Linking a database field to Active Directory Users

[carlcruz]

Hi Guys,

Im new with Filemaker Pro and main objective is start a new database for Asset Management. Assuming that the Filemaker Server used has successfully authenticated to Active Directory service, is it possible to define a field in the database and link it to a user in Active Directory? Thanks. Hoping for a response soon.

[Vaughan]

is it possible to define a field in the database and link it to a user in Active Directory?

Yes and no. It depends on what you mean by "link to the Active Directory".

To get external authentication working you need to create an account in the FM database that is set to externally authenticate. On the Active Directory, create a group with the same short name as the EA account in the database, and add the AD users to this group.

After the users have authenticated to the FM database the Get( PrivilegeSetName ) function will return the name of the privilege set attached to the AE account, and the Get( AccountName ) function will return the username that was entered during authentication (not the name of the account in the database, the name of the user -- this is really cool).

So you can create calculated fields in the database that can return the authenticated username and the privilege set name.

If there is other data you need to get out of the AD then you'll need to query the AD in some other way. I believe there are plug-ins that will allow this.