Introduction

Objective

  • The objective of this tutorial is to show users with administrator rights how to register employees in the PLANTA system and enable them to work with the PLANTA software.

Information

  • In order for the employees of a company to be able to work with the PLANTA software, the administrator must register and define them in the program as persons, users, resources, and stakeholders.
  • All modules that are necessary for entering and managing employee data and rights can be found in the Users, Roles, Resources module panel which belongs to the PM Administration role. For the creation of resource data, multi-project management rights are required.

Notes

  • All exercises are based on the PLANTA demo data. This demo data must be installed beforehand.
  • The screen shots used in this tutorial are mere examples of functions and may differ from the actual layout in the program.

Create Persons

Task

  • Create the new employee, Ralf Schulze, as a person in PLANTA project in order to enable him to work with the program.

Information

  • Persons are basic elements in the PLANTA software.

Procedure

  • Log in with user R41.
  • Open PM Administration → Master Data in the user menu.
  • Select the Users, Roles, Resources link in the user menu.
    • The panel with the same name opens and you are now in the Persons module.
  • Click on the New button (in the button area at the bottom) or on the Insert button (in the toolbar).
    • As a result, a new person record is created in which the personal data of the new employee can be entered.
  • Fill in the Name, First name, and Code fields.
    • The ID of the new person is generated automatically as soon as you have filled one of the above-mentioned fields and jumped to the next field.
    • Save.
  • Result:

Create Person Attributes

Task

  • Assign a user name to Ralf Schulze so that he can log in to the program.
  • Furthermore, Ralf Schulze has to be defined
    • as a stakeholder so that he can join project teams and
    • as a resource so that he can be scheduled into projects and report the hours he worked to the appropriate projects.

Information

  • In PLANTA, three person attributes must be defined for each person:
    • User: required for the respective person to log in to the PLANTA program
    • Stakeholder: required for assembling project teams
    • Person resource: required for assigning the respective person to a project as a resource

Procedure

  • In the Persons module, click on the Create person attributes button in the data record for Ralf Schulze and save.
    • Three attributes (User, Stakeholder and Person resource) and the corresponding code are automatically assigned to the person of Ralf Schulze.
      • The code for all three attributes is the same as the person code.

Define a Person as a Resource

Task

  • Although Ralf Schulze has been given a resource code when the classifications were created, this is not sufficient in order to schedule him into projects as a resource. Further settings are required.
  • Define Ralf Schulze as a resource.

Procedure

  • In the Persons module, in the person resource data record for Ralf Schulze, click on the link on the name in the Person resource field.

  • Now, the new resource must be included in the existing structure and the resource structure code must be defined for it. The resource structure code is required for controlling resource access in PLANTA project. 
  • To see the existing resource structure, activate the Resource Structure tab.
  • Ralf Schulze is to be included in the Engineering mechanics department. To do so, select this resource in the Parent Resource field in the Resource Data Sheet.
  • Enter the code of the parent resource in the Resource structure code field and define the order of the resources in the department by specifying an additional digit; in this case: 1.1.1.5



  • When you open the module, Start and End period will automatically be preset with today’s date and must be adjusted according to the definition of the resource planning horizon.


  • Additional specifications can be added at a later point in time if required.

Details

  • By clicking on the Display availability button you switch to the Availability module, where the resource's availability per day can be defined.

Define User Data 

Note

  • The user data of the persons is not defined and edited directly in the Persons module, but in the Users module.
    • To define and edit user data, click on the link on the name in the User field in the user data record of the corresponding person.

  • As a result, you switch to the Users module and go directly to the record of the required user.

User Password

Note

  • Ralf Schulze, the newly created user, requires a password in order to be able to log in to the program.
    • When creating a user, a blank default password is saved in the data base.
    • Upon his/her first login, the user must immediately replace it by a proper password. Only then can the user log in to the system again.
    • If blank passwords are not allowed for security reasons, the administrator can alternatively create a temporary password for each new user. This temporary password must be entered when logging in for the first time and must immediately be changed by the user as well.

Assign Roles to the User

Task

  • In company X, Ralf Schulze is to assume the role of project manager for project Y.
    • To be able to do this, the project manager role must be assigned to Ralf Schulze in PLANTA project.

Information

  • Via the role assignment the user is given access rights to certain objects (modules or menu items that have been grouped into work areas).
  • At least two roles have to be assigned to each user. One of them controls access to menu items and the other(s) control(s) access to modules.
  • The standard roles defined by PLANTA are included in the scope of supply of the software. They can be modified or adjusted according to individual company requirements, or individual roles can be created in the Roles module.
  • Further information on Rights Management in PLANTA project.
    • Please read this information carefully as the following tasks presuppose your understanding of the PLANTA role and rights concept.

Procedure

  • In the Users module, right-click on the user data record of Ralf Schulze and select Insert → Role.
  • A role record is inserted.
    • Select the role of the project manager (01100219 Project Management in the standard system) from the listbox in the Role ID field.

  • Insert another role record and select one of the standard roles for menu items, e.g. 01100192 R39 All MI, from the listbox.
    • The assignment of a menu item role to each user is mandatory. Without such a role, the user is unable to start the program. When attempting to log in with a user who does not have access to menu items, the following message is displayed: IEmenu_send(): menu items couldn't be fetched. Closing application. (See log file for further information).
  • Save.

  • After Ralf Schulze has logged in to the system, he can see the menus that have been assigned to him and the corresponding menu items in his menu bar. In his user menu, he can see the role assigned to him.

Note

  • In case the PLANTA standard roles Project Manager and R39 MI All do not meet with the requirements of company X, the user with administration rights can create new roles.

Excursus: Compile Roles

Procedure

  • In the Users, Roles, Resources panel, switch to the Roles module.
    • As PLANTA supplies standard roles with the program, they are available when opening the module.
  • Right-click on any existing role and select the Insert → Role command from the context menu.
  • Assign a name to the new role in the Role field and save.
    • In doing so, an ID will be generated automatically in the Role ID field.
  • If the new role is a menu item role, you have to activate the Invisible in the user menu checkbox of this role.
  • Assign work areas to the new role:
    • Right-click and select Insert → Work Area, then select the required work area from the listbox.
    • Save.
    • Standard work areas are available for selection. If an individual work area is to be assigned, it must first be created and defined in the Work Areas module.

Excursus: Compile Work Areas

Procedure

  • Open the Work Areas module.
  • Automatically, a blank work area record appears.
  • Assign a name to the new work area in the Work area field.
  • After you have confirmed your input, a number is generated automatically in the Work area ID field.
  • Select the GR module grouping value from the listbox in the Category field.
  • Assign modules to the work area. For this purpose:
    • Right-click on the work area record and select the Insert → Module command.
      • The module data record is inserted.
    • Select the number of the required module from the listbox in the MOD field or enter it manually.
      • The listbox only shows modules which were recently created by the user.
    • Save.
  • Assign further modules to the work area in this way.

Restrict Access to Menu Items

Task

  • The multi-project manager of company X thinks that Ralf Schulze should only have access to certain menu items, namely the Data, Edit and View menu items. He therefore wants Ralf Schulze’s access to menu items to be changed.
  • For comparison: Previously, Ralf Schulze also had access to the Form editor, Extras, Tools, and ? menu items.

Procedure

  • In the Users, Roles, Resources panel, switch to the Menu Items module.
    • The module contains two PLANTA standard work areas for menu items which must not to be changed.
    • In order to restrict the access to menu items for Ralf Schulze, an individual work area has to be created and assigned to an individual role.
  • Copy the R39 total (CU) work area with the Records Drag&Drop copy setting.

  • Confirm the message.
  • In doing this, a new work area is automatically created and all records (in this case menu items) are copied from the source work area to the new one. Roles assigned to the source work area are not copied.
  • Assign a name to the new work area, e.g. R39 Restricted access.

  • In the new work area, menu items can be deleted or deactivated according to requirements. There are two options for deactivating menu items:
    • Normal menu items
      • are hard-coded and cannot be deleted from the work area.
        • In order to deactivate these menu items, enter 0 in the Structure field.
    • Menu items for calling up macros and modules (marked with the number 0001).
      • can be created and deleted individually per work area or be deactivated like normal menu items.
        • To deactivate them, enter 0 in the Structure field or delete the menu items from the work area.
    • Consequently, in the case of Ralf Schulze, enter 0 in the Structure field for all menu items starting from Structure number 04 (menu item 319 Form Editor).
      • Do not change the entries in the records of the Data (structure numbers 01, 01.01, etc.), Edit (02, 02.01, etc.) and View (03, 03.01, etc.) menus here.
  • Before:

  • After:

  • Switch to the Roles module.
    • Right-click on an existing role and select the Insert → Role command to create a new role data record.
    • Assign a name to the new role in the Role field (here: Menu items limited).
    • Activate the Invisible in user menu checkbox for this role.
    • Save.

  • Right-click and select Insert → Work area to assign the new R39 Restricted access work area to this role.
    • Save.

  • Switch to the Users module and assign the new role to Ralf Schulze manually.
    • Delete the R39 All (CU) standard menu item role.

  • After Ralf Schulze has logged in to the system, he can see the Data, Edit, and View menus and the selected menu items in his toolbar.

Note

  • You can deactivate single menu items within menus in the same way.

Define User Startup Module

Define Startup Module for Standard Role

Task

  • Define a startup module for Ralf Schulze’s role which is to be opened automatically when he logs in to PLANTAPLANTA project.

Information

  • By default, all PLANTA project standard roles contain certain startup modules.
  • It is possible to choose for every user whether any startup module opens, and which.

 Procedure

  • In the Users module, go to Ralf Schulze’s record and select the  Startup of all Role Modules item from the listbox in the Startup of all Role Modules  field.
  • When assigning the role, activate the Load startup modulecheckbox in the line of the Project Management role.

  • Result: At Ralf Schulze’s next login, the My Planning Objects module will load automatically because it is the default startup module for the Project Management role. Caution: Since the new user does not have any planning objects, the module is empty at first.

Define an Individual User Startup Module

Information

  • PLANTA already offers a selection of modules which can directly be assigned to users in the MOD  field (as described above) using appropriate macros.
  • To define a different module as startup module, a new startup macro must be created and assigned to the user. This applies to the storage of both PLANTA standard modules and customer-specific modules. For the procedure, please refer to the description of the Users module.
    • To record an individual startup macro, the executing administrator/user needs additional customizing modules and rights.