User manual

Table Of Contents
Chapter 6
Protecting databases
This chapter describes the basics of how to restrict what users can see and do in a FileMaker Pro
file. You’ll learn about:
1 planning security for a file
1 viewing and creating user accounts and passwords
1 viewing and creating privilege sets
1 viewing extended privileges
1 authorizing other files to access your files
1 taking measures to secure your database solution, and your operating system, network, and
hardware
1 backing up databases and other files
1 installing, running, and upgrading antivirus software
Note See Help for detailed, comprehensive information and step-by-step procedures about
using FileMaker
Pro.
Although your operating system includes file security features, you should use FileMaker Pro
access privileges as the fundamental way to control access to and protect the security of your
database files.
For information about how security settings in older databases convert to the current version of
FileMaker
Pro, see “Converting databases from FileMaker Pro 11 and earlier” on page 144 and Help.
Protecting databases with accounts and privilege sets
You can limit what users can see and do in a database file. You can restrict:
1 Data access. Make particular records or fields from individual tables view-only, or hide them
completely.
1 Layout access. Prevent users from modifying layouts in Layout mode.
1 Access to value lists and scripts. Prevent users from accessing and modifying value lists and
scripts, and from running scripts.
1 Access to file sharing. Individually enable file sharing via the FileMaker Network, Web
Publishing, and ODBC and JDBC.
1 Outputting data. Prevent users from printing or exporting data.
1 Menu access. Make only a limited set of menu commands available.
You restrict what users do in a file by requiring them to enter an account name and password when
they attempt to open a file. The account name and password they enter determines which privilege
set will be used and the privilege set limits what they can do in a file. For more information about
accounts and privilege sets, see the following section.
You can define privileges in a shared file while clients are using it. Any privilege changes that affect
a current client do not take effect until the client closes and reopens the file.