Cobra Help System

Authorized Control Countries

The Authorized Control Countries (ACC) feature enables administrators to assign control countries to specific users and groups, establishing region-based access control.

This functionality becomes available in Cobra when the Enable Authorized Control Countries Validation option is selected on the Settings tab of the Systems form in PPM Administrator.

Once the ACC feature is enabled in PPM Administrator, Cobra enforces access control by displaying the Authorized Control Countries grid on the Access Control tab of the Project Properties dialog box and on the Access Control page of the New Project Wizard. This grid enables you to assign country-specific access permissions to users and groups for the selected project.

The ACC feature helps limit access to projects and data based on assigned control countries, ensuring users interact only with content relevant to their designated region. This validation supports compliance with regional regulatory requirements and reinforces secure, role-based access across multiple locations.

You can configure ACC assignments at multiple levels:

  • At the user level, you can assign individuals one or more control countries using PPM Administrator. They can access projects that match at least one of their assigned countries.
  • At the group level, you can assign each group a single control country using PPM Administrator. Users whose ACC assignments include the group’s control country can join that group.
  • At the project level, you can assign one or more control countries to a project. You can then assign users or groups with matching ACC assignments to the project’s access control list (ACL).
Attention: For more information on the ACC feature, see the following topics in the PPM Administrator Help System:
  • "System Settings Tab"
  • "Groups General Tab"
  • "Users General Tab"

Guidelines for Assigning Users and Groups to Project ACLs or Changing Project Ownership Based on ACC Assignments

Take note of the following when assigning users and groups to a project’s ACL or changing project ownership based on ACC assignments:

  • Users and groups must have at least one ACC assignment that matches the project’s ACC. If this condition is not met, Cobra will display a validation error message and saving will not proceed.
  • If a project has no ACC assignments, access to it is not restricted.
  • The SYSADMIN user and members of the SYSADMIN group can always update access control or be assigned as owner, regardless of ACC assignments.
  • The project owner must have at least one ACC assignment that matches the project’s ACC. If this condition is not met, Cobra will display a validation error message and saving will not proceed.
  • If the WORLD group is enabled (that is, the Disable WORLD Group setting is not selected in PPM Administrator), you cannot assign it to any project that has ACC assignments.
  • The Users Lookup or Groups Lookup dialog box, found in the Access Control grid of the Change Access Rights dialog box or in the Access Control tab of the Project Properties dialog box, displays only users or groups with at least one ACC assignment that matches the project's ACC.
  • When you add users or groups to ACLs across multiple projects, ACC validation is performed individually for each project. Any users or groups that do not have matching ACC assignments for a project are flagged as invalid for all affected projects. Cobra will display a validation error message and saving will not proceed until all invalid entries are removed or the ACC assignments for the projects are updated.
  • When you change ownership across multiple selected projects, the new owner must have at least one ACC assignment that matches each project’s ACC. If this condition is not met, Cobra will display a validation error message, and the change of ownership will not proceed until all issues are resolved.
Important: When changes are made to ACC assignments in PPM Administrator—such as updating user or group ACC assignments on the Users General tab or Groups General tab—these changes are not automatically reflected in the product's ACL.

To validate and update the project’s ACL based on the latest ACC assignments in PPM Administrator, you must log into Cobra and manually add or remove the affected users or groups from the project’s ACL, either through the Project Properties dialog box or the Change Access Rights dialog box. Then, click OK or Update Access Control.

This step ensures that the ACL aligns with the latest ACC configuration in PPM Administrator.

ACC Information in Export, Backup, and Restore Processes

If a project has authorized control countries assigned, the ACC information is included in the exported file when you run either of the following processes:

  • Cost Data-Deltek Common Data Export
  • wInsight-XML Export

When you are backing up a project that includes ACC information, the records are always included in the backup file—regardless of whether the Enable Authorized Control Countries Validation option is enabled in PPM Administrator. When you are restoring a backup file, Cobra restores the ACC information defined in the file.