Members Only will scan your network for other Macintoshes, and build a list of their users’ names. You can select users from this list and add them to your Users & Groups.
RESTRICTIONS
Members Only requires System 7.
ZONE LIST
The Members Only window shows a list of your network’s zones on the left. You can select multiple zones from this list using the shift and command keys. You can also select zones by typing their names or by using the arrow keys. Use “Select All” from the Edit menu (command-A) to select all zones. Members Only scans all selected zones for users simultaneously in the background.
OPTIONS
“Group users by zone” causes Members Only to create a group for each added user’s zone and to enroll the users in their respective groups. This option is disabled if your network doesn’t have zones.
“Keep a log file” causes Members Only to create a text file called “Membership List” in your Preferences folder. Members Only will record the name, zone, password, and group of each user you add to this file. If the log already exists, Members Only appends info for new users to the end of it. •• WARNING •• If you keep a log, be sure that your Preferences folder is NOT shared. (You probably shouldn’t be sharing your System Folder anyway!) Since the log contains user passwords, it shouldn’t be publicly available.
PRIVILEGES
These checkboxes allow you to set the privileges en masse for all users added.
PASSWORD
“None” sets each user’s password to nothing.
“Always” sets each user’s password to the text you type in. Colons (“:”) and slashes (“/”) are omitted, and the text is truncated to eight characters.
“Last Name” uses the user’s last name as the password, all lowercase with blanks removed and diacriticals stripped, truncated to eight characters.
“Random” generates a random eight-character password composed of lowercase consonants.
The last two password choices can generate unpredictable passwords. If you use these settings, you should keep a log file so you’ll know what the passwords are.
USER LIST
This list shows the users that Members Only has found on your network. Select users from this list and click the Add button to add them to your Users & Groups. Any users that are already in your Users & Groups are not shown in the list. Also, after you add users, they are removed from the list. You can use the keyboard to navigate, just like the zone list. Use the tab key to cycle between the zone list, the user list, and the “always” password. Use the return or enter key to add users.
Members Only cannot add users while a file server is running. If you click Add while sharing, it will offer to shut down the server for you.
IMPORTING USERS
Use the File menu’s “Open” command to open a tab–delimited text file containing user names you want to add. Members Only reads the file and displays the names in the user list in italics (or whatever style Finder alias names use). See below for more details.
ALL DONE
When you’re finished, choose “Quit” from the File menu (command-Q).
RESTART FINDER
To make your new users available, you must restart the Finder--you don’t have to shut down all your applications or restart the Macintosh. Members Only will offer to restart the Finder for you if you have added any users. If you choose to just quit, your new users will not be available until you restart the Macintosh.
DETAILS
Members Only does its dirty work on a COPY of your Users & Groups Data File. It makes this copy in the special invisible “Temporary Items” folder. When you finish adding users, it swaps the new file with the original, and deletes the original. If (heaven forbid!) Members Only crashes, you may notice a “Rescued items from [your hard disk]” folder in the Trash, the next time you start up the Macintosh. This folder will contain the copy of the Users & Groups Data File that Members Only was working on. This may also happen if you elect to not have Members Only restart the Finder, since in that case I can’t delete the original file (the Finder’s still using it!).
IMPORT STRATEGY
Members Only can import users from tab–delimited text files (text files of columns of data where data items are separated by tabs), where the first record contains column labels. Members Only only reads columns with these labels:
User Group Zone Password
It ignores any other columns that may be in the file. If the file has no User column, it cannot be imported. Records where the User field is blank are skipped. Members Only adds the user to the user list, and remembers the Group, Zone, and Password fields. When you add the user, Members Only creates a group named by the Group field (if any), and enrolls the user in this group. It also creates and enrolls the user in the group named by the Zone field (if any), if “Group users by zone” is turned on. It sets the user’s password from the Password field. If the file has no Password column or the password is “:”, Members Only will generate a password using the current settings.
Since the “Membership List” log is already in this format, you can add network users to one machine, then easily import its log into several other machines.
APPLESHARE
Members Only should work properly with AppleShare 3.0. If your Users & Groups Data File has an Admin key, Members Only prompts you to enter it. A “More Choices” button appears on the dialog, which lets you set AppleShare–only privileges. Minimum password lengths are also honored. Members Only knows how to properly shut down an AppleShare file server and AppleShare Admin.
MISCELLANEOUS
If the command key is down when you launch Members Only, it allows you to choose a different Users & Groups Data File.
The window title shows the name of the file server that the Users & Groups Data File belongs to.
When shutting down a file server, the window title shows the name of the file server that’s being shut down.
You can use the Edit menu’s “Copy” command to copy selected zones or users as text to the clipboard. For users, the user name, group, password, and zone are copied as tab-delimited text. You can use the “Clear” command to remove selected users from the user list. (Imported users are gone for good; network users may come right back!)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to…
Kevin Hardman, for helping me with the Users & Groups manipulation.
Pace Bonner, for the details on how Nok Nok determines user names.
Donald Major, for designing the icon.
Mike Engber, for sharing his “kick the Finder in the head” code from Save a BNDL.
René G.A. Ros, for long distance beta testing, from The Netherlands, of the AppleShare 3.0 features.
WHAT’S NEW IN MEMBERS ONLY 1.1.1
• Fixed the nefarious -108 CopyUGFile startup error. This seemed to only show up on the Quadra.
• NBP lookup buffer overflow is now handled properly. This would occur when scanning a very large network.
• The “Password” column is now properly recognized when importing users. Previously, if your import file had no “Zone” column, then passwords were incorrectly ignored.
• Improved zone lookup error reporting.
YOURS TRULY
I hope you enjoy using Members Only. If you have any comments, suggestions, or bug reports, e-mail them to me at Michael_Hecht@mac.sas.com.
