In the
last article, I introduced the details of a new inbuilt context menu. When listing its advantages, I had mentioned the need for a platform which supports ease of accessibility and authorization mechanism. In this article, we will see how we can enable or disable the context menu per user.
For a system administrator having control over the privileges provided to the users is a necessity. Having only the necessary privileges not only ensures secure handling of data but also prevents errors and boosts productivity.
Similarly, there is a need to disable the context menu for certain users who may not need the powerful privileges provided by the context menu. For example, reviewers or auditors need only display the PI Sheets.
When we saw the design of the new context menu in our last article, we learned that it is enabled by default for all the users on the system. This greatly reduced the installation effort. Let’s see how the disabling of context menu can be achieved.
How did customers achieve this with the iemenu.ocx?
Customers used to uninstall these add-ons on systems they wished to restrict the context menu functionals. Hence, users who accessed PI Sheets on these systems were restricted from performing operations listed on the context menu.
This method was not flexible since it restricted all the users who accessed the PI sheets on such systems, including supervisors and managers.
Leveraging the platform provided by the new context menu, now it is possible to disable the context menu per user. This looks a more flexible way of providing access to the users. Hence it provides required control over each user who accesses the PI Sheets.
This functionality can be activated by the implementation of the OSS note
2383597.
How to disable the context menu for a user?
By default, the menu would be accessible to all the users. If the admin wishes to disable the menu to a user, then the user parameter NO_PI_CT_MENU should be maintained.
This should be added to the user profile, transaction SU01, against the user id.
- Value X means the context menu is disabled for the user.
- Parameter not maintained or blank value will display the context menu
To summarise the whole process...
Having acute control over the privileges is always a tricky task for the admins. Providing them at the most granular level of control is quintessential. This helps them fulfill the varied business requirements.
So, the disabling the new context menu is simple. You must implement the OSS note
2383597 and then maintain the user parameter NO_PI_CT_MENU with a value of ‘X’.