User manual

Table Of Contents
Chapter 6
Protecting databases
This chapter describes the basics of how to restrict what users can see and do in a FileMaker Pro file. You’ll
learn about:
1 planning security for a file
1 viewing and creating user accounts and passwords
1 viewing and creating privilege sets
1 viewing extended privileges
1 preventing versions of FileMaker Pro earlier than version 11 from opening a file
1 authorizing other files to access your files
1 taking measures to secure your database solution, and your operating system, network, and hardware
1 backing up databases and other files
1 installing, running, and upgrading antivirus software
Note See Help for detailed, comprehensive information and step-by-step procedures about using
FileMaker
Pro.
Although your operating system includes file security features, you should use FileMaker Pro access
privileges as the fundamental way to control access to and protect the security of your database files.
For information about how security settings in older databases convert to the current version of
FileMaker
Pro, see “Converting databases from FileMaker Pro 6 and earlier” on page 139 and see
FileMaker Pro Help.
Protecting databases with accounts and privilege sets
You can limit what users can see and do in a database file. You can restrict:
1 Data access. Make particular records or fields from individual tables view-only, or hide them completely.
1 Layout access. Prevent users from modifying layouts in Layout mode.
1 Access to value lists and scripts. Prevent users from accessing and modifying value lists and scripts, and
from running scripts.
1 Access to file sharing. Individually enable file sharing via the FileMaker Network, Web Publishing, and
ODBC and JDBC.
1 Outputting data. Prevent users from printing or exporting data.
1 Menu access. Make only a limited set of menu commands available.
You restrict what users do in a file by requiring them to enter an account name and password when they
attempt to open a file. The account name and password they enter determines which privilege set will be
used and the privilege set limits what they can do in a file. For more information about accounts and privilege
sets, see the following section.