14    FileMaker Pro Web Publishing Security Guidelines

Groups

 are a means of aggregating and administering passwords that confer the same level of 

access to all passwords in a particular group. Use groups to classify users and control their access 

to specific fields or layouts in a database file. While passwords restrict activities across an entire 

database or to specific records, groups can restrict editing in particular fields. 

Note

  While groups can also be used to restrict access to specific layouts in the FileMaker Pro 

desktop environment, these restrictions are not respected when accessing FileMaker Pro data from 

the web. Consequently, you should not use  hidden  or restricted layouts as part of your security 

model.

For more information on configuring access privileges for use with web publishing, see chapter 2, 

 How to secure your data in FileMaker Pro web publishing.  For more general information on 

access privileges, consult FileMaker Pro Help.

FileMaker Pro Web Security Database

The FileMaker Pro Web Security Database is a set of three related databases that work together to 

protect databases published using Custom Web Publishing.

The Web Security Database lets you provide user name and password protection to multiple 

FileMaker Pro databases.You can set specific user permissions and field restrictions for each 

database, and update or change those settings directly from your web browser.

The Web Security Database includes two types of files: databases for providing web security and 

HTML files for changing the web security settings remotely. When users attempt to access your 

protected database on the web, their web browser will display a user name and password dialog 

box, and they will be required to input both a user name and a password before proceeding. This 

behavior is potentially more secure than that offered by access privilege protection, in which only 

a password is required (user name data is ignored by access privilege protection).

With the Web Security Database, once a user name and password are established, that information 

is sent by the web browser with every request to the Web Companion. The Web Companion then 

checks those values against the settings configured in the Web Security Database and grants 

permissions or field restrictions based on the specified privileges.

Remember, you can use access privileges or the Web Security Database when using Custom Web 

Publishing. Determine which security method delivers the specific features you need before you 

begin developing your custom web pages. For more information on creating custom web pages for 

use with FileMaker Pro, see the 

FileMaker Pro Unlimited Administrator's Guide

, 

FileMaker

Developer's Guide

, or the FileMaker, Inc. web site at www.filemaker.com.

For more information on the Web Security Database, see  Using the Web Security Database  on 

page 29.