DAF 4.X: Create Your Web Users Databases (ODBC or Text)

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Create Your Web Users Databases (ODBC or Text)

To start the installation, you will have to list, create and prepare all needed databases:

Create and Setup all needed Users Databases

ODBC User Database:

1. Create or modify a Table

Create or modify one or several tables in a database from your database system (MS Access file, SQL Server database).

In each table you intend to use, you must create several columns:

SQL Columns	SQL Type	Optional	Comment
Web user login	text, varchar	No	Write access in the ODBC source must be enabled if the Web User Manager is used to manage the user list
Web user password	text, varchar	No
DAF Groups	text, varchar	Yes
NT user login	text, varchar	Yes
NT user password	text, varchar	Yes
Account expiration date	date	Yes
Account Disabled	int	Yes	0 for Account Enabled. 1 for Account Disabled.
Number of visits	int	Yes	Write access in the ODBC source must be enabled
Date of Last Visit	date	Yes	Write access in the ODBC source must be enabled

You can choose any column name. For example: "dafuser," "dafpass," "dafgroups," "ntuser," "ntpass," "expdate," "nbvisits" and "lastvisit."

2. Fill in new columns with WEB user accounts and valid NT user accounts.

For each HTTP request, DAF will receive from IIS a WEB user login and password, DAF will then look for these in columns "dafuser" and "dafpass" and retrieve all information found in other columns of the row. For each table you intend to use, you should now enter at least a few Web users to be able to test your settings.

The following window copy shows an example of a small MS Access table usable with DAF:

access.GIF (24673 bytes)

Column dafuser contains WEB user names
Column dafpass contains WEB passwords
Column dafgroups contains DAF groups to which the user belongs
Column ntuser contains NT account logins
Column ntpass contains NT account passwords
Column datelastvisit contains the date of last visit
Column numberofvisit contains the number of visits
Column expiration contains NT account passwords

Remarks:

Note that columns dafuser and dafpass contain all user names and passwords usable by your WEB users, and columns ntuser and ntpass, if not empty, MUST contain a valid NT user login and password.

Each NT user specified in a DAF Table MUST have NT right "Log on Locally."

For example, with the preceding table, WEB user m1335, password l1335 will have access to files and directories which have:

NT read access for john (password goodboy)
Access for DAFGroups: "grp1" and "grp2"

If you intend to use several databases or tables, you have to repeat these steps for each table.

Text User Database:

For each HTTP request, DAF will receive from IIS a WEB user login and password, it will scan the text user list to retrieve all information mapped to the user. For each text file you intend to use, you should now enter at least a few WEB user logins and passwords to test your settings.

Each line defines a web user and the NT user to be mapped to it. The syntax for each line is:

Where:

<web login> and <web password> are a user login and password to be entered to access the web site
<NT user> and <NT password> are a valid NT login and password which will be mapped to <web login> and <web password>
<group name> is the DAF group to which the Web user belongs. Each group name must be separated with a semicolon.
@<expiration date> is the Web account expiration date. The format must be YYYY-MM-DD, where YYYY (4 digits) is the year, MM (2 digits) the month and DD (2 digits) the day. A line without an expiration date (or an invalid expiration date) will give access to the protected files forever.
!<Enabled/Disabled State> is the Enabled/Disabled account state. 0 For account enabled. 1 For Account Disabled. By default account is enabled. If this information is not specified, account will be Enabled.

The following lines show a sample text file usable with DAF:

(Do not enter the lines beginning with "------------")

------beginning of the DAF users database file -------

m2:l2,john:goodboy#grp1;@1999-05-05!0
m4:l4#grp2!0
m5:l5#grp1;grp3;@1999-10-05!0
m6:l6@1999-05-05!1
m7:l7,cindy:nice
m8:l8,cindy:nice#grp1;grp2;

------end of the DAF users database file -------------

Where:

mX and lX are web users
john (password goodboy), cindy (password nice) are valid Windows NT users
grp1,grp2 and grp3 are DAF groups
@YYYY-MM-DD are account expiration dates
!0 or !1 define the account Enabled/Disabled State

Each NT user specified in a DAF text file MUST have NT right "Log on Locally."

Install all needed ODBC Drivers

To use DAF with a database system, you must install all corresponding ODBC drivers.

Miscellaneous links regarding ODBC:

Microsoft ODBC Web Page:

http://www.microsoft.com/data/odbc

Last ODBC driver will be installed with the current release of MDAC (Microsoft Data Access Components). Current release of MDAC can be downloaded from:

http://www.microsoft.com/data/download.htm

Microsoft SQL Server Web Page:

http://www.microsoft.com/sql

With SQL Server:

I strongly recommend to use ODBC/SQL Server driver 02.65.0236 or newer.

Create all needed ODBC Sources

DAF will access all your ODBC databases using an ODBC data source name. To create new ODBC data source names, you have to run 32bit ODBC in the Control Panel.

Use System DSN ODBC Sources

All ODBC data sources used with DAF must be of type System DSN and NOT User DSN.
I strongly recommend to create an index on columns "DAFUser" and "DAFPass."

ODBC setup dialog box with an MS Access file:

ODBC Microsoft Access 97 Setup Window

ODBC setup dialog box with a SQL Server database:

ODBC SQL Server Setup Window

Last update: Friday, April 02, 1999 08:06