Security Roles

This help file applies to an out-of-date version of MainBoss.
The most recent version of MainBoss is MainBoss 4.2.4.
For the latest version of this help file can be found here.

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In order to use MainBoss, users need to be assigned one or more security roles. The available roles are listed in Administration | Security Role. The comments provided in each role record indicate what permissions that role provides.

Security roles affect what a user sees: if a user doesn't have permission to see a particular type of information, that information will be blanked out or missing entirely from MainBoss windows. Security roles also affect what a user can do; for example, if a user has permission to view work orders (WorkOrderView) but not to close them, the Close Work Order button will be disabled for that user.

Important: When information is blank because you don't have appropriate permissions, move the cursor to the blank; MainBoss will tell you what security roles will give you permission to see that information. Similarly, if a button is disabled, move the cursor to the button; MainBoss will tell you what security roles will allow you to use that button. Note, however, that in some cases, information will disappear entirely (e.g. sections of records just won't be displayed). In this case, you may not know that something is missing.

To assign security roles to a user, you use the Security Role section of a user record (Administration | Users). In order to decide what roles an individual user should be granted, you must consider what that user is expected to do in his/her job. For example, consider someone working on a help-desk and receiving problem reports from clients outside the maintenance department. What does that person need to do?

He or she will need to create work requests describing problems; that requires Request permission.
Help-desk personnel also need a small amount of information on work orders (so that they can tell a client, "Your work has been scheduled for Thursday"). This suggests the WorkOrderSummary security role.
The UnitSummary role might also be useful. It gives help-desk personnel enough information about units to make sure they understand which unit the client is talking about.

Other roles may also be appropriate, depending on what help-desk personnel are expected to do, and on your organization's policies.

The MainBoss Configuration guide offers suggestions on which security roles are appropriate for various duties within a maintenance organization.

Related Security Roles: Security roles tend to come in related groupings; for example, WorkOrder, WorkOrderView, WorkOrderFulfillment, WorkOrderClose, WorkOrderSelfAssign and WorkOrderSummary are all roles related to work orders.

In such a grouping, some roles automatically include others. For example:

WorkOrder automatically includes all the other roles in the grouping.
WorkOrderView automatically includes WorkOrderSummary.

For this reason, there's no point in giving someone both WorkOrder and WorkOrderView (for example), because WorkOrder automatically includes all the permissions of WorkOrderView.

In general, a View role automatically includes the related Summary role and a role with a simple name automatically includes roles of the same name with extra words (e.g. PurchaseOrder automatically includes PurchaseOrderView, PurchaseOrderSummary, and PurchaseOrderReceive).

Users with SQL Server Administration Privileges: If a user with SQL Server Administration privileges starts MainBoss, MainBoss automatically gives that person the MainBoss Administration security role. This is intended to make it possible for a privileged user to change security roles, in the event that there's no one with the MainBoss Administration role. (This might happen, for example, if your current MainBoss Administrator leaves the company.)

As a side effect, you cannot "downgrade" the MainBoss security permissions of anyone with SQL Server Administration privileges. That person always has the MainBoss Administration security role, even if the person isn't a registered MainBoss user.