AjaxSync Administrator Interface

Administrator access to AjaxSync is password protected. The password in a default installation is the same like the password for the Setup tool; the user is "admin". The credentials are stored encrypted in the AjaxSync database (table credentials), and transmitted encrypted over the network, using the HTTP digest authentication mechanism.

The Administrator Interface allows you to easily manage groups, users, AjaxSync functions and their permissions. It consists of three tabs, one for the groups and group memberships, one for the users and their group membership, and one for the AjaxSync functions and their user and group permissions.

We will now demonstrate its usage on the AjaxSync Chat example application. This example has the simplest possible design: one function (named "chat"), which is callable from and to each user.

Because everyone has the same permissions (full access) here, there is only need for one group. We will name this group "chatroom1".

After that first group is created, you can find it and edit it using the autocomplete field "Choose group". However, because there are no users yet, we can't do anything yet.

Instead we go to the tab "Users" and create at least two users (user1 and user2).

The timeout is important in case of a broken connection. As long as the persistent connection is active, the user stays logged in; however if the connection breaks down (which would be detected after a maximum time of 30 seconds in the default configuration), the user stays logged in for that many seconds you configure here. That means, every message sent to him is buffered during the connection loss, and delivered as soon as the connection is re-established. Here we accept the default value of 60 seconds given by the Administrator Interface.

Now we can change the group membership of all created users at once by going back to the "Groups" tab, choosing the group "chatroom1" using the autocomplete field, click on "Add all" and then click on "Save".

Now we have to create a function "chat". That name is determined by the application code; we can't change it here without changing it in the code, too.

Owner and group are chosen using autocomplete fields. Read permission means that the user (owner or group member) can receive calls of that function made by other users; write permission means that the user (owner or group member) can call the function.

Be aware of a possible conflict if the owner is also a group member. Permissions are computed with a bitwise Or, that means if the function has set read access for either owner or group, the user (which is owner and group member) will get read access (the same happens with write access).

Now you can run the chat example; have a look on Writing Applications.