FileMaker Username question

[Matt Klein]

I have no idea in which forum this post actually belongs, so I'm starting with it here.

One of life's greatest mysteries to me is how exactly the FileMaker User Name gets set. I've never really delved into get a full understanding, but I have a need now. That need is an unhappy customer.

I know that the user name gets set to the name you enter in the dialog box in which you enter the organization and the license key during initial installation of FileMaker.

I know that it can be changed on the General Tab of the FileMaker Preferences.

Sometimes, FileMaker will ask you for a User Name when you open FileMaker. I figured it would do that if you didn't have a user name specified on the General Tab of the FileMaker Preferences. I just tested that theory and was NOT prompted for a user name at start up or even opening of a file. Huh.

The most important use for this User Name, IMHO, is the "record in use by another user" dialog box. We don't have any control over the content of the dialog box. That dialog box uses the FileMaker User Name to indicate who has the record locked. So, in order for that dialog to be useful, you need to make sure that the FileMaker User Names on each workstation are unique.

The problem I'm having with this customer is that they are using Terminal Services to run FileMaker Pro. In that environment, only one installation of FIleMaker Pro exists. That one installation is shared by all the users on the Terminal Server. As a result, the FileMaker User Name for all the users is the exact same. That is a huge problem when trying to determine who exactly has the record locked. And that is the problem being reported by the customer. They can't tell who really has the record locked and they have a lot of employees.

The bigger problem is that they are stating that it worked just fine prior to a few days ago. In other words, they are stating that, prior to a few days ago, the user names of the actual users that had the records locked were showing in the dialog box.

I don't know how this is possible unless I am truly missing something about how this user name gets set. That is why I'm posting here. I'm hoping someone out there has more knowledge about this than I do.

FYI, We have made no changes to our application there in about a month, so it can't be anything that we would have inadvertently modified.

[mr_vodka]

First it should say something like:

UserName ( AccountName ) is modifying this record...

Second, to set the User Name for each user in Terminal Services, when a user first logs into FileMaker for the first time, it should prompt them there. They should change it to their own name then.

Now each person can go back and st their own user name under preferences for the current established users or you should be able to wipe their profiles / adjust the registry settings.

Its probably a better idea to use the Account Name rather than the user name.

[Matt Klein]

First off...Thank you Lee Smith for moving this to the appropriate forum. I just had no idea where exactly this fit in.

mr_vodka:

Thanks for the response. All good points.

Regarding your first point, that is true. It does show UserName(AccountName). I use sort of a Data Separation model for our app where the GUI is separate from the data. As such, the actual authentication using FileMaker accounts happens in the data file not the GUI file. The users are automatically logged into the GUI file with a generic, limited access account. So, the AccountName that is returned by the dialog is not indicative of the actual user account logged.

Regarding your second point, that's good info and makes sense. Since I am not on-site at the customer I really can't tell you what went on, but all users were coming up with the same UserName. Of course, this was according to the customer and I'm not convinced I was getting the whole or proper information.

I remove the Preferences menu item so the users cannot go in and modify that user name. THat is not why I remove the Preferences. I do that so they can't disable plug-ins by mistake. A side effect is that they cannot change the user name themselves.

I found a solution I believe. I wrote a script that uses the Troi File Plug-in to modify the User Name stored in the windows registry once the user is logged into the App. The script will only modify the registry if the User Name in the registry doesn't match the currently logged in Account Name from the data file. If it does modify the registry, the user will have to restart the app for the change to actually take place in FileMaker, but they should only have to do it once.

[Wim Decorte]

As you know, FM reads the registry only at the startup so if you change the username when FM has already launched it does not show it properly.

A better solution is to use a Windows logon script to write the user's Windows logon name to the FM registry. That would happen before FM launches so the preference is set correctly and will show up properly once FM starts.

[DougWiz]

I have a follow-up question to this discussion on usernames, which is, has anyone developed a way to change the username via a script? Someone's plugin perhaps? It seems to me that it should be possible to do. Thx:db

[Steven H. Blackwell]

This could be done at one time by the SecureFM plugin. But I believe that feature was discontinued in FileMaker Pro 7. The user name is essentially deprecated. use the Account Name instead.

Steven

[wendykdt]

Following up on this old post to see if anything has changed... FM Server 16 console still shows the User Name column, rather than the Account Name... which means I have no way to identify the logged-in users. When our IT department installs FM on PCs, every installation receives a user name of "Windows Technologies".  This holds true for both internal and external authentication at the OS level.  Also, our IT department also uses Computer Names that do not identify the user, so no hope there. My only "solution" is to constantly monitor for User Names that don't make sense, try to find someone in IT to help me figure out who it is (which is time consuming), and chase down the user to have them change that User Name--and log out and back in. (I'm not up to writing to the Registry, which I doubt IT's settings will allow in any case.)

Why doesn't the server display the all-important Account Name, if User Name is deprecated??

(We're avoiding FMS 17 as we have administrators on Macs; the FMS 17 console "missing" logs, etc. present a learning curve that is too high for us at this time.)