Group Registry entry

Create a group and add a user to one or more groups.

Tip: See User / Group Permissions for an overview of the Vitalware permissions model.

A group can be created in one of two ways:

  1. Add a user to a group with a new group name (see below).

    -OR-

  2. Specify permissions using a new group name.

Once a group has been created in either way, additional users can be added and new permissions can be assigned to it.

Important

The Group Registry entry is consulted when a user logs in to Vitalware:

  • If a user is not logged in when a change is made to their Group Registry entry, they will need to log in to Vitalware (their Group Registry entry is consulted) and then out. When they next log in, the list of groups available to the user from the Login box will have updated.
  • If the user is logged in when the change is made to their Group Registry entry, they will need to log out and then back in again in order to see the updated list of groups available to them.

As of Vitalware 2.2.01, security profiles are generated automatically after saving any user registration based Registry entries and it is no longer necessary to run Tools>Generate Record Security after changing user settings.

However, the vwsecurity utility must be run for all versions of Vitalware prior to 2.2.01 whenever:

  1. A user / group is added to the Registry.
  2. A user changes groups.
  3. A user is removed from Vitalware.
  4. The (Record Level) Security Registry entry is modified.

Usage

This Registry entry is assigned to users:

Key User
Key 1 User
Key 2 user
Key 3 Group
Value group;group...
User user Group group;group...

where:

user

is the username of a current or new user. If a new user, this Group Registry entry adds the user to the system.

A username should be lower case and should not contain any spaces.

Note: In order to access Vitalware, a user must have a Group Registry entry AND a Unix or Windows user account with the same username and password.

group;group...

is one or more group names separated by a semicolon. A group name may contain spaces.

Tip: See How to work with multiple groups in Vitalware for details about multiple groups.

Before creating a group, check that the group name is not already in use. In the Registry module:

  1. Enter Group in the Key 1 field.
  2. Place the cursor in the Key 2 field and press F12

    -OR-

    Click Lookup List beside the Key 2 field.

    The Lookup Selection box will display for the Key 2 field with a list of existing groups.

Note: There should only ever be one Group Registry entry for a user. If a user belongs to more than one group, be sure to list all group names in the one Group Registry entry. Do not add a separate Group Registry entry for each group to which a user belongs.

The following entry should be used with extreme caution as it will provide access to Vitalware for anyone with a login account to the Vitalware server who has not been assigned to a group in Vitalware:

Key Setting
Key 1 User
Key 2 Default
Key 3 Group
Value

group

Anyone with a login account to the Vitalware server who has not been assigned to a group in Vitalware will be able to log in to Vitalware with whatever privileges have been assigned to group as well as any privileges set for group Default (as all groups inherit permissions assigned to group Default).

Example

This entry will create a new group called Staff with a member called gerard:

Key Setting
Key 1 User
Key 2 gerard
Key 3 Group
Value Staff

Note: Although the new group has been created, it currently has no access privileges and user gerard will have little if any access to Vitalware.
It would now be necessary to define the access permissions for this new group. See User and group Registry entries: setting access permissions.

This entry creates two new groups, each with a member called gerard:

Key Setting
Key 1 User
Key 2 gerard
Key 3 Group
Value Staff;Documentation