Free Designer client is a double-edged sword
Tags: Development
The good news is more people have access to Designer and can start making those small changes to their databases that have been bugging them for ever. The bad news is that now even Bob in accounting has access to Designer (no offense Bob).
Now, more than ever, developers need to be sure their data is secure. Remember, a ‘Hide when’ formula is not a security feature. Just right click on the document and show document properties. Fine, you say. I'll just hide the design and the list of fields isn't displayed. Still not a security feature.
I am not going to go into the details here, but think of a View with the first column categorized on a sensitive field like BirthDate, and be sure to not check the option to 'Don't show empty categories'. For real security, you need to encrypt the fields, or use Reader fields. Since a Reader field applies to the whole document, put that sensitive information on a 'daughter document' with appropriate Reader access.
We know Bob is a nice guy, but don't give him a head start down the wrong path.
The good news is more people have access to Designer and can start making those small changes to their databases that have been bugging them for ever. The bad news is that now even Bob in accounting has access to Designer (no offense Bob).
Now, more than ever, developers need to be sure their data is secure. Remember, a ‘Hide when’ formula is not a security feature. Just right click on the document and show document properties. Fine, you say. I'll just hide the design and the list of fields isn't displayed. Still not a security feature.
I am not going to go into the details here, but think of a View with the first column categorized on a sensitive field like BirthDate, and be sure to not check the option to 'Don't show empty categories'. For real security, you need to encrypt the fields, or use Reader fields. Since a Reader field applies to the whole document, put that sensitive information on a 'daughter document' with appropriate Reader access.
We know Bob is a nice guy, but don't give him a head start down the wrong path.
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Comments
Posted by Matt At 02:53:09 PM On 10/28/2009 | - Website - |
The points that you raise are valid in some senses but Bob always did have the same level of access to create views as he does to use designer.
Much of the designer functionality for views has always been in the notes client for suitably privelaged users to access.
If Bob has access to use designer then he has always had access to design views.
In my experience most of the in-house developers I have met started as gifted amateurs in any case and had access to Designer even when it had to be paid for ( I started that way too ).
Posted by Sean Cull At 03:44:42 PM On 10/28/2009 | - Website - |
Posted by John Kingsley At 04:22:36 PM On 10/28/2009 | - Website - |
I see this move as a win all around. I'm more than happy to let Bob write code, and I'll coach him and help him promote it to the server after a proper code review.
Posted by Mike McP At 05:09:37 PM On 10/28/2009 | - Website - |
Giving power to the end user was one of the idea when the product was designed. Its one of its strengths.
Posted by Axel At 06:41:37 AM On 10/29/2009 | - Website - |
Am using spring, ibatisSql maps, unit tests, integration tests. Still the frontend guy reports an astounding amount of bugs. Just got quicker in localizing the bugs with all that getting fancy.
Lets not take ourselves too serious. Its ok, the free designer for a lot of projects.
As a notes developer - which I proudly am - the hardest nsf-monsters to cope with aren't those stupid little swarms of ntfs happily adapted by some power users over the years. Its the stuff written by some really smart developers employing smart tricks in the 1998-2001 years.
Just my bigmouth experience.
Posted by Axel At 06:38:09 AM On 10/29/2009 | - Website - |
Posted by Peter Presnell At 07:30:26 PM On 10/28/2009 | - Website - |