Perspectives for Security Groups

Perspectives can be integrated with User Security, allowing administrators and librarians to define the set of Perspectives available to a given security user group. This ensures that users in the group have all the tools and languages they need, whilst helping them focus on their work by completely hiding any irrelevant tools that might otherwise be distracting. This results in productivity gains, while still allowing the modelers to switch between Perspectives that have been assigned to them. So, for example, a security group called Strategic Process Modelers could be defined and an administrator could assign to it the entire Strategy Perspective set and the Decision Modeling Perspective from the Requirement set. All users assigned to this group would have access to, and be able to switch between, the individual Perspectives or, by selecting All, would be able to access the technologies in all their Perspectives. Users who have been assigned as members of a number of groups will have available to them the amalgam (union) of all their groups' Perspectives.

An administrator or librarian who has defined fine-grained technologies using the strict and restricted feature can apply these restricted Perspectives to any group, thus ensuring that the members of the group have only the restricted set of elements, connectors and diagrams from the specified technology. For example, there might be a group of strategic modelers who just need to model straight-through processing. They only need access to the basic BPMN modeling palette such as Activities and Control Flows, and are not concerned about Pools, Lanes, Gateways and Message Flows, for example, and certainly don't want to see Choreography diagrams. The librarian could set up a Strict Perspective restricted to just these modeling elements and connectors and diagrams. They then apply it to the group Strategic Process Modelers and ensure the users are made part of that group using the 'Security Users' dialog, available from the 'Configure' ribbon. This gives an administrator fine grained control of what parts of the language their project team can use, resulting in boosts in productivity and outputs.

The model administrator can similarly tailor the ribbons available to each user security group, as a Ribbon Set for each group, so that particular ribbons can be hidden to further customize and focus the modelers' workspace.

It is important to note that the 'hidden' technologies are not disabled - the model is still logically correct and fully supported for every underlying technology; it is simply that a particular security group will not be able to model using the hidden technologies.

This feature is available in the Corporate, Unified and Ultimate Editions of Enterprise Architect, from Release 15.0.

Access

Ribbon

Start > All Windows > Perspective > Settings > Group Restrictions On the 'Perspective Sets' screen, The 'Perspective Settings for Security Groups' panel displays, listing the existing security groups for which Perspective Sets have been defined. (Existing security groups that do not have a Perspective Setting will show in the list if the 'Hide Unconfigured' checkbox is deselected.) Notice that in the 'Perspective Set' column against the security group 'Authors' the value 'Authors' indicates the Perspective Setting that exists for that group. At the top of the list is the group '<Model Default>', which enables you to refine the Perspectives and ribbons available to all users of this model - it is effectively an 'all model users' security group.

Create or Edit a Perspective Setting for a Security Group

1. Click on the required security group name, then click on the icon on the right of the field in the 'Perspective Set' column. The 'Perspectives for Security Group' dialog displays.
   
   The dialog lists all of the Perspective Sets available in Enterprise Architect and, when you click on the name of a Perspective Set, all of the Perspectives available in the selected set (as shown for the 'Analysis' Set). All Sets and Perspectives have checkboxes, which initially are all selected.
2. To make a complete Perspective Set unavailable to users in the security group, click on the corresponding checkbox to clear it.
3. To make individual Perspectives unavailable within an active Perspective Set, click on the corresponding checkboxes to clear them.
4. Work through all the Perspective Sets to define all the Perspectives that are not available to the users in the security group. If you want to reset all unselected checkboxes to selected, click on the Reset All button.
5. When you have defined the Perspective Setting, click on the 'Perspective Group Name' field and type in a name for the Perspective Setting for the security group.
6. Click on the OK button. The 'Perspective Settings for Security Groups' tab of the 'Perspective Sets' screen redisplays, with the name of the Perspective Setting in the 'Perspective Set' field for the selected security group.
7. You can repeat the process for another user security group.
8. When you have set up your Perspective Settings for the security groups, click on the Close button to close the 'Perspective Sets' screen.

Create a Ribbon Set for a Security Group

This process is similar to that for creating a Perspective Setting for a security group.

1. Click on the required security group name, then click on the icon on the right of the field in the 'Ribbon Set' column. The 'Ribbon Set for Security Group' dialog displays.
   
   The dialog lists all of the ribbons available in Enterprise Architect and, when you expand the name of a ribbon, all of the option panels available in the selected ribbon (as shown for the 'Design' ribbon). All ribbons and panels have checkboxes, which initially are all selected.
2. To make a complete ribbon unavailable to users in the security group, click on the corresponding checkbox to clear it.
3. To make individual option panels unavailable within an active ribbon, click on the corresponding checkboxes to clear them. Clearing all the panel checkboxes for a ribbon also hides the complete ribbon (you cannot display an empty ribbon).
4. Work through all the ribbons to define all the option panels that are not available to the users in the security group. If you want to reset all unselected checkboxes to selected, click on the Reset All button.
5. When you have defined the Ribbon Set, you can also identify one ribbon as being the default that is shown whenever users in the selected security group open Enterprise Architect. Click on the drop-down arrow in the 'Default Ribbon' field, and select the required ribbon name.
6. Click on the OK button. The 'Perspective Settings for Security Groups' tab of the 'Perspective Sets' screen redisplays, with the name of the Ribbon Set in the 'Ribbon Set' field for the selected security group.
7. You can repeat the process for another user security group.
8. When you have set up your ribbon sets for the security groups, click on the Close button to close the 'Perspective Sets' screen.

Notes

• Only model administrators can edit these settings
• You cannot hide the 'Start' ribbon, 'Specification - Specify' ribbon or 'Document - Edit' ribbon, or any panels that they contain
• If the 'Settings' ribbon is hidden, the Model Administrator's login overrides that to ensure that the administrator can administer the model
• Using the Reset All button for a Perspective Setting or Ribbon Set effectively cancels any special settings for the security group, and gives the member users access to all Perspectives and ribbons