necessary in the reconfigured front-end file (.odb) for client distribution (Base > Edit > Database > Properties... > User authentication).
(6c) You can assign USERS to ROLES with GRANT/REVOKE on a per Table/View or per Column basis.
...I'm more familar with H2 when it comes to fine-grain access control so we'll be learning this together as I experiment over the coming days with HSQLDB in this respect.
Final tweaking will include: removing ";shutdown=true" from the batch file (server.start.bat) on the host-server machine only; switching to an encrypted protocol (hsqls); perhaps encrypted database (HSQLDB 2.0 only); switching to MVCC as user concurrency grows (HSQLDB 2.0 only), etc.
