"Full" custom menus vs restricted menus with Privileges

[Jonathan9]

Clearly since FM introduced custom menus, there is a bit of a clash between the options in Privilege sets, (to allow users to have "All", "Editing only" or "Minimum" available menu commands), and then providing proper custom menus for your solution.

Custom menus won't function fully unless users have "All" set in the available menu commands of their associated privilege set (i.e. custom menus are heavily disabled, and any new non-Filemaker related menus/menu items are completely unavailable.)

I assume everyone who is using custom menus, is now allowing users with custom menu access, "Full" menus in the privilege settings.

Is there any danger to this approach? The last thing any developer wants is a rogue user managing to bypass the custom menu and suddenly having access to Delete all and other lovely commands!

[hbrendel]

Impossibility of deleting records should be set in the PrivilegeSet -> Records -> 'View only in all tables' or 'Custom privileges...'

In general, making a Custom Menu Set does not provide any security, only ease of use and amelioration of the user experience.

Real security is established by the Data Access and Design settings in the Accounts & Privileges area.

Success!

[Jonathan9]

Thanks Henk :

Yes I'm aware of that, I use privileges on everything, but obviously some users need deletion access (but never delete all in my experience!). Therefore I wanted to make sure that with custom menus set at startup via scripts (in my case), depending on the user level, there is no quick way (or any way) for a curious user with non-admin access to bypass them and switch to full standard menus, which don't run custom code and may have "delete all" options.

I think for many of us that have been developing since earlier versions (myself at starting at lowly v3!), especially in large systems where we have constantly migrated to new versions, many times the client doesn't have the budget for a full rewrite in the newer technology, so systems end up with compromises using various functions.

I'm also curious to see if these three old menu options in privileges: "all", "editing only" and "minimum" are now rarely used, being just throw backs to the older versions. I still firmly believe that some of these custom menu functions should be integrated in the privilege sets for certain defaults, although some believe not!