Moving our application to a multi-user mode requires a significant amount of administration. As with all of our functionality, you can continue using our application as a single user desktop version, never having to venture into this area. However, if you are planning to have our software on multiple desktop computers, working from the same data, then there is likely a need for user logins and user security. You would not want to spend hours setting up your league schedule only to have an inexperienced users accidentally delete it (although it would have to be just a bit more than an accident!). There are four tabs on the administration screen. The first time you enter this screen there will be only two, Database Location and Database Backup. The other two tabs, Users and User Groups are only visible if you turn on Login Security. Note: This function is only available once the software is registered.
On the Database Location tab, there is a section with a checkbox to turn on security. Check this box and click the ‘Change Security’ button will invoke user login security on the database that you are currently logged into. With this version of the software you can point to different database files. Security is set at the Database Level. Once security is enabled, every time a user wishes to access this database, they will be required to enter a valid user id and password. Once you have enabled security, you will see two new tabs appear, the Users and User Groups Tabs.
The information stored for users in minimal. As our customers use the system, we will add new fields as requested. There are four fields and all are required. User Name is a friendly name for the user. The User Group determines all the permissions that the user will have. Finally, the User ID and Password Combination are what each user will use to log into the database. When you first enable security there will be two users: Administrator and a Default user. Neither can be deleted, but both can have any data except their User Group changed.
If user security is enabled, and you entered your user id and password to login, then a Change Password option is available under the Goto section of the Menu Bar. You will need to enter the password of the currently logged in user, the new password and the same new password in the confirm password text box. If all password information is correct, then the password is updated.
Note: This software is not of an enterprise scale and we have adjusted our security to meet the needs of our intended clients. The application does not encrypt passwords, and users with Administrator access can view all passwords. Therefore, we recommend that you do not use passwords in this application that you use for other systems. The benefit to this is that if you forget your password, an Administrator can look it up without requiring you to change it.
Each user in the system will be assigned to a user group that will determine their permissions to functions throughout the system. Again there are two predefined User Groups, Administrator and Default. Both cannot be deleted, but their names can be changed. Also, security settings for Administrator cannot be modified. Therefore, there will always be an user with administrator privileges.
The user group settings are straightforward. For each screen in the application, a user can have read permission or no permission. If a user has no permission to a function, that function is removed from their view of the system. Therefore, if ‘Players’ is set to no permissions, then the players icon and all navigation to that screen will be removed. If a user has read permissions they will be able to navigate to that screen. Once at a screen, the New, Save, SaveNew and Delete buttons can be turned on or off based on the setting for the user group the user is assigned to. The SaveNew button is turned on or off based on the settings for the New button which are turned on and off based on Add Permissions.
The security settings on the following screens have some other effects or have slightly modified capabilities.
Players: If a user has Add and Update Permissions to this screen, they will also have access to:
Players: If a user has Delete Permissions to this screen, they will also have access to:
Players and Teams: If a user has Add and Update Permissions to both of these screens, they will also have access to:
Copying Information from Prior Seasons: If the users have the proper permissions above to copy information from a prior season, they must ALSO have Update Permissions set on this User Group security item. Therefore, to Copy Prior Season Players to Team, the User must have Add and Update Permissions for Players and Update Permissions for ‘Copying Information from Prior Season. Note that all other permissions for Copying Information from Prior Season are not used.
Preferences: User preferences specified for this screen apply only to the first three tabs. Note that if you have the permission to Add or Delete for this screen, you will automatically have the permission to update entries in the Maintenance table. The Database Admin tab security access is based on a separate User Group entry called ‘Create Replica and Synchronize’. If the user has Update Permissions for this entry, then they can create replicas on their local hard-drive and then synchronize with the Master Database. Users are always allowed to point to a new database file.
Schedule Officials: Officials can be assigned to games if either a user has Add or Update Permissions. They can only Remove Officials if they have Delete Permissions.
Schedules: You can only generate a schedule if you have Update Permissions.