Appendix C: Task-Field Access

When a User is granted access to a particular Task within the system (refer to Task Access) by default the user is granted access to every item (field) within the screen for that Task. However, it is possible to alter the access to particular fields within a Task for particular Users. This means that fields within a task could be turned into 'read only' or even made to 'disappear' completely.

For each Task where this feature is to be employed it is necessary to first create a list of fields for that Task. This is done by using List Task Field which is accessible from List Task (proc) by pressing the navigation button labeled 'List Fields'. This maintains the contents of the TASK-FIELD table.

The list of Task Fields which a User is allowed to access is known an Access Profile, and is held on the ROLE-TASK-FIELD table within the Menu database, as shown in Figure 1. Access Profiles are not created for individual Users, they are created for Roles. Each User must belong to one or more of these Roles, so by changing the Access Profile for a Role you effectively change the Access Profile for all Users who belong to that Role.

Figure 1 - database structure

There are two ways of viewing and maintaining the contents of ROLE-TASK-FIELD:

• From screen List Role use the navigation button labeled 'Field Access' to bring up screen Maintain Field Access via Role. This will allow you to grant or deny access to individual Fields within Tasks for that Role.
• From screen List Task (proc) use the navigation button labeled 'Field Access' to bring up screen Maintain Field Access via Task. This will allow you to grant or deny access to individual Roles for Fields within that Task.

The actual operation of this facility is as follows:-

• Just before the data for a database table is added to the XML document the contents of ROLE-TASK-FIELD is examined for any fields which have their access set to NOEDIT or NODISPLAY. These values are then added to the FIELDSPEC array which are in turn included as field attributes in the XML document.
• When the XML document is converted into HTML during the XSL transformation the existence of one of these attributes will have the following effect:
  • NOEDIT - will cause the field to be output as plain text without the option of being amended.
  • NODISPLAY - will cause the field and its associated label to be completely omitted from the HTML output. Thus the user will not see the current value nor be allowed to amend it.