Hiding user folders in PUC and PDI

One way you can centralize and secure content created by users is to hide individual users' Home folders in the Pentaho User Console (PUC) or in the PDI client. For example, if your organization implements multi-tenancy, you may want to prevent individual users from viewing their Home folders for security reasons.

You can configure your server to hide the Home folders by default for both PUC and PDI. When you create new users in your system, their Home folders will be hidden. If a user needs to create, edit, or save content, you can provide the Write permission in a folder that is visible to that user. Those users can then view the folder and access the content. You can add the Write permission in PUC and in the PDI client.

These tasks assume you are a Pentaho Administrator.

To centralize and secure content created by users, you can hide users' Home folders in PUC and in the PDI client.

Perform the following steps to edit the system.properties file so that when you create new users, their Home folders will be hidden by default.

1. Stop the Pentaho Server.

   See the Install Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics document for instructions on starting and stopping the Pentaho Server.

2. Navigate to /Pentaho/server/pentaho-server/pentaho-solutions/system and open the system.properties file with the text editor of your choice.

3. Locate the hideUserHomeFolderOnCreate property. By default, this property is set to false.

4. Change the setting to true as shown here:

   hideUserHomeFolderOnCreate=true

5. Save and close the system.properties file.

6. Start the Pentaho Server.

   See the Install Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics document for instructions on starting and stopping the Pentaho Server.

Now when you add a new user in either PUC or the PDI client, that user's Home folder is hidden by default. Later, you may need to perform one of the following actions:

• To override this setting for a specific user, see Override the hidden Home folder for a user.

• To stop hiding Home folders by default when you create new users, see Stop hiding the Home folder for new users.

• If a user whose Home folder is hidden needs to create, edit, or save any content, you must provide the Write permission in a folder that is visible to the user in PUC and in the PDI client. See the instructions for assigning Write permission in the following section, Assign the Write permission to a user folder.

Override the hidden Home folder for a user

Follow these steps to override the hidden Home folder for a specific user.

1. Log in to PUC with your Pentaho Administrator credentials.

2. Navigate to the Browse Files perspective.

3. Select the user’s Home folder.

4. In the Properties dialog box, clear the Hidden option.

The user's home folder is now visible.

Stop hiding the Home folder for new users

Follow these steps to stop creating users with their Home folders hidden by default.

1. Stop the Pentaho Server.

2. Navigate to /Pentaho/server/pentaho-server/pentaho-solutions/system and open the system.properties file with the text editor of your choice.

3. Locate the hideUserHomeFolderOnCreate property.

4. Change the setting to false as shown here:

   hideUserHomeFolderOnCreate=false

5. Save and close the system.properties file.

6. Start the Pentaho Server.

When you add a new user in either PUC or the PDI client, that user's Home folder is now visible.

See the Install Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics document for instructions on starting and stopping the Pentaho Server.

Assign the Write permission to a user folder

Assign permission in PUC

In PUC you can assign Write permission in a public folder to a user whose Home folder is hidden. When this permission is granted, the user can save and edit content they create using PUC.

1. Log in to PUC with your Pentaho Administrator credentials.

2. Select the Public folder, and then select or create the folder you want the user to access.

3. Assign the Write permission to the user's folder:

   1. Click the Properties > Share tab and clear the Inherits folder permissions option.

   2. Click Add and select the user.

   3. Select the Write permissions for the user.

   4. Click OK to save your changes.

The user can now save their content in the assigned folder.

Assign permission in PDI client

In the PDI client you can assign the Write permission in a public folder to a user whose Home folder is hidden. When this permission is granted, the user can save and edit content they create using the PDI client.

1. Start the PDI client

   See the Pentaho Data Integration document for instructions on starting the PDI client.

2. Connect to a Pentaho Repository with your Pentaho administrator credentials. If needed, create a connection.

3. Open the Repository Explorer by clicking Tools > Repository > Explore.

4. On the Browse tab, select the Public folder, and then select or create the folder you want the user to access.

5. Select the newly created folder and grant Write permission to the new user by performing the following steps:

   1. On the Access Control panel, clear the Inherit access control from parent option.

   2. Click the Plus Sign to add a user.

   3. From the list of users that displays, select the name of the user you want and click the Right Arrow to move the name to the Selected list. Click OK.

   4. Select the user's name in the User/Role list and select the Write permission.

   5. Click Apply to save your changes, then click OK to close the dialog box.

6. Close the Repository Explorer.

The user can now save their content in the assigned folder.