Help

Protecting databases
F
ILEMAKER PRO HELP 454
To create and manage accounts for a file, you need to open the file with an account that is assigned
the Full Access privilege set, which is the only privilege set that permits making account changes to
a file. If you open the file with any other privilege set, the File menu
> Manage > Security command
is disabled.
You can create and modify accounts in a shared file while clients are using it. The account changes
you make take effect immediately. However, the changes do not disrupt any current clients. For
example, if you change the password for an account that is in use by one or more clients, their
FileMaker
Pro usage is not interrupted. However, they will need to enter the new password the next
time they open the file.
You can create as many accounts as you need. You can create individual accounts for each user, or
a smaller number of accounts that users can share. Each database file also contains two predefined
accounts: Admin and Guest. See
About the Admin and Guest accounts.
Warning Don’t forget the account name and password that is assigned to the Full Access privilege
set. If necessary, write it down and store it in a secure place. If you lose or forget this account name
and password, you may not be able to access or change the file.
Note Shared accounts are a security risk. For better security, use individual accounts instead of
shared accounts. If you intend to use shared accounts anyway, make sure you limit the access
capabilities of the privilege sets that shared accounts use. Change the password occasionally,
particularly when certain users no longer require access.
Viewing and reordering accounts
The Manage Security dialog box displays a list of all the accounts for a file. You can view and
reorder this list of accounts. If necessary, you can also change the authentication order of accounts,
which determines the order that FileMaker Server searches through the accounts list for a valid
account.
Note Changing the authentication order of accounts is only necessary under certain situations
when your file is hosted by FileMaker
Server. See the Notes section in Creating accounts that
authenticate via an external server and the FileMaker Server documentation.
To view the accounts for a file:
1. Open the database file.
2. Choose File menu > Manage > Security.
The Manage Security dialog box appears. It initially shows the Accounts tab, which lists the
accounts defined for this file.
To reorder the accounts list:
1. Follow the steps above to display the accounts for a file.
2. Do one of the following to order the accounts:
To order the accounts list Choose
Alphabetically View by > account name or click the Account column
heading. You can also switch the alphabetical list
between
ascending and descending order by clicking
the Account column heading.
In the order the accounts were created View by > creation order.