To display a name's effective access

About this task

The "effective" access a person, server, or a group has to documents in a database is not always apparent. For example, if there are two groups with different levels of access to documents, and someone is a member of both groups, you may wonder what access the person actually has. You can determine a person's effective access to the documents from the ACL.

Procedure

Select a database and choose File - Database - Access Control.
Click "Effective Access."
From the Effective Access dialog box, select the name of the person, server, or group and press Enter or click "Calculate Access."

"Database Access is derived from" in the dialog box shows the selected name's effective database access as determined by the database ACL.

The checked boxes of the dialog box indicate the access rights for the selected name.

The "Groups" and "Roles" boxes show all the individual and group name entries and roles that could potentially control the selected name's access to the selected document. If the person, server, or group is not in the ACL, the "Groups" box displays the group used to determine the effective access.
After you review the effective access for the selected name, click Done.

Results

It's possible to assign users or servers more than one level of access to a database. The following table describes the order of precedence for competing access levels.


Access level conflict	Resolution
A name is listed in an ACL individually and as a member of a group	The access level assigned to the individual name takes precedence over the access level for the group, even if the individual access level is less than the group level.
A name is included in two or more groups	The name receives the access of the group with the highest access.
A name appears in an ACL and in access lists associated with forms, views, or sections	The ACL controls database access; design element access lists refine this access to a lesser level. For example, if a user has Author access to a database but is not listed in the access list for a form in the database, the user cannot use the form to create a document.