Kexi User Mode

 Proposed: 2004-08-04, jstaniek
 Implemented: December 2006, jstaniek

Table of Contents      Introduction      History      Usage

Introduction

Simply speaking, User Mode is a mode that makes all the database schema read only. This mode is aimed at users who can enter, edit, process and remove data but cannot remove tables, queries, forms and so on, nor she can edit their properties. A command for switching to design mode of particular objects (table, form...) is hidden in the User Mode.

The User Mode helps to maintain in a multiuser envionment, where there are database developers delivering functionality for business logice, and users on the other hand.

For server databases, a good companion using the User mode is to also set permissions on particular tables (and "system" Kexi's kexi__* tables) so user cannot modify them. This provides more fine-grained permission system. Kexi does not yet provide GUI tools for this kind of administration, so a dedicated database administration tool (e.g. MySQL Admin) should be used.

History

What is the best name for this mode, more reasonable than 'Final'?

Since we've chosen 'Design Mode', and well defined, a name for second Kexi Mode is hard to pick.

Proposals given here ordered by my subjective preference:

• User Mode <-- our pick
• Release Mode
• Production Mode
• Work Mode

Usage

How to use this mode while deploying Kexi projects to the users? Curently there is no option to set the User Mode permamently in the database project. Instead --user-mode command line option can be used to force switching to the User Mode on startup. Simply create a shell script of a shortcut (KDE, MS Windows), that invokes kexi command with all needed options, --user-mode option and a database name. Then, user who run the script or clicks on the shortcut will be switched to the User Mode by default.