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Concerns: Vision/Vision Management Site/Vision Database

User: System administrator, User Management Site

Prerequisites

not applicable

Introduction

Defining Futurama applications and installations and linking them to this installation of Futurama Vision

 

Description

The Futurama Vision Management Site is the managerial environment for a large amount of Futurama modules. The Futurama Vision Management Site creates a central operations centre where you can find relevant information on each of the various modules. In this page we describe the administration of Futurama installations and Futurama applications. By defining Futurama installations and applications you can link the various Futurama components to this installation of Futurama Vision.

To add product groups, apps, futuramas or other tables, navigate through the main menu by clicking on the button 'Management' and select the submenu: 'Manage domain tables'. Notice that the sub menu 'Manage domain tables' can only be used by users of the Management Site that have the rights to look into the files of all the ProductGroups.

Concepts

Futurama

With Futurama we refer to an installation of some version of Futurama. Examples of Futurama installations are:

  • test internal, the testversion of the application for internal use
  • production external, the production version of the application for external use

App

With an App we mean an instance of an application that is build with Futurama. Examples of apps are:

  • test internal for website X
  • production external for website X
  • production external for webservice Y
  • production internal for batch calculation process Z

An App is always linked to a specific installation of Futurama.

ProductGroup

A ProductGroup is a way to group applications and restrict access to an application to certain administrators.

 

Working with the concepts

Futuramas

There are various editions of Futurama (Server, Webservice, Website and Editor). In the menu tab Futuramas you can administer the various Futurama installations you use.

Add a Futurama installation:

  1. Click on "Add new record".
  2. Choose the "Name", "Description" and "Version" of the Futurama edition you wish to add.
  3. Then, if applicable, fill in a URL. If the edition is a webservice, fill in the URL of the webservice. If the edition is a website, fill in the URL of the website. This is the URL that is used when Futurama sends an e-mail to users to inform with the account information.
  4. If applicable, you can insert the "Location" of the installation of your Futurama edition. The location has to be filled in, in the situation your application uses Futurama Vision to store or retrieve data. For example XML data with private member data. Technically this means that in the Futurama model for your application VisionReferences are used. Contact the developer of your Futurama application to check whether VisionReferences are used or not. In case you wish to add the Editor as a Futurama, you need to insert the installation directory as location, for example \\SERVER\C$\PROGRAMFILES\FUTURAMA. In case you wish to add the website as a Futurama, insert the location where the website code is installed, for example \\SERVER\C$\INETPUB\WWWROOT\FUTURAMA\BIN. It is possible (since version 5.1.2) to insert one or more '%' as wildcards in the location field. This will make it possible to accept paths with a text (of 0 or more characters) where the % is supposed to be. In the previous example of the website directory, it is now possible to enter \\%\C$\INETPUB\WWWROOT\FUTURAMA\BIN, so that multiple servers will be accepted. Wildcards are easy to use for example when developing in the Futurama Editor to make a website application. Both the Futurama Editor and the website will have to use the same XML data from Vision. In order to only have to define one Futurama a wildcard can be used that both gives the location of the Futurama Editor and the location of the installatoin of the Futurama Website code. Another example for using wildcards is when load balancing is used, or a redundant server is used. In these situation there are more multiple servers used for hosting your Futurama application. In order to prevent installing your data in more Futuramas, the wildcard can be used.
  5. Click on the checkmark to add the Futurama edition.

Apps

In this menu tab you can define applications. To each of these applications, you can assign which ProductGroup the application has (see menu tab ProductGroups). This allows you to assign rights to users so that they can only look into the application that is a part of their ProductGroup.

Add a new App:

  1. Click on "Add new record".
  2. Choose a "Name" and a "Description".
  3. If applicable, you can insert the "Location" of the installation of your Futurama edition. The location is important if your edition uses Vision References. Suppose you have a Futurama file called website.xml, then insert the directory of the file, such as \\SERVER\C$\INETPUB\WWWROOT\FUTURAMA\APPLICATION\WEBSITE.XML. It is possible (since version 5.1.2) to insert one or more '%' as wildcards in the location field. This will make it possible to accept paths with a text (of 0 or more characters) where the % is supposed to be. In the previous example of the website directory, it is now possible to enter \\%\C$\INETPUB\WWWROOT\FUTURAMA\APPLICATION\WEBSITE.XML, so that multiple applications will be accepted. In case your application contain subdocuments, these do not have to be specified. The path to the original document will suffice.
  4. Choose the Futurama edition where the App is linked to.
  5. Choose the ProductGroup that the App should be a part of.
  6. In case your application encrypts data , check the "Encrypted data" checkbox.
  7. In case you checked the previous checkbox, you should submit the name of the encryption key. A key with this name should be present in the AppSettings section of the web.config of the Management Site.

Removing an APP

To delete an App you only need to press the correct delete button on the Apps tab in the Administration screen. Deleting App deletes polices, register_apps, register_bsns and register_remote_bsns.

Attempting to delete an App containing register data results in an error message, informing you from which registerApp data should be deleted. Register data is deleted using the register-synchronize screen.
After clearing all SSNs from your own admin, as well as from the NPR admin, all counters will show 0. Returning to the Apps screen and pressing delete, should now delete the App.

ProductGroups

Add a ProductGroup:

Suppose you are the main administrator for a number of companies, and you use the Management Site to administer them. You only want to give employees of the separate companies access to the data of their own company. It is important that they don't have access to the pages of the other companies. To do this, you can assign specific ProductGroups to certain employees. By assigning ProductGroups to the employees, they are only able to access data from their own company. In the page 'Security' is explained how to assign ProductGroups.

For every ProductGroup, a so called ParentGroup can be created. This way it is possible to create an hierarchical structure for the ProductGroups. This structure can be used to define which company data can be viewed by which employees. Suppose you are an administrator and you administer Companies B and C. Company C is a merger of the former companies D and E. You wish to assign different rights to each entity. This can be done by creating the following ProductGroups:

  1. First off, create ProductGroup "Administrator A". This ProductGroup requires no ParentGroup.
  2. Then, create the second ProductGroup "Company B". This ProductGroup gets "Administrator A" as ParentGroup.
  3. Using the same method as for "Company B", create ProductGroup "Company C".
  4. Finally, create ProductGroups "Company D" and "Company E" that have "Company C" as ParentGroup.

Using this construction allows you to grant rights to the board members of Company C to look into both Company C, D and E. However, the board members will not have rights to look into Company B.

Remove a Productgroup:

To remove a Productgroup, all you need to do is click the delete button next to it. Note that deleting a Productgroup is a potentially large operation: All related data (persons, accounts, policies, forms users, data types, and imported data records), as well as any child Productgroups + related data will be deleted. Use it with care.

Attempting to delete an Productgroup containing register data results in an error message, informing you from which registerApp data should be deleted. Register data is deleted using the register-synchronize screen.
After clearing all SSNs from your own admin, as well as from the NPR admin, all counters will show 0. Returning to the Productgroup screen and pressing delete, should now delete the Productgroup.

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Updated: 2018-03-23