Field Level Security FAQ

Field Level Security FAQ
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Does Field Level Security extend to the Great Plains Security model?
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Yes, Field Level Security takes the standard Security model which can control access to forms and extends it to allow control of security at the form, window and field level. Forms and windows can have passwords applied or be blocked with a warning message. Fields can be hidden, locked, disabled or passworded.


Why does Field Level Security sometimes fail to work?
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Field Level Security is trigger based and sometimes the changes it makes are overidden by code on the window itself. For example: Disabling a field can be overridden if that field is re-enabled by the code on the window. When this happens, you might need to change the security mode from Hide, Disable or Lock to Password Before or Warning Before.


What happened to Field Level Security Scripting?
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Field Level Security Scripting was removed from distribution and can no longer be registered. The reason for this was that it was felt that the scripting functionality was a security risk as it could be used by a malicious user to bypass the application security and either damage data or retrieve data they should not see. With the push for higher security and the "Trustworthy Computing" program, it was decided to remove this functionality and close the potential risk.


Can I do Row Level Security with Field Level Security?
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Before the scripting functionality was removed there was a method which could be used to create row level security functionality with Field Level Security. This is no longer possible and now would require VBA or Dexterity customisations to achieve this functionality.


What happened to Field Level Security Scriptying?
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Sadly, while v7.5 was the current release, a decision was made to withdraw Field Level Security Security (FLSS) from sale. For v7.x this occurred by not being able to obtain registration keys for FLSS. However, for v8.0 the entire scripting functionality was removed from the dictionary.

The reason for this decision is that it was deemed that the scripting functionality was a security risk as it allowed direct table access and completely bypassed the standard application security system.

The withdrawal of this module was announced on PartnerSource.


David Musgrave [MSFT]
Senior Development Consultant
MBS Services - Asia Pacific

Microsoft Business Solutions
http://www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions

Any views contained within are my personal views and
not necessarily Microsoft Business Solutions policy.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties,
and confers no rights.