Users and groups
In order to create or modify content in a MICHAEL instance, one needs to login using a username and a password. A user belongs to one or more groups. Permissions on resources (folders, records) can be set to either groups or users. So users and groups form the basis of access management in a MICHAE instance.
In this document, you will learn what are the important groups in a MICHAEL installation, how to add, delete or modify a user account, and how to modify the group membership of a user.
1) Groups
Groups are the building blocks of access management in a MICHAEL instance. The next table lists the standards groups defined in the platform.
Name | Description |
|---|---|
dba | Database administrators. Before putting a user in this group, please make sure you understand the consequences. This group has access to all data and all functionalities. |
xquery | Standard group for users who can execute an Xquery on data. All users should be a member of this group in a MICHAEL instance. |
xupdate | Standard group for users who can execute Xupdate on data. All users should be a member of this group in a MICHAEL instance. |
list-managers | A group for users who can change the content of lists or add new lists. |
editors | Members of this group can create and edit records, but not validate them. |
validators | Members of this group can validate a record. |
Other groups can be created, but these groups should be kept in all MICHAEL instances. Other standard groups may be defined in a future version.
2) Creating a user
Only members of the group dba can create new users. When they browse the content of the database, these users will see a function bar at the bottom of each page. This function bar looks like this one:
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To create a user, click on the Users button. You will see a form such as this one:
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To create a user, click on the Add an user button. You will see this form:
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To create the user, you need to enter four informations:
- The username: it should be simple, without spaces and only with ASCII characters.
- The password: it should have at least six characters.
- The password a second time: to confirm the first one.
- Groups: the groups the user should be member of.
The important information here is the groups. The first group should be the main group of the user, and then there can be any other group the user can be part of.
For a normal user who can edit content, you should enter editors,xquery,xupdate but for a user who can validate records, you should enter editors,validators,xquery,xupdate . The comma is used as a separator for group names. If a group doesn't exist, it will be created automatically.
3) Deleting or modifying a user
Only members of the group dba can delete or modify existing users. You do so by clicking on the Users button in the function bar:
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You will get a user management form such as this one:
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To delete a user, select the user in the drop-down list and then click on the Remove a user button.
To update a user password, click on the Update a user password button. You will get this form:
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To change the password, just type the new password twice.
To update the user's groups, click on the Update user groups button. You will get this form:
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You may enter the list of groups, separated by a comma.