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SaaS - Data Model Question

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    SaaS - Data Model Question

    Hi,

    I'm looking to create an SaaS application that is cloud-based using AlphaAnywhere 2.0's current WebSecurity system.

    The same application could be used by competitors in the same city servicing the same customers.

    With an eye to keeping costs down because the data sets may not be all that large for any one customer, I'm looking to have a single data set used by all businesses using the application hosted in the cloud, where they and their customers would just be accessing it from their own individual web sites.

    Let's say the application is a golf course management program that as one of its functions is to allow golfers to reserve tee times and post their scores and historically compare their scores for each course individually.

    In addition, it allows the golf course themselves to collect greens fees over the web, look at the tee sheet for the whole day across all golfers, and other management tasks that are unique and confidential to the individual course.

    So we have Tee It Up Golf Course, and Swing and a Miss Golf Course and Fore! Golf Course.

    Ben Hogan lives near all of these courses and likes to play at each one because he enjoys variety, but Ben's a bit old and doesn't like multiple passwords and regardless of which web site for which golf course he wants to make a tee time, he wants to just use his email ([email protected]) and password (1234) to identify himself.

    My current understanding of AA's web security is that each web user record is identified by a unique username/password pair, but those two items by themselves won't allow me to differentiate amongst the three courses (I don't think).

    My thought was that if we could add a third component, ideally the domain of the web site that Ben was logging in from, that we could then have Ben in the user table multiple times as follows:


    Golf Course Domain Username Password
    Tee It Up @TeeItUp.com [email protected] 1234
    Swing and a Miss @SwingMiss.com [email protected] 1234
    Fore! Golf Course @foregolf.com [email protected] 1234
    Fore! Golf Course @foregolf.com [email protected] 9999
    Now when Ben goes to log in, it's not just username/password, but domain/username/password that grabs the unique GUID that identifies which golf course he wishes to make a tee time for.

    Similarly, the golf courses don't want to share their information with each other (which would be more than tee times and scores, but also greens fees, membership fees, etc.).

    The golf courses want their own unique web sites with their own domains, which when the user enters in their credentials, the request is sent to the single hosted data set and filters out the data from the other two courses and only let's Ben see his activity for Tee It Up, as an example.

    From the golf courses' perspective, their internal users would have a similar three-part credential paradigm, and when John Admin wants to see all of the activity for just his course, Fore! Golf Course, he would only see that courses' activity, even though Tee's and Swing's data is physically in that same dataset as well, albeit with different GUIDs.

    In a nutshell, since Ben doesn't want multiple usernames/passwords just to set up a tee time and the golf courses don't want their data shared with anyone else, is there a way with the current AA web security system that this can be handled in a single application with a co-tenancy dataset?

    Any thoughts on how to accomplish this would be appreciated. I'd like to stay as much as I can within the "canned" AA security framework as possible, although I realize it would be possible to completely roll my own,

    Kevin

    #2
    Re: SaaS - Data Model Question

    is there a way with the current AA web security system that this can be handled in a single application with a co-tenancy dataset?
    Yes. Basically you have the right idea. Just grab the user's url and then set your filter properties accordingly. You typically do this on an intermediate page after login where you process some xbasic and then redirect to the user's "landing" page.

    BTW: Alpha's security is actually very good. I don't think it will constrict you in anyway if that's what you are worried about. Basically you link your user table to Alpha's security tables. There's some videos on this I believe and Alpha gives you to a couple of custom UX components for that purpose.
    Peter
    AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

    [email protected]
    https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


    Comment


      #3
      Re: SaaS - Data Model Question

      You would have just one login for each individual. If they are coming from different URLs you can automatically set their "current" course just because they used that particular URL, you don't need to do anything in security for that. If you want them to be able to bounce from course to course, you just present a hyperlink for each course and that becomes their current course.

      You don't really need multiple URLs, one for each course, but you can if that is what the course owners want. It is easy to have one URL, one site, and present a list of courses to the user. They can select the course they want. You can let them select their "default" course, and next time they login the website will make that their current course. There is no need to store the domain in security, but you would want a field to designate their default course, which would just be the CourseID.

      If you did have different URLs for each course, then you could, if you wanted to, make your single website act like it is a totally different website depending on what URL is used. You can set images, the important CourseID value, etc., all based on the URL that hit the site. You do not have to have a landing page for each course -- it gets problematic if you start having different silos for each course. The entire site (images, etc) are tailored based on the URL they came from.
      Steve Wood
      See my profile on IADN

      Comment


        #4
        Re: SaaS - Data Model Question

        Thanks, Steve & Pete,

        This is very helpful.

        I'm probably premature on this because I haven't studied in depth how the security framework is set up, but the concept is that the different courses would be in competition with each other, and so they wouldn't want to see anything that any of their competitors have set up (probably even want to know that their competitor is using the same application), which would include any security options.

        So Mr. Jones may be allowed certain privileges at Fore! but not at Tee It Up, as one example of potential Security setup issues.

        So in this type of scenario, would I have different security options set in a separate "user parms" table, and that's where I could store the username/password/domain?

        So I think I'm looking at the type of arrangement pictured in the attachment, right?

        Any feedback will be appreciated ...
        Attached Files

        Comment


          #5
          Re: SaaS - Data Model Question

          Don't think of the user's table as a "course users table". It is just a User table - everyone who can login, including you as Admin and not associated with any course. The URL does not go in the Users table either (or describe what is supposed to be used for?) You can flag each user with a Role so you can easily lists the Members separate from the Admins, Staff, etc.

          The Security Framework tables are to be left as is, you should not modify their structure. The websecurity_users table has a GUID to identify the user. You can use that OR the userid (typically an email address) to match up to your own User table. Your User table will have details such as Name, Address, etc. but also their assigned CourseID. So, if you have them login on a screen that does not show the other courses, once they login, the system gets the CourseID (to a session variable) and your entire system is then tailored to that course as far as that user is concerned.

          If you want each user to have access to more than one course, and with different permissions at each course, then yes you need a Params table between the User table and the Course table. That table might look like this:

          userid courseid param1 param2
          [email protected] 1 0 1
          [email protected] 2 1 1
          The guess there is that user [email protected] (or their GUID if you choose to use that), at Course 1 has Param1=False, Param2=True. And at Course2 has Param1=True, Param2=True. Obviously that would need to be tailored to whatever you need.

          This is not a perfect description of how you would set it up, it needs some refinement.
          Steve Wood
          See my profile on IADN

          Comment


            #6
            Re: SaaS - Data Model Question

            Thanks Steve,

            Greatly appreciated ...

            Comment

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