Setting application user permissions

[Ted Giles]

Hi all,
I have about 20 forms accessed from a menu.

I need to set the following security up.

6 of my users are Administrators so they can read/create/update (got this bit - it's easy using built in functions)

6 of my users can VIEW the data on all 20 forms, but not change it.

10 of my users can create/update records through 4 of the 20 forms, and should have Viewing only access to the remaining 16 forms.

I had planned to set up 3 groups - Admin, View only, View and Update.

Can someone point me in the right direction so I can lock down a form and only give the right actions depending who is logged in?

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: Setting application user permissions

Since no one has yet responded, I'll offer something below but do understand that there are a number of different ways to do what you want. There may be a better way than what follows.

On each form's OnInit event (OnActivate may be better in some cases), put a variation of the following code:

v_uname= user_name()    'this is just for testing
Logon_Group_String = USER_GROUPS()   'This should go in your autoexec, we're just testing with this code.
ui_msg_box(v_uname,Logon_Group_String)    'this is just for testing    


If Containsi(Logon_group_string,"View Only) = .T.
    Parentform.restrict_change = .T.
    Parentform.restrict_enter = .T.
    Parentform.restrict_delete = .T.
end if

Of course in your case you would probably want to use Case statements to cover all your various situations, and quite possibly there is a simpler way than a "Containsi()" expression to go about this. Come to think of it, you seem to have only 2 restricted cases (admin would not need any restrictions set). Anyway, this should get you going if no one else offers something better.

Raymond Lyons

[Ted Giles]

Re: Setting application user permissions

Thanks Raymond.

I came up with this as a temporary measure, and take your point about using CASE to manage the three situations, and will work on your suggestion.


dim group as c
group = user_groups()
if(group="read only", parentform.Allow_Change(.F.),parentform.Allow_Change(.T.))


Regards, Ted

[Raymond Lyons]

Re: Setting application user permissions

Ted,

Interesting that using a method or function [parentform.allow_change(.F.)] works whereas setting the property [parentform.allow_change = .F.] does not work--it probably should and is thus a bug.

In any case, the reason I gave you the 3 properties to set to true (restrictions for View Only users) is that I assumed that you would also not want view only users to be able to delete records. [parentform.allow_change = .F.] still allows users to delete records--maybe it shouldn't but it does.

I presume you caught the missing paren at the end of "View Only" in my code.

Raymond Lyons

[Ted Giles]

Re: Setting application user permissions

Raymond, I have covered the delete scenario as this is a complex and quite big application now. All deletes are passwprd protected.

Ted