In version previous to Smart Office 10.0.4 the possibility to connect Smart Office settings to users or groups of users existed but had to be done through Active Directory with group polices. Adding new group polices can be a bit tricky and sometimes the trickiest part is to get access to the Active Directory it self.

In Smart Office 10.0.4 there is a new way that let you create different settings values and connect them to user(s) and/or group(s) of users.

So where does the uses and roles come from?

In the latest version of the Grid and the latest versions of the existing session providers it is possible to retrieve what groups a user belongs to and also list existing groups. Each session provider has its own way of retrieving users and groups from the user repository. Read more in the documentation for each session provider if special configuration is needed.

The possibility to use group polices to enforce settings values to different users is still working as in earlier version.

A brief recap

Settings in Smart Office are edited by administrators in the Settings Editor administrator tool. Users can change user settings in the Settings dialog.

User Settings

In the administrator tool the administrator can configure default values for user settings that all new users will get when they install Smart Office the first time. The user can change the user settings in the settings dialog if they are not happy with the default values.

To prevent users from changing a value the administrator can lock the setting. When a setting is locked it is enforced, it does matter if the setting had ben unlocked earlier or the user have changed it. As soon as a setting is locked that is the value that is used on the clients and the users cannot change it.

Application Settings

An application setting can never be changed by the user and any change an administrator makes, that change is enforced on the clients. Exactly the same behavior as when a user setting is locked.

How to connect different values to different users/groups

In the Settings Editor there is a new button besides each setting

When pressing the button beside a one of the setting the Rules dialog is shown. In the picture below the button beside Enable roaming profiles have been pressed.

The Rules dialog shows all rules for the selected setting and it is possible to add, remove or change rules. When adding or changing a rule a new dialog is shown.

First or all, give your rule a proper name. In this example a rule is created for users that only work with one computer and roaming profiles is not necessary so the rule is named “Disable roaming for users that does not change computer”.

Below the name is the Value area and there is where the value for this rule is defined. Since I am creating a rule that will disable roaming profiles the checkbox will unchecked. Depending of what kind of field a rule is created for the control will differ, it can be a textbox, combo box or some other control.

The “Rules applies to” area is where this rule is connected to specific users or to one or more groups of users. Below is the rule conencted to two specific users and also the LSOAdministrators group. If there are no groups showing in the right list it is the active session provider in the Lawson Grid that needs to be troubleshooted.

If creating more than one rule it is possible to reorganize the rules with the buttons on the right.

When all dialogs are closed there will be a green checkmark to the right of the Rules button indicating that that the setting has rules defined.

In runtime when the Smart Office client requests the settings the server will process all settings and for those settings that have rules connected to it the rules will be processed in the order listed in the Rules dialog. As soon as a rule has a match, e.g. when the user is identified as a specific added user to the rule or as a member to any of the groups connected to the rule, the processing will stop and the value if the current rule will be used. If no rule is a match, the default value will be used.

Summary

The group polices will still work if that solution is already in place but with the possibility for a Smart Office administrator to quickly change who will have certain setting values I guess that the group polices will soon be replaced with the new way of assigning setting values to users.