Visual Guard for PB Key Features
Visual Guard for PB
 
     
 
 
Visual Guard for PowerBuilder
 


What is Visual Guard?

Visual Guard is a tool designed for managing user roles and permissions in PowerBuilder applications.
With Visual Guard, you determine what each user can do, see and modify.
Administrative tools simplify the daily management of users and their permissions.
No need to change the application code: Visual guard dynamically changes the application’s behavior according to the user profile.

Visual Guard supports PowerBuilder up to version 11, as well as PowerBuilder code migrated to .NET applications (Winforms and ASP.NET Webforms).

What can Visual Guard do for you?

Grant access to an application:
 

Who is allowed to open an application?
Which part of the application does each user have access to?

Example: Mr Smith belongs to the sales team. He can log on to the application and access the purchase order window. But as a salesperson, he cannot enter the Human Resources windows.

Visual Guard will first verify the user's login. Then, it will disable some menu options to restrict access to authorized windows only.


Secure the data
 

You can define which user can modify or view any particular data.

Example: Salaries are confidential. Only the director can modify them, some managers can review them and most of employees won’t see them.
Visual Guard will hide this field or disable modifications depending on the user's permissions.

For security or confidentiality reasons, you may also want to filter data that users can see and modify.

Example: A salesperson in charge of the USA can only access the deals made with American customers whereas the person in charge of Canada will access Canadian deals.

Visual Guard will dynamically filter the deals the user can see or modify.

 

Adapt the graphical interface to the User Profile
 

You may need to change the application’s GUI to reflect the user's permissions.

Example: The customer window contains a button called “new” to create a new customer.

Visual Guard can hide or disable this button if the user is not allowed to create customers.

This feature is available for any item of the user interface (button, tab, menu, fields, etc…).


Parameter business logic
 

Business rules may vary from one user to another.

Example: Employees can create purchase orders up to $500 and managers up to $10,000.

Visual Guard will apply this limitation according to the value defined for the user role.

 

Why choose Visual Guard ?

No coding necessary
 

No need to write code to define permissions. Just declare them in the Visual Guard Developer Workshop.

Furthermore, you will use Profile Manager to manage the different profiles and users without having to code anything in the application.
The application will be modified automatically at runtime.

Example: A new window is developed with a button that should be hidden from some users.

You will use Developer Workshop to declare a permission that hides the button and Profile Manager to grant this permission to the appropriate users.

Once the window opens, Visual Guard will hide this button from users who are not allowed to see it. Adding this permission takes no more than a few minutes and does not change the application code


Easy implementation
 

You can integrate Visual Guard into any new or existing application.

The integration process is very simple: You add a few lines of code into your project.

Note : If you already have a permission system, you should probably deactivate it before using Visual Guard.

Our support team will guide you during this integration process. Do not hesitate to contact us!

 

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Freee the development team from daily management of roles and users:
 

When using Visual Guard, role and user management requires no special development skills.

A non technical person (super-user, administrator, head of department...) can easily manage them.

They can declare roles, grant them permissions and associate them to users.
It releases the IT department from the daily role and user management.


Greatly reduce the cost of security
  Development costs: Without Visual Guard, you need to write and maintain code (to modify the application according to the users, manage roles and permissions, etc...). With Visual Guard there is nothing to code, nothing to maintain.

Role and user management: Without Visual Guard, developers need to manage roles and users. With Visual Guard, end-users or administrators can handle them and free up the development team.

Availability
: Without Visual Guard, it takes time to develop and validate the security system.
By contrast, Visual Guard works immediately on any application.

Update and application deployment: Without Visual Guard, adding permissions implies code modifications and supplementary re-deployment.
With Visual Guard, you can add new permissions without modifying or re-deploying the application. These permissions are immediately active .

Project management: With Visual Guard, security implementation is completly independent of the rest of the application. You can implement Visual Guard during or after development. This integration can be done by a member of the development team or by someone in charge of security.
 

How does it work?


Visual Guard is composed of:
  A security repository that stores users, roles and permissions.

The Visual Guard engine, a component included in your application that modifies it dynamically according to the user's permissions.

Developer Workshop: An application that allows developers to create permissions.

Profile Manager: An application aimed at administrators for daily roles and permissions management.

An example of a PowerBuilder application integrating Visual Guard

What happens at runtime?
  The user logs onto the application

Visual Guard connects to the security repository and retrieves the user's permissions.

The Visual Guard engine then modifies the application according to these permissions.
Example: When a window opens, Visual Guard may hide buttons and filter data.

More info => Getting started
 

Implementation process:
 

1. Add Visual Guard engine to your project and activate the security (just a few lines of code required).

2. Implement the Visual Guard login window (or use your own login window).

3. Create a security repository and declare your application in this repository.

4. Using Developer Workshop, developers define all the permissions available for this application. As a result, a permissions catalog is created. It will be used later (see step 6).

5. The application is tested, compiled and deployed.

6. Administrators use Profile Manager to create roles and grant them permissions from among those defined in the permission catalog. Then those roles are associated with users.

7. No technical skill is required: Administrators can be super-users, heads of departments, etc...

Note: If you already have a permission system, you should disable it before using Visual Guard.

More info => Getting started

 

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Technical specifications

Technical requirements
  PowerBuilder 5 to 10.5
VB.NET, C#, ASP.NET or ASP.NET 2.0
.Net framework 1.1 or 2.0
   
 

You can integrate Visual Guard into any new or existing application, no matter how big or complex.

No limitations: Any change you want to make in your application and any permission is possible. The only question is: How simple is it?

With Visual Guard, there’s always a way! Still have doubts? Just ask us!

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Resources:

See a demo for PowerBuilder
Getting started
Visual Guard Architecture
How does it work?
Receive an evaluation version
Visual Guard for .NET

 
 
 
Index
What is Visual Guard?

What Visual Guard can do for you? :
Main features of Visual Guard. How your application will be modified to adapt to users permissions?

Why choose Visual Guard ?
Which benefits does Visual Guard provide? Gain of time, money and reliability...

How does it work?
Visual Guard's operation and its integration within your application

Technical specifications

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Trial version for .NET
Trial version for PowerBuilder