User Groups and Access Levels
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Jump to an User Group / Access Level:
 Student | Door Warden | Lab Instructor | Parts Manager | Administrator | Designer

UPDATE 01.08.2003: The numeric access levels have been removed. The ColdFusion MX IsUserInRole() security function uses string-based matching to determine roles, and so a numeric constant corresponding to each role is now unnecessary. The PHP version of EquipRD! may still use a numeric approach.

Introduction
Users of the inventory management system are divided into five groups (six if the database designers are included). These groups reflect the various functions that different users need to perform and the access privileges.

The database permissions listed after each user group name are for design reference only. It is not guaranteed that a user group in the finished IMS will have the database permissions listed here.

This information is obsolete - see update above. The level numbers are used in the Access Level field in the Users table to indicate each user's access level to the information in the database.

Student (back to top)

Database Privileges: SELECT on table Parts
  SELECT on own record of table Checkout

The general student user group can search the Parts table for a given part or type of part. The part type search is useful if a student has discovered that the specific part he or she wanted is not available and wants to look for a similar substitute part.

The general student can also display a list of the parts he or she has currently checked out. The student cannot view the checkout information of others.

Door Warden (back to top)

Database Privileges: SELECT on fields User ID, First Name, Last Name in table Users
  SELECT on table Parts
  UPDATE on fields Available, In Use in table Parts
  SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE on table Checkout

The door warden user group can search the Parts table for a given part or type of part and can display a list of the parts checked out by any user or set of users. The warden can also check in or out parts against any user.

Lab Instructor (back to top)

Database Privileges: SELECT on fields User ID, First Name, Last Name in table Users
  SELECT on table Parts
  UPDATE on fields Quantity, Available, In Use, Reserved in table Parts
  SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE on table Checkout

The lab instructor user group can do anything a student or door warden can. In addition, lab instructors can reserve parts for an upcoming experiment, preventing other users from checking out the reserved parts. The lab instructor also has the limited ability to decrement the Quantity field of a given part to reflect parts destroyed beyond repair in the laboratory.

Parts Manager (back to top)

Database Privileges: SELECT on fields User ID, First Name, Last Name in table Users
  SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE on table Parts
  SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE on table Checkout

The parts manager user group can do anything a student, door warden or lab instructor can. In addition, parts managers can mark temporarily unusable parts as Damaged, add new parts to the database, update the Quantity of a part to reflect recent orders and delete parts that are obsolete. The parts manager also has user interface options useful for running quantity reports.

Administrator (back to top)

Database Privileges: SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE on table Users
  SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE on table Parts
  SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE on table Checkout

The administrator user group can do anything a student, door warden, lab instructor or parts manager can. In addition, administrators can add and remove users from the system and update any user's information, including password and access level.

Designer (back to top)

Database Privileges: SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE, CREATE, ALTER, DROP on all tables

The designer user group has complete access to and control over the information and structure of the database. In addition, designers can break consistency and bypass rules checking to test the response of the IMS to attempts to enter invalid data or to simulate failures.

The designer user group and associated access privileges will be removed from the final system to prevent malevolent persons from using the designer access privlieges to corrupt or destroy the database.

The designer user groups consists of four users: the two students, Sean DonCarlos and Ryan Learned; and the two advisors, Dr. Irwin and Dr. Malinowski.