About user permissions
A set of simple user permissions can be applied at both the database level and the model group level.
Types of user
With access permissions activated there are four types of InfoWorks WS Pro user:
- Database owner - A database owner has full administrative powers over the database. Details
- Model group owner (full) - Appointed by a database owner, the owner of a model group has full edit and delete powers over that model group. Details
- Model group owner (branch)- Appointed by a database owner, the branch owner of a model group has read-only access to 'parent objects' in the model group, but may create and edit branches from parent objects. Details
- Database user - A database user has read-only access to the database. Model group owners are also database users and have read-only access to model groups that they do not own. Details
General information about user permissions
It is not obligatory to activate user permissions. With user permissions turned off, all users have database owner powers.
You can check whether user permissions are activated or not on the InfoWorks WS Pro About Box. It will also tell you who the database owners are, and if the current user is a database owner.
When user permissions are activated, you can tell who owns a particular model group by right-clicking the group, choosing Properties, then clicking the Owners tab.
There are a number of database-wide settings that, by default, can be edited by all database users. These global settings can be protected, allowing only edits by database users to be saved.
If a database owner makes changes to InfoWorks WS Pro user permissions, these changes will not be applied to users who are currently using the master database until they exit InfoWorks WS Pro and open the application again.
The user turning on permissions for the first time is automatically added as a database owner. This prevents a situation where nobody has ownership of the database and all potential users are locked out.
Security
The user permissions implemented by InfoWorks WS Pro are designed to prevent users from accidentally making changes to data they should not be editing. It is not a foolproof solution to deliberate sabotage, although it will make this much more difficult.
To ensure the best security for your data, you should also:
- have a sensible strategy for backing up your database (see About backing up your data)
- control user access at the server level
IWLive Pro permissions
The permissions implemented to control access to various areas of the IWLive Pro software application are set up in the IWLive Pro Permissions dialog. This dialog is accessible from InfoWorks WS Pro to administrators (when no objects are shown in the main window) by selecting File | Master database settings | IWLive permissions. This menu item is enabled only when user permissions are implemented for the current database.
Like general permissions, permissions for IWLive Pro are implemented on a per database basis.