User accounts

Introduction

A User account’s properties are separated into four distinct sections:

• User details: the User’s name, email, username and password.
• Group membership: the Groups that the User account will be a member of.
• Restriction defaults: set default preferences to either ‘Show’ or ‘Hide’ specific content restrictions. These settings are applied to the login session each time the account is used to access the archive.
• Record associations:  associate the User with a Person record and/or Collection record within the archive. The Person record is automatically inserted as a Contributor when the User creates an annotation and the Collection record is assigned to media submitted through the Simple Upload process.

To stop Users from having easily guessed passwords for their accounts, a password strength meter is used to enforce a minimum password strength. You can adjust the strength requirement for a password on the archive’s Preferences page.

The system’s Change Log documents the changes and interaction of a User while they are logged into the archive. The User’s account is referenced in these log entries and removing an account will destroy these important references in the log. Consequently, you should refrain from removing any account where the User has made changes to the archive. Instead, you should suspend these accounts. This will preserve the log account references while disabling access using that account.

To view the Users page, navigate to:

1. Main Menu
2. Administration tab
3. Users hyperlink

Your User account must have Administration access and Administer User accounts permissions enabled to access the Users page.

If the hyperlinks, pages and resources for managing User accounts are not available on the archive, try logging in with an account with higher administrative privileges or as a Super Administrator.

Note: it is good practice to create User accounts while logged into the archive as a Super Administrator, that way all Groups will be visible when assigning group membership. Otherwise, the system will only show Groups that are available to the account you are currently using to access the archive.

Creating a user account

Your User account must have Administration access, Administer User accounts, Add records and Create User accounts permissions enabled to create new accounts.

1. Navigate to the User accounts page, by going to: Main Menu → Administration tab → Users hyperlink.
2. In the Actions button menu, select New user.
3. In the New user account wizard, enter a Full name, Username and Password for the account. Optionally, you can also provide a Preferred name and Email address.
   Click Continue.
4. In step two of the wizard, you will assign Group membership to the account. Enable the checkboxes of the Groups to which the User will have membership. By default, the User will be granted Registered User Group. Click Continue.
5. Step three of the wizard is optional; here you assign People and Collection records to the account. It’s generally a good idea to provide a Person reference if the account is going to be used by an individual. Occasionally an account might be set up for a group of people, in which case, assigning a Person reference may not be a good idea. Click Continue.
6. The User account is created. Click Done.

Suspending a user account

A suspended account cannot be used to access the archive; it is deactivated.

Your User account must have Administration access, Administer User accounts, Edit accounts of others and Suspend accounts of others permissions enabled to suspend an account.

1. Navigate to the User accounts page, by going to: Main Menu → Administration tab → Users hyperlink.
2. In the list of User accounts, select the Suspend user hyperlink beneath the name of the account you wish to suspend.
3. On the Suspend account page, Click Suspend.

Approving a user account

If an account has been suspended, it can be approved to make it active again.

Your User account must have Administration access, Administer User accounts, Approve accounts of others and Edit accounts of others permissions enabled to approve an account.

1. Navigate to the User accounts page, by going to: Main Menu → Administration tab → Users hyperlink.
2. In the list of User accounts, select the Approve user hyperlink beneath the name of the account you wish to activate.
3. On the Approve account page, select Approve.

Editing a user account

Your User account must have Administration access, Administer User accounts, Add records and Edit accounts of others permissions to edit a user account. In addition, to edit your own account the Edit own account permission is needed.

1. Navigate to the User accounts page, by going to: Main Menu → Administration tab → Users hyperlink.
2. In the list of Users, select the name of the account you wish to edit.
3. Make your changes to the account, then click Save & Close.

Removing a user account

It is not good practice to remove an account unless the account has never been used. Instead, you should suspend an account to deactivate it.

Your User account must have Administration access, Administer User accounts and Remove accounts of others permissions enabled to remove an account.

1. Navigate to the User accounts page, by going to: Main Menu → Administration tab → Users hyperlink.
2. In the list of User accounts, select the Remove user hyperlink beneath the name of the account you wish to remove.
3. On the Remove account page, click Remove.

Accessing user account settings

A User who may not have administrative access can view and edit their Account settings from within the Account button menu in the top menu bar. Here the User can change their Full name, Preferred name, Email address, Username and Password.

Your User account will need the View account settings permission enabled to view the account settings page.