Transaction Authentication

Transaction authentication is definable behavior for all transaction types and is available to support user authentication during data capture, often referred to as “electronic signatures”. To define this behavior, attributes specific to authentication must be set within the transaction definition after it has been defined. These attributes are not displayed in the add transaction wizard.

These attributes are used to define transaction authentication on the Agentry Client. This functionality provides the means to authenticate users when they make data changes. Using transaction authentication you can require users to enter their user ID, password, and other information as may be necessary.

Transaction authentication is defined for each transaction definition. This allows for authentication behavior to be exhibited only for data capture operations that require it.

This information can be captured in properties of the transaction itself, or in an instance of an object defined specifically for this purpose, called the authentication object. A separate screen set defined to display the authentication object to the user must exist prior to defining the authentication within the transaction.

Transaction Authentication Attributes

The following attributes are common to all transaction types. They are set to define the transaction authentication behavior. They can only be modified for existing transactions and are not displayed during the add transaction wizards.
  • Screen Set: This attribute is set to the screen set to display to the user for the purpose of entering the authentication information you wish to capture. This can include the user ID, password, and other information as may be necessary. If this is set to “No Authentication” the authentication functionality is disabled for the transaction.
  • Authenticate When: This attribute determines when the transaction requires authentication. This can be set to: “Do Not Authenticate”, disabling the behavior; “Always authenticate”, or can be based on a rule definition. When a rule is referenced by this attribute, it is evaluated in the context of the transaction and is expected to return a boolean value. A true return will require the user to authenticate. A false return will not and the authentication screen set will not be displayed.
  • Information In: This attribute is set to either “Properties of this transaction” or to an object type defined within the same module. If set to the former, the properties displayed in the Authentication Screen Set are defined within the same transaction. If set to an object, the properties of that object are displayed and store the authentication data.