Finding Your Way In Natural Security

This section provides information on handling Natural Security. It covers the following topics:

• Invoking a Function

• Pressing the ENTER Key

• Help

• Not Sure What to Enter?

• Handling a List

• Direct Commands

Invoking a Function

You can invoke Natural Security functions from within the Natural Security library SYSSEC or from outside of SYSSEC.

Within SYSSEC:

• You can invoke a function by selecting it from a Natural Security menu or selection list.

• You can invoke a function by issuing a direct command.

Outside of SYSSEC:

• You can invoke a function via one of the application programming interfaces provided.

• You can invoke a function by issuing a direct command.

Profile Security

Regardless of how you invoke a function, Natural Security's administrator/owner settings will always apply; that is, you can only apply functions to those security profiles you are allowed to maintain.

Functional Security

All SYSSEC-specific commands are defined in the command processor NSCCMD01. You can disallow Natural Security functions by disallowing the corresponding commands in NSCCMD01. For details on NSCCMD01, see the section Functional Security for Library SYSSEC.

If functions are disallowed in NSCCMD01, the corresponding menu items will not be visible on the Natural Security menus. This means that within SYSSEC you only see the functions you are allowed to use.

Aborting a Function

Do not use the Natural terminal command %% to abort a Natural Security function, as this may cause inconsistencies in your Natural Security data.

Pressing the ENTER Key

To tell Natural Security to perform a particular action, you enter the appropriate function code, command, etc. and then press the ENTER key.

So, if the Natural Security documentation tells you to "enter a function code", this means, "type in the function code and press ENTER".

If a function requires that you press another key, this is explicitly mentioned in the Natural Security documentation.

Help

To invoke online help for a Natural Security function:

• you enter a question mark (?) as a function code on screens with a function code input field; or

• you press PF1 on any Natural Security screen.

An explanation of a given screen and the information necessary to proceed will be displayed.

Note:
If certain items displayed on a Natural Security screen are not directly relevant for the execution of the function concerned, these items are not always explained in this documentation. In these cases, you will find the corresponding explanations in the online help.

Not Sure What to Enter?

If you are not sure what you can enter in an input field on a Natural Security menu or selection screen, enter an asterisk (*) in the field: a window will be displayed showing you all the possible values for the field; in the window, you can then select the desired value.

Handling a List

This section covers the following topics:

• Selecting the Range of Objects to be Listed

• Scrolling a List

• Selecting an Object from a List

Selecting the Range of Objects to be Listed

When you invoke the Maintenance or Retrieval subsystem for a certain object type (user, library, etc.), a list of these objects will be displayed. Normally such a list will contain all objects.

For example, to list all users defined to Natural Security, you mark the object type User.

+-------------MAINTENANCE-------------+
!  Please select one type of object:  !
!                                     !
!  X User                             !
!  _ Application                      !
!  _ Library                          !
!  _ File                             !
!  _ Mailbox                          !
!  _ Utility                          !
!                                     !
!                                     !
!                                     !
! Start Value .. ________________     !
! Type/Status .. ____                 !
+-------------------------------------+

The contents of the above selection window may vary depending on the platform and the types of external objects available. If the list of object types exceeds the size of the window, you can use PF7 and PF8 to scroll within the window.

If you do not want a list of all objects but would like only certain objects to be listed, you may use the option Start Value.

For users, applications, libraries and files, you may also use the option Type/Status - either alone or in combination with the Start Value option. For other objects, only the Start Value option is available.

Start Value

In this field you may enter a start value, which may consist of one or more characters, or of one or more characters followed by an asterisk (*). The option to enter a value followed by an asterisk is referred to as asterisk notation throughout the Natural Security documentation.

For example, to list all users, starting from the first user whose ID begins with "TOM", you mark the object type User and enter the following:

Start Value .. TOM

For example, to list only those users whose IDs begin with "TOM", you mark the object type User and enter the following:

Start Value .. TOM*

Type/Status

In this field you may enter a user type, application type, library protection status, or (on mainframes) a file status.

User Type

User type may be one of the following:

Library Protection Status

Library protection status may be one of the following:

(The above protection combinations are explained in the section Protecting Libraries.)

File Status

File status may be one of the following:

* This is not an actual file status, but for selection purposes only.

If you do not select a file status, all PRIV, ACCE, and PUBL files will be listed.

Application Type

Application type may be one of the following:

If you do not select an application type, both base and compound applications will be listed.

Example of Type/Status option:

To list all users of user type "Member", you mark the object type User and enter the following:

Type/Status .. M

Example of combining Start Value and Type/Status:

To list only users of user type "Member" whose IDs begin with "T", you mark the object type User and enter the following:

Start Value .. T*
Type/Status .. M

Scrolling a List

Once a list of objects is displayed, you may scroll it backwards and forwards in the following manner:

• To scroll a list one page forward, you press PF8 (+).

• To scroll a list one page backward, you press PF7 (-).

• To scroll a list to its beginning, you press PF19 (- -).

• To scroll a list to a specified start value, you may use the intensified field above the IDs, in the same way as described above for the Start Value field.

• For a list of users or applications, you can also use the intensified field above the Type column in the same way as described above for the Type/Status field. For a list of libraries, the same is true for the field above the Protection Status column. These fields display the currently valid type/status selection criterion.

11:38:39                    *** NATURAL SECURITY ***                 2010-07-31
                              - User Maintenance -                             
                                                                              
Co User ID  User Name                        Type Message                      
__ ________ ________________________________ ____ _____________________        
__ AAZ      ABDUL ALHAZRED                   A                               
__ AD       ARTHUR DENT                      A                                 
__ AH       ALICE HARGREAVES                 M                                 
__ ER       ELLEN RIPLEY                     M                                 
__ LL       LOCKE LAMORA                     M                                 
__ TN       THURSDAY NEXT                    A                                 
__ VV       VINCENT VEGA                     P
                                                                             

Selecting an Object from a List

To select an object from a list for a function, you simply type in the appropriate function code for the function next to the object in the left-hand column (entitled Co) of a selection screen.

If you do not remember the function code for the function you wish to perform, enter an asterisk (*) in the Co column. A window will be displayed which shows all the function codes available; in the window, you can then select the desired function code.

Direct Commands

This section covers the following topics

• General Command Information

• Commands to Invoke a Function

• Commands to Invoke a Selection List

• Special Commands

• Issuing a Command Outside of SYSSEC

General Command Information

Once you are familiar with Natural Security and know how to find your way from menu to menu, you may be interested in invoking the function you want directly. This is done by using direct commands.

You can enter a direct command on any Natural Security screen which provides a command line:

Command ===>
Enter-PF1---PF2---PF3---PF4---PF5---PF6---PF7---PF8---PF9---PF10--PF11--PF12---
      Help        Exit                                                  Canc   

If you enter a direct command which is invalid, you will receive an appropriate error message. If you enter a command which is incomplete, you will be prompted to specify the missing item(s).

After a function invoked by a direct command has been executed, the screen from which that function would "normally" be invoked will be displayed - not the screen on which the command had been entered.

There are three types of direct commands:

• commands to invoke a function,

• commands to invoke a selection list,

• special commands.

Commands to Invoke a Function

General Command Syntax

Generally, a direct command which is used to invoke a function consists of the following components, which you specify in the following order:

function  object-type  object-ID  parameters

First, you specify a function. Possible functions are:

After the function, you specify an object-type (for example, USER, LIBRARY).

After the object type, you can specify an object-ID (for example, a user ID or library ID).

After the ID, you can specify one or more parameters (for example, a user type).

Parameters for Security-Profile Components

For the functions DISPLAY and MODIFY, several parameters are available which allow you to directly access those components of a security profile which are not on the main security-profile screen, but on one of profile's Additional Options screens. These are:

For all object-types:

For object-type USER:

For object-type LIBRARY:

Abbreviating a Command

You may abbreviate the function component of a direct command as you please, as long as the abbreviation uniquely identifies the function.

You may abbreviate the object-type component of a direct command to 2 characters.

Examples:

Several Natural system commands are available within Natural Security; they must also be taken into consideration as far as the unique identification of a function is concerned.

Command Examples

Commands to Invoke a Selection List

The following commands can be used to invoke a selection list:

Special Commands

Apart from commands which invoke a particular function or selection list (as described above), and several Natural system commands (which are described in the Natural System Commands documentation), the following special commands are available (underlining indicates the shortest abbreviation possible):

Issuing a Command Outside of SYSSEC

You can also issue a Natural Security direct command from outside of the Natural Security library SYSSEC. This allows you to perform a Natural Security function from anywhere in your Natural session without having to log on to the library SYSSEC.

To do so, you enter the direct command - prefixed by SYSSEC - in the Natural command line.

For example:

SYSSEC MOD LIB XYZ

When you leave the screen invoked by the direct command, you will be returned to the Natural screen from which you have issued the command.

Note:
When you issue a direct command which invokes a function, you have to specify the full command, that is, you must not omit any command component necessary to invoke the actual function (and not only a selection screen or start-value window). For example, the command COPY USER ABC would be incomplete, because the new user ID is missing.