AW: Where to put on windows an option file accessable for all users?

[Tiemo Hollmann TB]

Thank you for your helpful thoughts.

How would I differentiate the access to these two different option sets? On a private computer where the user usually is logged in as an admin I would have to offer both option sets. In a school, depending on the log-in the appropriate options. But I never have seen a chance in LiveCode to ask for the user privileges (on Win and Mac) to be able to differentiate it. How is this usually be done?
Tiemo

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: use-livecode [mailto:use-livecode-bounces at lists.runrev.com] Im Auftrag von Peter TB Brett
Gesendet: Dienstag, 7. Juli 2015 12:17
An: How to use LiveCode
Betreff: Re: Where to put on windows an option file accessable for all users?

On 2015-07-07 11:08, Tiemo Hollmann TB wrote:
> Hi Peter,
> 
> hmmm, never thought about that it could be a design fault.
> 
> Beside real user based options I keep some general options in my 
> option file, like the path to video files, or a flag if the software 
> should look automatically for updates. If I think about schools, where 
> different users can log in the same computer, that’s why I wanted to 
> keep one option file for all users.
> 
> But if I follow your hint, I would have to split this option file into 
> an "admin-options-file", which is only accessible for the admin and a 
> "user-options-file", which is stored in the user files.
> 
> Would you agree to this approach or do you see a chance to keep a 
> single options file which works in multi-user environments as on a 
> private single-user computer?

Yes, that would be exactly the way I would recommend to structure things.  You could think of it as follows:

1. Settings that relate to the way the program is installed on the system (e.g. the video files' path, or whether to install updates) -- these are the "per-system" settings and should be controlled by the administrator only.

2. Settings that relate to the way the program is used (e.g. "enable the colour scheme for colour-blind users") -- these are the "per-user" 
settings and should be controlled (and stored) by each user.

It is sometimes a little bit difficult to think about at first.   
However, dividing the settings in this way means that one user can't mess things up for another user, or interfere with settings that the system administrator has put in for a good reason. :-)

The separation of "user" and "system" settings is the recommended way to structure things on most systems nowadays, especially Windows and Linux.

Don't forget that when you have a single-user computer, you can just treat it as a multi-user computer with one user!

                                Peter

--
Dr Peter Brett <peter.brett at livecode.com> LiveCode Engine Development Team


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