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Golden Rule No2 No hard coding of User Names

Hint Short Cut: Add this to your code & documentation to help you find this page.
http://www.notesninjas.com/#GR2 or http://www.notesninjas.com/A555F9/nn.nsf/ByAlias/GR2

The Golden Rule, why follow it, exceptions to the rule and how is the problem fixed?


What is the Golden Rule?

Names should not be hardcoded in a database particularly in agents, readers and authors fields, action buttons hide formulas.

Roles or lookup keyword documents should be used instead.

Why follow this Golden Rule?

If a person leaves the company or another person is required to do the same job, then chnaging the role is a lot easier than finding all of the names.

Exceptions

I have not seen a valid reason not to do this.

One may be that you have a secure database and you do not want people to give themselves a role, have a look around then remove the role. This can be tracked in the ACL log or code can be set up to send an email to an administrator if a user is found with the role.

How do I find the culprit fields and hide formulas?

If you have to maintain or upgrade a database that has broken this golden rule then you should try and get hold of the old user's id and password so that you can be sure you find all the hidden areas of the database.

You can use a tool to search the design for the user's name, remember it can be abbreviated, common or canonical. 

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