Security in a multiple Site, Entity, and Domain environment

Posted on: December 21, 2008 | By: SuperUser Account | QAD Business Process

I was recently involved in a client project to upgrade to QAD eB2.1. Part of this upgrade was the integration to two separate business units into a single database with one domain. One business unit was a “Corporate” entity which was the primary supplier to the other “Retail” business unit. One of the challenges in this integration was that while a single domain adds the convenience sharing part numbers, it also lends itself to exposing other data. Item costs were one of the pieces of data that could not be shared.

The securing of this data was handled through a combination of Menu Security, Site Security, Entity Security, and customization. An analysis of QAD menus that would be used by each business unit was done and they were divided into the following categories:

  • Programs that were only used at Corporate.
  • Programs that already used Site or Entity Security.
  • Programs that used Site or Entity in the selection criteria but did not invoke Security.
  • Programs that do not include Site or Entity in the selection criteria.

Programs that were only used at Corporate were simply secured from the Retail users using QAD Menu Security.

Programs that already use Site or Entity Security will simply be secured by implementing this functionality.

The remainder of the programs required some degree of modification. The first step was a simple modification to a standard QAD program that is used in all reports and inquiries to enable site and entity security. Then the programs that use Site or Entity in the selection criteria but did not invoke security would now do so. Programs that did not include Site or Entity in the selection criteria were modified to include these fields in the selection and with the modification they would now use Site or Entity security.