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User roles and access

Different users will have a different access to items and functions in your system depending on the role they have been assigned. Roles can be assigned at the library level, and also assigned on individual items.


Assigning access to items

There are two methods used to assign roles to access controls on items:

By default, inheritance is enabled for all roles and items.


View an item's security settings

The following sections are displayed on the security section of each item.


Table 1. Security settings

Section Details
User Defined If the item is not participating in a workflow, the user can edit access under user-defined.
Workflow If an item is participating in a workflow, then the user-defined option does not appear and the workflow settings are displayed. This cannot be edited. Workflow-defined access is set in workflow stages. Published items and workflow defined item security

  • If you grant a user editor access to an item in a workflow stage that uses a publish action, then those users are able to edit the published item directly. No draft is created. The same is true for administrator defined security when applied to published items.

  • If you grant a user manager access to an item in a workflow stage that uses a publish action, then those users are able to edit and delete the published item directly. No draft is created. The same is true for administrator defined security when applied to published items.

  • If you grant a user approve access to an item in a workflow stage that uses a publish action, then those users are able to create drafts of the published item.

Administrator Defined Administrators can edit user access to an item at any time by changing the administrator defined settings.
Inheritance You can also choose to inherit access assigned in the current Web content library, or from an item's parent. Inheritance for all user roles are enabled by default.


How security is set

When a new item is created, the creator is automatically given delete access to the item. Additional user and group security can be added in the user-defined and system defined settings.

If an item is participating in a workflow, the creator is given delete access to the item only in the first workflow stage. As the item progresses through a workflow, the item security is determined by the combined workflow and system defined security.


Table 2. Security matrix

Security level No workflow 1st workflow stage Additional workflow stages
User

  • User defined

  • Administrator defined

  • Inherited

  • Administrator defined

  • Workflow defined

  • Administrator defined

  • Workflow defined

Contributor

  • User defined

  • Administrator defined

  • Inherited

  • Administrator defined

  • Workflow defined or inherited

  • Administrator defined

  • Workflow defined or inherited

Editor

  • User defined

  • Administrator defined

  • Inherited

  • Administrator defined

  • Workflow defined or inherited

  • Administrator defined

  • Workflow defined or inherited

Manager

  • User defined

  • Administrator defined

  • Inherited

  • Administrator defined

  • Workflow defined or inherited

  • Administrator defined

  • Workflow defined or inherited

Approve Not applicable.

  • Workflow defined or inherited

  • Workflow defined or inherited

Administrator If you have been assigned the administrator role to a library, you automatically inherit all administration access down to the item-level. It cannot be turned off.

Deleting items

When a new item is created, the creator can also delete the item. If an item is participating in a workflow, the creator can only delete the item in the first workflow stage.


Assigning access to different types of users or groups

When accessing a Web Content Management Web site or rendering portlet, users login as either anonymous users, or authenticated portal users.

The following user and groups can be used to grant access to items.

Table 3. Users and groups
User or group Details
anonymous portal user Select this user to grant access to anonymous users
[all users] Select this group to grant access to all users, anonymous and authenticated.
[all authenticated portal users] Select this group to grant access to all authenticated users.
[all portal user groups] Select this group to grant access to all user groups.
[creator] Select this to grant access to the creator of the item.
[authors] Select this to grant access to users who have been selected as an "author" of the item.
[owners] Select this to grant access to users who have been selected as an "owner" of the item.


The access required to view a rendered item

To view an item on a rendered page, you need the following:

  1. You need at least user access to the presentation template used to display the current content item.

  2. You need at least user access to every item in the path to the current content item:

    • library/site/site area/content item

  3. You need at least user access to every item in the path to any elements or components referenced in the presentation template:

    • library/component

    • library/element

    • library/site/site area/element

    • library/site/site area/content item/element

    These paths do not need to be the same as the path to the current content item.

  4. There must be a valid template map.

The "wcm.path.traversal.security" setting

Rendered item behavior will vary depending on how you specify the wcm.path.traversal.security property in the WCM WCMConfigService service. If the property is not specified, the default value is false.

If set to false:

If set to true:

Rendering performance will be slower if set to true.


Button access

You assign item-level access by assigning users and groups different roles for each item. The role you assign determines what actions a user has access to for each item.


Table 4. Item access controls

Actions User Contributor Editor Approver Manager Administrator
Add or move children   X X   X X
Add or remove child links   X X   X X
Apply authoring template   X X   X X
Approve       X   X
Batch-edit access controls     X   X X
Cancel draft         X X
Copy   X X   X X
Create draft       X

(Only on published or expired items.)

  X
Delete     X

(Only on items you have created.)

  X X
Edit     X   X X
Link to   X X X X X
Manage elements     X   X X
Move     X   X X
Next Stage     X   X X
Preview item and view rendered item X X X X X X
Process now           X
Purge         X

Access must be set to entire library.

X

Access must be set to entire library.

Read X X X X X X
Reference X X X X X X
Reject       X   X
Restart workflow       X X

(Only on published or expired items.)

X
Restore     X   X X
Save version     X   X X
Show hidden fields           X
System security           X
Unlock         X

(Requires Manager access to both the item and the library it is stored in)

X
View references X X X X X X
View versions X X X X X X

Creating new items

The ability to create new items is set at the library level, not item level. You must have at least contributor access to a library and editor access to an item-type to create a new item.

Button access on content items

You can choose to hide selected buttons on content item forms when creating an authoring template. This means a user may not have access to all buttons on a content item form regardless of their role. Administrators can choose to display hidden buttons if required.

Profiling versus security

Using profiling to personalize a site is different from using security to limit what items a user can access. In a profile based personalized site, although a user may not be able to access all the pages using personalized menus, they may still be able to access other pages by using navigators, or by searching for content. In a secured site, a user can only view items that they have been granted access to.


Parent topic:

Users, Groups and Roles