Group File

A group file is a site-maintained file that lists users and the groups to which they belong. Using a group file is one way to determine the groups a web browser user belongs to.

To indicate you want VM:Webgateway to use a group file, place a GROUP FILE access control record in a DIRMAP or ACCESS file. When VM:Webgateway encounters a GROUP FILE access control record and one of the following access control records, it reads a group file to determine the group membership of the web browser user that is requesting data:

• WHEN GROUP
• WHEN USEREXIT with a GROUPS parameter

Specify the name and location of the group file on the GROUP FILE record. A group file can reside on any minidisk, SFS directory, or BFS directory on your system.

You can have more than one group file. However, for each request to serve data, VM:Webgateway can use only one group file. This means that VM:Webgateway should encounter only one GROUP access control record when processing a request to serve data.

Setting Up the Group File

Perform the following steps in the group file:

1. On each line, type a user name (for example, a userid, or an email address if you are using client certificates to authenticate users) followed by a list of the groups to which the user belongs.

   The user name must start in column one. Leave blank spaces between user and group names. Do not enter blank lines or comments.

2. Type user names and group names in the correct case.

   User Names

   User names are case sensitive, which can result in unnecessary errors when comparing the user name supplied by a web browser user to the user name in the group file. Use the UPPER, MIXED, or LOWER parameter of the PASSWORD access control record to specify how you want VM:Webgateway to translate the user name supplied by the web browser user.

   For example, if the user names in the group file were typed in uppercase, you would specify the UPPER parameter on the PASSWORD record so that VM:Webgateway translates the user name supplied by the web browser user to uppercase before comparing it to the user names in the group file.

   For more information about what case VM:Webgateway uses when comparing user names, refer to the table showing the effect of the PASSWORD record on identifying groups.

   Groups

   VM:Webgateway compares the groups in the group file with the groups listed on the WHEN GROUP access control record. The names in the group file can be case sensitive based on the format of the WHEN GROUP record.

   When VM:Webgateway performs the comparison, it honors the RESPECTCASE or IGNORECASE parameter used on the WHEN record. If you specify IGNORECASE, the group names match regardless of case. If you specify RESPECTCASE, the groups in the group file must have the same case as the groups listed on the WHEN GROUP record.

3. Sort the group file by user name.

   Sort the file using EBCDIC collating sequence. That is, you must sort the file on a system that uses EBCDIC, such as VM.

   Use the XEDIT SORT command or the SORT stage with a CMS PIPE command to sort the file.

   XEDIT SORT

   The following shows how to sort the group file when the user names are in columns 1-8:

   1. Enter the XEDIT command to edit the group file.
   2. From the XEDIT command line, enter:

      SORT * A 1 8

   CMS PIPE Command

   To sort the group file using the CMS PIPE command, enter the PIPE command from CMS. In the following example, the group file is GROUP FILE A and the user names are in columns 1-8:

   PIPE < GROUP FILE A | SORT 1-8 ASCENDING | > GROUP FILE A

Sample Group File

The following shows a sample group file that contains user names in columns 1-8 and the groups to which each user belongs starting in column 10.

 ===== * * * Top of File * * *     
       |...+....1....+....2....+....3....+..
 ===== ANDREW   PUBS PROJA           
 ===== BECKY    PUBS PROJA           
 ===== DANIEL   SALES                
 ===== EMILY    SALES PROJA          
 ===== LEANNA   MRKTNG PROJA         
 ===== LINDSAY  MRKTNG SECRET PROJA  
 ===== MARK     PUBS                 
 ===== * * * End of File * * *