Re: BPCS - Program Security -- BPCS-L

Since you are new to BPCS you may also be new to your company, and depending on turn over, you might not have got good guidance in what the company has or does not have ... I suspect we could use a FAQ http://faq.midrange.com/data/cache/1.html in what a newbie needs to be checking.

BPCS comes with a lot of documentation, for end users and for IT. Some of it is decent, some pretty poor. You really need access to 3rd party documentation in addition to that which comes with BPCS.

Same kind of story with BPCS security ... some aspects of it are well thought out, but some aspects are such that it is well worth a company's time to consider add on software that is available to enrich its quality and the ability to manage it.

When you first sign onto BPCS there should be a screen saying what version of BPCS your company is on ... that information can be of immense help to this group and others since not all versions of BPCS work same way in many respects.

See if you can find a file called BPCSDOC and within it a member called SSALOG00 ... each source member of BPCSDOC is a "manual" on some aspect of BPCS ... the first one you should study is SSALOG00.. It will give you guidance for looking for the source code on your system, along with lots of info about the "logic" of how BPCS functions, and what people need to know at various levels. You can be in a world of hurt if you really do not have access to source code.

In our case, someone who signs onto BPCS is signing onto the execution code. The source code is stored in other libraries. This list can help you find that, only if we know your version. For example, my company is on version 405 CD ... the source code is in a library called BPCS405CDS where the S on the end means source.

A word of warning if you are new to modifying packaged software. If your company makes an effort to stay current with upgrades to the package, you will get replacements for programs that you may have modified, and it can be a nightmare identifying which programs got replaced, and what lines of code got changed, so that then you merge your changes with the latest upgrades. PDM-54 can only help so far.

We generally try to avoid this nightmare by having our modifications in another program of similar name, then using BPCS security to limit access to the original, unmodified program. We have not been successful in sticking 100% to this game plan.

This concept not just apply to program objects ... we have substituted some message texts, and added new error messages to cover new scenarios. You have to have some kind of game plan how to cope when new stuff comes from SSA GT to replace stuff that you have modified.

We also had a nightmare after we assumed BPCS files were of a predictable size, and used them heavily in our modifications, then a BPCS upgrade increased the byte length of some files so as to add more fields.

There are a lot of fields in the item master that item master maintenance does not get at. This is a systemic problem across BPCS, fortunately not a lot of fields we need to get at that we need modifications to get at. Another issue is that INV100 accesses fields that need to be updated by different job functions within the corporation ... we really need to clamp down on who all may be changing items, and have other programs for people who only need to change one or two fields. - Al Macintyre http://www.ryze.com/go/Al9Mac Find BPCS Documentation Suppliers http://radio.weblogs.com/0107846/stories/2002/11/08/bpcsDocSources.html BPCS/400 Computer Janitor

, you wrote:

I am new to BPCS and I'm not sure how the package works. I know that my company doesn't have source for most of the package or probably all. I have noticed that most of the inquiry screens uses, 5 to display, 2 to revise, etc...
My question is without the source is there a way to limit users to
display only and not allow them to revise records. The program I would
like to secure is the Item master (INV100).
Thanks for any responses.
Daniel
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/bpcs-l.