#48 Comprehensive Usernames
I would like to see a more dynamic level of user login and
tracking. How dynamic you ask? A simple addition would
be the separation of first and last name. This would
allow for more comprehensive reports regarding users. It
would also allow for easier search/listing/or tracking by
last OR first and not both as a single field.
This would also allow for CSV imports in many more
cases including something exported from a Novell NDS
system (something many of us American school districts
have). Most user listings that I see have two fields for
the name in case they are running last name or first
name sort queries.
Another option would be the anonymous login with a
seperate field or the ability to add whatever name you
wanted as the anon user into the Reported By field. In a
secure LAN/WAN environment this would be ok but not in
all so making this admin controlled option would be good.
We have 16 sites with over 1,000 staff members and
each one already has 5 different password/logins
schemes to remember. One more for reporting issues will
not go well with them so I am looking for possible
options. I have developed single logins for each site with
blank passwords but this does not allow for them to
enter the Reported By field. Thus searching by a name
doesn't reveal enough information. Its only grouped by
location and each one of these can have open over 100
work orders at any time ... hefty to look through.
Any ideas? Or does any of the suggestions sound good?
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Regarding the separation of names into separate parts: I'm
reluctant to do this because it is much easier to combine a
forname/surname into a combined full name for the csv import
than to do the reverse - importing into a separate
fore/surname system from data that has a single name
(especially with names that aren't 'standard' such as double
barelled surname).
A possible solution to the problem of many different
login/passwords (and be much better than having an account
with a blank password) is currently in the works: Alternate
authentication schemes (such as LDAP). Essentially this
would allow users to use their existing username/password
from another system and they wouldn't need to remember yeat
another password combination.
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How extensive is the work to split the names to first/last
tables? (Estimated) How many areas does it impact? I ask
because I may need to one of our techs do it ... we REALLY
need the seperation as everything else we have runs in
seperate fields. I'm hitting so many procedural challenges
because of the combo field its making more work than we
would save with the helpdesk system ... and I don't want to
switch platforms as this application is powerful, dynamic and
addresses everything else we have perfectly. I do understand
your reluctance because of ease of use.
The other reason for the anon/guest login is for outside
viewing. We have administrative staff on the road all the time
who need to stay current with their sites issues. They would
be remotely accessing through VPN which does not broadcast
their login (on our network) .. so helpdesk wouldn't have any
source to validate or log them in. Finally, a guest account
with controllable access would allow us to provide for temp
subs .. which we have new ones every day. Thousand plus
staff members leaves us with an average of 10 new subs a
day. We could have a GENERAL login for them but it still
doesn't create a searchable field that contains their personal
name as the contact. I guess there are fields we could use
for this but once again it comes to trying to align everything
to a standard within the application as opposed to a work
around. The guest login could also be setup in Root/Admin on
or off.
While I'm on it, is there a way to use CSV import and insert
the ppl into specific sites? Otherwise, even though the CSV
imports fine, that's 1,000 people I have to sort through and
append to the correct site. Talk about a lot of work ... :(