FileMaker Pro 4.1 Mac User's Guide

7-10 FileMaker Pro User’s Guide
Passwords and groups are related. You can define a password for each
employee in your company, and then associate passwords with groups
to limit access to each department’s data. For example, in a file
containing employee information, only passwords in the Human
Resources group can see salary information.
When you open a file with a password, FileMaker Pro knows:
1 activities you’re authorized to do with the file
1 groups associated with your password
1 layouts and fields you can see
Important FileMaker Pro passwords work independently of operating
system access privileges. Shared FileMaker Pro files are available on
your network even if you haven’t shared them with your operating
system’s file sharing features. To restrict access to shared FileMaker Pro
files, use FileMaker Pro passwords.
Note When you assign passwords to a database, those same passwords
are required when opening the database over the Web, unless Web
Security database passwords are in effect. For more Web-related
password and access privilege options, see “Database security” on page
11-18.
The following example shows two layouts for an Employees database.
The Salary List layout displays data that is confidential (like salary) and
data that everyone can see (like phone number). The Network List
layout displays network addresses that only network administrators can
access. The file has two groups, Human Resources and Network
Administration.
Passwords in this group Can do this
Human Resources See and change any field on the Salary List layout. They
can’t see the Network List layout.
Network Administration See (but not change) the names and phone numbers on the
Salary List layout. They can’t see the salaries. They can see
and change any field in the Network List layout.