ABAP dump on authorization issue

Question

hello,
I am not sure if this is the correct forum for this or not.
I have an ABAP program that was written before I got here that performs the following statement
<b>OPEN DATASET w_file FOR OUTPUT IN TEXT MODE ENCODING DEFAULT.</b>
where w_file is a file on the app server. the users that run this program have no issues.
I have made a copy of the program to add some additional functionality and when the users run this program, the program is abending with the following error messages when trying to execute the same command stated above
Runtime Error      OPEN_DATASET_NO_AUTHORITY
Except.               CX_SY_FILE_AUTHORITY
I have talking to the security person and he is going to make another role with the authorizations needed to run the program but I am curious as to why the same person can run the one program successfully and my program (which does basically the same thing when it comes to the file processing) abends with the authorization issue.
thanks in advance for your help

Answer 1

I believe you can use FM to check if user has sufficient authorization.
NOTE: authority-check uses PROGRAM NAME, so it looks like your profile should be updated with new program name.
Here is what help says :
                                                                                Check file access authorization                                                                               
Functionality                                                                               
This function module allow you to check the user's authorization to          
    access files (with the key words OPEN DATASET, READ DATASET, TRANSFER and    
    DELETE DATASET). A check should be performed before opening a file.                                                                               
The authorization check is performed uwing the authorization object          
    S_DATASET.                                                                               
Description of function parameters:                                                                               
o  PROGRAM: Name of the ABAP/4 program that contains the file access. If     
       no program name is specified, the system assumes the current program.                                                                               
o  ACTIVITY: Access type. The possible values are:                                                                               
-  READ:              Read file                                           
       -  WRITE:             Change file                                         
       -  READ_WITH_FILTER:  Read file with filter function                      
       -  WRITE_WITH_FILTER: Change file with filter function                    
       -  DELETE:            Delete file                                                                               
o  FILENAME: Name of accessed file                                                                               
Example                                                                               
TYPE-POOLS SABC.                                                                               
CALL FUNCTION 'AUTHORITY_CHECK_DATASET'                                      
         EXPORTING  PROGRAM          = 'ZDATASET'                                
                    ACTIVITY         = SABC_ACT_READ                             
                    FILENAME         = '/tmp/sapv01'                             
         EXCEPTIONS NO_AUTHORITY     = 1                                         
                    ACTIVITY_UNKNOWN = 2.                                                                               
Notes                                                                               
The values to be passed as the ACTIVITY are defined as constants in the      
    TYPE-POOL SABC.