How do you add a security group to a live app without losing other security information?

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I have an app that has been in use for years.

The app provides the ability to add users and assign them to existing groups.

I now need to add a new security group which I can do in my dev environment, but if I publish the security files to the live environment, security information in the live environment is overwritten. For example users that were added are lost.

How do you add a security group to a live app without losing other user information?

[Davidk]

Re: How do you add a security group to a live app without losing other security information?

There's no information here about the security setup you're using or the Alpha version you're using. There are multiple security setups available.

If it's SQL table based then you can add records to your security tables manually. Further, if you need to add existing users to a new security group, then you could do that with XBasic.

[[email protected]]

Re: How do you add a security group to a live app without losing other security information?

V12.4.5.4.7 Build 5487

Using Alpha's tables. Just need to add a new group without overwriting current user info but can't see a way to do this.

[Davidk]

Re: How do you add a security group to a live app without losing other security information?

Using Alpha's.... SQL... tables ? If so, then... using a tool like Navicat... access your tables and add a row to websecuritygroups.

[[email protected]]

Re: How do you add a security group to a live app without losing other security information?

I was using the standard alpha files/tables to store user/group security info. I was also storing some additional user info in an sql table in my db.

There is a built in function a5ws_Add_Group("myNewGroup") which you can call from a button for eg and it does create the new group in your live env. This would be the same as adding the group using a tool like Navicat.
You can then add users in your live env to the new group using components you have built such as the templates alpha provides.
You can then create the same new group in your dev env, assign new group permissions to components/pages etc
But there is a catch, you have to publish the web security data files/tables in your dev env and upload these to your live env or else alpha's security will deny access to users in the new group. This is an issue if your live env allows users to be added/edited because your dev env and your live env will usually have different users.

So this is how I overcame it.

I copied all of the files that start with websecurity_ from the live env to my dev env.
I also copied my sql database from the live env to my dev env because I store additional user info in it.
I then created the new security group using the dev env user/group dialog.
I then assigned the new group to the various components etc
I then published my app locally and ran it, then added the users to the new group using my "manage security" component.
I then copied/published all of the files that start with websecurity_ back to the live env, and also the sql db and any components using the new group.

Worked a charm and I hope this helps others that might be faced with the same situation.