Marcos
There are two separate issues that you raise and the answer depends upon the XA Release you are using. In your email you state "MAPICS ERP 9.0".
The releases for MAPICS XA Are as follows:
MAPICS XA R1 through R4 - Marcam Corporation
MAPICS XA R5 through R7.3 - MAPICS, Inc.
INFOR XA R7.4 through R7.8 - Infor Corporation
Note that release 7.8 was early released in July 2008 and General Release was released at the time of the Inforum Users Conferences in Oct. 2008.
R7.9 was announced for release approximately 1st quarter of 2010.
The reason why this is important is because each version handles your questions differently.
Also important is to know if your licensing is concurrent users or named users.
Let's deal with the issues one at a time:
First: the requirement to change passwords on a specfied schedule is handled by the operating system of the AS/400 or iSeries.
At a command line (green screen) use the command WRKSYSVAL value QPWDEXPITV. All versions of XA are controlled in this manner.
Second: the requirement to automatically log users off the system.
This is a more complex answer. So I'll break it down for you.
"Green Screen" applications
While you can again use an operating system value ( QINACTITV ) you should NOT do so. XA, all versions, do not work with this value. Thus, if your user is maintaining a master file, or an order (customer, purchase, manufacturing, etc.) your files will become corrupted and could require a system restore.
My advice, DO NOT DO IT.
XA Backup's become a problem if users do not remember to log off correctly. Starting with XA R6 (I'm sorry I'm not certain of the PTF level) the XA backup routine can optionally log a user off the system. This works reasonable well, but still does not address the issue of a user that leaves their system logged into master file or order maintenance. Your backups will not complete.
There are many IT managers that have written wild and crazy routines to work around this problem. Some of them may respond to your request.
My recommendation is always to train and teach system disipline to the users. My experience as been that if when a user forgets to log off the system you disable their user ID (don't delete it!), such that when they arrive for work the next day, and cannot perform their duties (for which they should be held accountable) and are forced to make a formal request through their mangager/supervisor to reenable their user ID; it does not take long for the user community to "get it" and become the disiplined users they should be anyway.
"Plus Architecture" or "XA Client Architecture" AKA "XA Browser" from R3 through R6.
The programs, by design, do not correctly handle concurrent users. Thus if your license scheme is concurrent user licenses, you don't have a good option; programatically or otherwise.
If you have named users, starting at R6 you have some options to control time outs within the client architecture. They don't work very well but...
"PowerLink" R7.2 through R7.8 and beyond. (Sorry, it does not work correctly at R7.0 and R7.1)
Now we are talking! Finally, with the Paragon Group now part of the XA labs and the old management team and their crazy licensing models gone, we have a tool that works.
System Manager gives you the tools to auto log off users at any specified time interval of your choosing. AND IT WORKS GREAT!!!
(Sorry, remember "Green Screen" at any level does not work.)
Good Luck
Kevin Fox
-----Original Message-----
From: Marcos Meza <mmeza@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Dec 1, 2008 11:21 AM
To: mapics-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [MAPICS-L] Mapics help
Well, I had a couple questions about our Mapics ERP 9.0 .. We are trying to see if a couple features are available OR if they can be added to our Mapics . .
First, we want to set up Mapics to where it recognises a user being idle for a while and if that user is idle for more than, example 45 minutes, then mapics should log that user off....
Second, we want to set up a reminder to users to reset their password for mapics... maybe every 6 months or so have the user reset their mapics passwords...
Marcos Meza
SPECTRUMLABS.COM
I.T/Database Technician
Phone: (310) 605-4495
Fax: (310) 605-4595
e-mail: mmeza@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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