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Status Not under consideration
Workspace IBM i
Categories Security
Created by Guest
Created on Jan 13, 2017

RELATED IDEAS

Add user defined fields to user profiles

Adding a few user defined fields to users profiles would allow customers to directly attach useful information to user profiles. I suggest five 10 character fields. having one field long enough to store an email address would also be very helpful. The customer could then use other files to join with output from DSPUSRPRF to produce reports with more meaningful information. The fields could also be very useful even when displaying a single user profile.

Fields could be used for information like department, phone number, and manager. Having this information available on the DSPUSRPRF screen could make many tasks easier since all information about the user could be readily available on a single screen and without having to track this information separately. Printing reports grouped by department or manager would also make security management much easier.

If easier for design purposes, these fields could even be stored in a separate DB2 table, and potentially even updateable with direct file access. The important thing though would be to be able to enter the information with CRTUSRPRF or CHGUSRPRF, and to have the information available with DSPUSRPRF and RTVUSRPRF.


Use Case:

User defined fields such as department, manager, telephone extension, etc. would be populated while maintaining the user profile. When working with a user profile at a later time, and it is necessary to contact them or their manager, it would be much easier to have the information on the user profile screen instead of having to go to other sources for the information.

When printing security reports for manager review, it would be helpful to have the information available with the profile information. Likewise, selecting employees by department would be much easier. Currently we depend on staff remembering to update our own table, but it is sometimes overlooked.


Idea priority High
  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Dec 17, 2018

    Christian Jorgensen's suggestion does not provide a good alternative. The request was for a way to record information with the user profile that would make it much easier to work with user information, such as by department. A small number of user defined fields would allow information about the user to be maintained with the user profile. Any other method requires separate steps which could be overlooked or forgotten.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Dec 20, 2017

    No work is planned for this request -- as Christian Jorgensen mentioned in a prior comment, there are other ways to achieve the same result.

    IBM i currently supports the following interfaces, available in service program QSYUSRIN, that allow user level information to be stored and retrieved on an individual user profile basis. This interface allows for up to 1700 bytes of information to be stored for a single Application information ID (See API documentation). Multiple Application information ID entries can be created for a user profile. However, the only interfaces to this data are via the APIs so you would need to write a "display" interface if this is required.

    QsyUpdateUserApplicationInfo
    QsyRemoveUserApplicationInfo
    QsyRetrieveUserApplicationInfo

    Another suggestion is to use WRKDIRE to create directory entries associated with the user profiles. Directory entries have many of the requested functionality including full user name fields, department information, phone numbers, mailing address, e-mail address, and more. Pressing F13 from WRKDIRE allows you to view a list of departments and then view the users in each defined department.

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     May 14, 2017

    The additional type of information mentioned in the request could easily be stored in the system directory. Or one could attach the information to the user profile object using the User Application Information API's:
    https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_73/apis/misc1c.htm

    Bruce Vining wrote some great articles on how to use these API's:
    http://www.mcpressonline.com/programming/apis/the-api-corner-customize-application-behavior-for-each-user
    http://www.mcpressonline.com/programming/apis/the-api-corner-more-on-customizing-application-behavior-for-each-user

  • Guest
    Reply
    |     Apr 25, 2017

    The CAAC has reviewed this requirement and recommends that IBM not implement this requirement. This request asks for changes that IBM i user profiles were not designed to do.

    Dawn May - CAAC Program Manager

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