[AccessD] LWS Beta testers

Folks,

I am working on my Light Weight Security system and am looking for beta
testers, i.e. people who would like a presentation level security system
such as I am designing.  This email will briefly outline how things work so
that you can decide whether you would like to test it.  I am looking for
PROGRAMMERS as beta testers.

LWS is designed to restrict basic operations on forms and controls.  The
form operations / properties that it will affect are Open form, Edit record,
Delete record and Add record.  The control properties affected are Enabled,
Locked, and Visible.

LWS is NOT designed to replace Access' (or SQL Server's) security.  LWS is
designed to allow the developer to restrict operations at the INTERFACE
level, i.e. who can open forms, who can edit records in a given form, who
can SEE a given control on a given form, who can EDIT data in a given
control on a given form.  These are fundamentally different issues than the
built in DATA security that Access and SQL Server provide.  I designed LWS
because my clients asked for things like "only allow certain users to be
able to see (or use) this control" or "only allow certain users to be able
to open this form" etc.

As an example, suppose you have a form that is used by several different
groups of people in the company.  One group can only use the form to browse
data, never edit or delete the data.  One group is allowed to open the form
and edit records, but never delete records.  Another group can also delete
records.  Another group is allowed to edit most of the data but several of
the fields should be read only, i.e. that group cannot edit those fields.
Another form displays sensitive data that only the Personnel group can see
(and edit) the salary field for.  Other groups can see the form but the
salary field is just invisible.

All of these kinds of issues are what LWS is designed to address.

LWS is designed around a Users / Groups metaphor similar to Windows NT/2K/XP
etc.  Users exist but don't directly have any innate abilities.  Users
belong to Groups.  Groups can do things.

Forms and controls can be manipulated by groups.  Groups can open (or not)
forms, edit / delete (or not) records in a given form.  Groups can see /
enter / edit (or not) specific controls on forms.  All of these things that
groups can do are simply manipulations of the built in properties of the
forms or controls.  Open (not a property but controlled by LWS), AllowEdit,
AllowDelete, AllowAdd etc can be masked by LWS as the form opens such that
specific groups can control these properties while others cannot.  Control
properties Visible, Enabled and Locked are controlled in the same manner.

There are a set of tables that support the LWS system:

uSysLWSUsers contains user information - Name, PEID (mapped to your
Personnel ID if you desire) and password hash (MD5).
usystblLWSGroup contains group information - Name and the 2^x bit that is
used for mapping it's abilities later.
usystblLWSGroupUser contains mappings of users to groups.  A simple m-m
uSysLWSUsers and usystblLWSGroup.
MsysForms contains form security information - Form ID, Form name, Open,
Edit, Add and Delete maps.
MsysControls contains control security information - Form ID, Control name,
Enabled, Locked and Visible maps

There are a handful of forms to support LWS:

usysfrmLWSLogin - The login form.
usysfrmLWSUsers - The form for setting up users.
usysfrmLWSGroups - The form for setting up groups.
usysfrmLWSSetupFrmSecurity - The form that assists the developer in setting
up form security

LWS is NOT finished, but all of the basic tables are in place, I am using
the login in my apps, and the code to implement LWS security for forms and
controls is up and functioning.

LWS will be a library (MDA for now) with full source code available to beta
testers.  Please remember, I am looking for "code jocks" for now.    You
should be comfortable instantiating classes, calling class methods and
setting class properties, manipulating form and control attributes via VB
etc.

I REALLY need people with the time to play with this thing, tell me what
they like or don't like, what I haven't considered etc.

I think this should give enough information to allow you to decide whether
you are interested.  If you are interested, please contact me OFF LIST at
LWS at colbyconsulting.com.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com