Configuring and Implementing Authentication in OpenEdge

The first task in setting up authentication for OpenEdge is to define and configure appropriate security domains. As noted previously, for OpenEdge, every user identity is defined in a domain. So, to authenticate users in a domain, OpenEdge must first have a configuration for that domain.

Users must be registered in the user account system supported by the domain. Note that if a user account system supports domains, they have no automatic relationship to OpenEdge domains. OpenEdge domains simply direct the authentication of user IDs to the appropriate authentication system.

At this point, SQL clients and database utilities are ready to accept logins. For an ABL application, the requirements might be more complex, especially for an multi-tier application with many moving parts. There are many authentication models that can be devised for a complex application configuration. So, designing and implementing one can require some care.

The following sections describe the OpenEdge features that support the entire process.