Import configurations at an on-site installation

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byPete d'Oronzio
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This article describes how to update the protected portions of a configuration at an on-site installation where the client manages their own server(s).

Explanation

Crash Magic utilizes a “configuration” to interpret the crash data used by your agency. A configuration is simply a collection of resources, each referred to as a “PSRattr”. Parts of every configuration are protected and editable only by PdMagic. Other parts of your configuration are available to be edited by you, the Crash Magic user. When using Crash Magic’s hosted server, PdMagic maintains the protected part of your configuration for you. When Crash Magic is installed on-site, it is important that our clients are able to update the protected parts of the configuration as provided by PdMagic.

For some agencies, with a completely custom configuration, there is only the “.Master” configuration and the client configuration.  However, in most cases there are several levels in play. You can view these levels by logging into the administration form in the program.  There you will see a “tree” of user groups containing configurations.  It will contain “.Master”; a state level configuration; often some intermediate, like county or state configurations; sometimes a PdMagic reports configuration; and then your agency configuration.

A typical configuration “tree” containing:

  • .Master group – contains configuration resources common to all agencies and all users.  This group of resources is updated with every version of the program and is not editable by any group administrators. Even PdMagic only updates this through the new version installation process.  In fact, any changes to this configuration will be automatically overwritten with the next version.  It’s essentially part of the program. This is considered a “protected” group.
  • “_” groups.  Groups that start with an underscore contain shared resources.  Most agencies in a state will share the same database fields, lookups and overall configuration.  They will all reference (inherit) the resources in these groups.  An example group name might be “_OR@CDS” where the “OR” indicates the state and the “CDS” indicates the database or crash data system used by the agency. This type of group name might also be called “_MD@Base”. In this case, the “MD” is the state and “Base” indicates that this is the base configuration for all MD clients.  Further down the list might be report resources created specifically for a client.  For example “_OR@CDS_Schematics” are collision diagram schematics created specifically for the state of Oregon and only useful to clients with Oregon data. A group like this might also be called “_MD@PdReports”, again the first part names the state for which the reports work, and the second part “PdReports” describes the group’s contents. Most “_” groups are managed by PdMagic and are protected.
  • Agency group. There will only be one agency group in any configuration.  This group will almost always follow the naming convention of <StateAbbreviation>@<AgencyName>.  (e.g. OR@Eugene; MD@DOT; CO@Boulder; etc.) This group contains content only useful to that agency. This group is also the only group that clients have access to edit.  Clients may edit content in the .shared user or any of the named users.  They can not edit the .config or the .tools user content.  Those are provided by PdMagic and are protected.

When hosted on the PdMagic server, we update the protected portions of the configuration.  Clients may use configuration inheritance to add / edit configuration resources in the .shared or individual user accounts.  This makes it possible to customize and override all of the protected resources provided by PdMagic. However, when hosted on an agency server it can be necessary to update the protected resources as PdMagic makes changes to them. These resources should be imported exactly as provided by PdMagic and not edited.

Solution

Imports of configuration resources (PSRattrs) are also known as SYS table imports.  There are two types of configuration imports that an on-site administrator might need to perform.  Both are the result of PdMagic making changes to your official configuration.

  • Entire user (shared resource) group.  These are the “_” prefixed groups. These user groups are maintained as a unit.  It is not appropriate to update just one or two resources within the group.  Rather it is imperative to import the entire user group including the .config, .shared, .tools and the other user records in that group.
  • .config or .tools within the agency group.  Most of the resources in the agency group (<ST>@<Agency>) are not protected, but rather are owned by the group (.shared) or the individual user accounts. Only the .config and the .tools users are protected.

Entire user (shared resource) group.

The best way to import an entire user group is from the login screen.  This requires that you log in as a .Master user with “Can Create User Groups” permission.  This user should NOT have “Group Administrator” permissions. To create a user that can import new user groups, follow these steps:

  1. Log into Crash Magic as the MasterAdmin for that instance.  The login and password for this account are maintained by your agency. Warning: It is best to minimize the time time spent logged in as MasterAdmin in order to avoid making mistakes that a group administrator or regular use can not make.  It is best to log in, accomplish the task requiring MasterAdmin permissions and then log out.
  2. Select the .Master user group
  3. Click the “Create a new user in .Master” button at the top of the screen. Fill in the appropriate fields and check the box for “Can Create User Groups”.  Do not make this user a “Group Administrator” or provide them any other permissions.
  4. Lot out of the MasterAdmin form using the exit button in the top right of the screen.

This new user can now import entire user groups from the main login screen.

  1. Enter this new user’s login and password and select the “Add User Group …” button on the login page.
  2. Because we want to replace the entire user group, check the “Replace existing user group(s)” box.
  3. Click the “Upload a user group” button and select the file exported from another system or provided by PdMagic that contains the user group you intend to replace. Do not edit this XML file outside of Crash Magic. Warning: There is almost no situation where you want to replace a user group that does not have a “_” prefix. Upon selecting “Ok”, the import will proceed, deleting any prior group of the same name.
  4. Wait for the import to complete and confirm there were no errors.

Repeat the above steps to import any other desired user groups.

After updating the user groups, it is a good idea to log in as a regular user or group admin to be sure the system is functioning correctly.

.config or .tools within the agency group.

 

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