User privileges in network databases

When you use an external relational database that is server-based to hold your AVEVA Production Accounting models, we use the term network database to conveniently describe such database environments, which may be from various vendors.

When you store your AVEVA Production Accounting models in a network database, database user IDs must be defined and administered. Any AVEVA Production Accounting "admin" (administrative) user can edit user privileges using the Tools > User.Admin menu item.

The question arises as to how you can access the database initially, directly after its creation. The ID of the network database user that was used to create the tables (usually done by importing them from an Access database) is considered by default to have admin privilege within AVEVA Production Accounting. Other user IDs can be created from within AVEVA Production Accounting and each can be granted or denied the admin privilege using User Administrator dialog.

When you define additional users using the User Administrator dialog box, they become user IDs that are known to and defined within the environment of the network database (for example, Oracle or SQL Server). They are also known to AVEVA Production Accounting because they exist in TBL_USER table.

AVEVA Production Accounting allows you to manage which users will have read and/or write access to the various models in the database. The definition of these rights is implemented through making use of the native capabilities of the network database. The simple user administration dialogs of AVEVA Production Accounting shield the administrative user from having to explicitly define object privileges using the network database administrative tools.

Whenever you open AVEVA Production Accounting, you open a database via the command line parameters, so if the database you open is a network database, you will receive a challenge dialog requesting you to log in. After logging in with the initial admin user details in the Model Users dialog, you can change the name of the admin user, which automatically updates the user’s ID in the network database instance.

The Access Permission field in the Model Users dialog is updated in real time as you enter different user names and model names.

Access to the Tools > User.Admin menu item is restricted to users who have logged in to AVEVA Production Accounting with a user ID not having Admin Privilege. They also cannot edit the global data.

The following procedure describes how to access User.Admin menu — an example

1. Select the Tools menu.

2. On the Tools menu, in the Tools group, select User.Admin.

   The User Administrator dialog appears.

   A user with Admin Privilege can add, change and remove users and their access privileges.

   

   In the example shown in the image above, the selected user has Admin Privilege and thus can write in all the models in the DB.

3. In the User Accounts section, right-click on the table row.

   A list appears.

4. Select New.

   A new user is created

5. Enter the new user details such as, User Name, Password, and privilege type.

   The Admin user can add, change, and delete the models accessible to each user.

   

   In the example shown in the image above, FredM is a new user without the Admin Privilege. This user has read-only access to models test and new_test and no access to model summary.

   

   In the example shown in the image above, if you log in as user FredM, you can select the models test and new_test from the Model dropdown and open them as read-only. This means you can edit the opened model but cannot save its data. The model summary is not available in the dropdown for FredM to select and open.