WebSphere Portal, Express Beta Version 6.1
Operating systems: i5/OS, Linux,Windows

 

Item access controls

You use access controls to determine what level of access a user or group has to an item, and who has access to an item on the live Web site.

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.

Actions User Contributor Editor Approver Manager Administrator
Preview item and view rendered item X X X X X X
Read X X X X X X
Reference X X X X X X
View references X X X X X X
Link to X X X X X X
View versions X   X X X X
Add or move children   X X   X X
Add or remove child links   X X   X X
Copy   X X   X X
Move   X X   X X
Edit     X   X X
Batch-edit access controls     X   X X
Restore     X   X X
Apply authoring template     X   X X
Save version     X   X X
Create draft       X

(Only on published or expired items.)

  X
Restart Draft       X

(Only on published or expired items.)

  X
Approve       X   X
Reject       X   X
Delete     X

(Only on items you have created.)

  X X
Purge         X X
Manage elements     X   X X
System security           X
Unlock           X
Show hidden fields           X
Next Stage           X
Note: 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.

Note: 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.

Note: 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.

 

Inheriting access levels

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

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

 

Viewing an item's security settings

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

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.Note: 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.

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.
Note:

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.

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/site/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.
Parent topic: Developing an access control strategy Related tasks
Granting users or groups access to an item Creating a workflow stage
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