Manage users and roles

Users in Xperience by Kentico

Simply put, a User is any person who has access to the backend of Xperience by Kentico. Whether you are a content editor, marketer, or a global admin taking care of the whole Xperience administration, you are represented by a user entity. In other words, users work with the applications from the administration – they create content, define marketing activities, or send emails.

Roles in Xperience by Kentico

A Role defines a collection of permissions of what a user can perform in the Xperience administration. A role gives you access to different applications in Xperience administration and tells you if you can or cannot create or delete content like an image, add a new page, or send an email.

Roles are not exclusive; you can define and assign one general role to several users. You can imagine roles like tags that you can add to users; if they have more roles, they will get the sum of all permissions.

Imagine a company where everyone is doing their assigned job and has a different role than the others. Everything works fine until one day when you realize you need person A to fill in for person B. What to do? Assign B’s role to A, and you’re all set. Person A will have two roles now.

Permissions assigned to roles give you access to all the features you need. You can focus on doing your job without being overwhelmed with other Xperience applications you don’t need. The set of role permissions will declutter your dashboard and save you time when looking for the correct application.

If you are an administrator, you need to put some thought into the role creation, though.  In case you set up a role with unnecessary permissions, users assigned to this role can end up in the wrong place, working on incorrect things or otherwise breaking the existing application flow. On the other hand, if you are too strict or forget to include crucial permission for a given role, the user might not be able to perform their job.

Members in Xperience by Kentico

Visitors who register an account in your application are called members. Unlike users who can access the administration, members can access only the front-facing part of your application, like a website. Once they create their account and become members, they can browse the website pages or access restricted, member-only sections of the website.

Xperience applications for managing users and roles

Xperience comes with two built-in applications you can use to create, manage, and review users and roles:

• Users application allows you to add new users, edit current ones, or add them to roles.
• Role management application allows you to create new roles and assign or change permissions for existing roles.

Working with roles

Start with setting up your user roles. Roles help you define which parts of the system a user should or should not have access to. Use the Role management application to create or update new roles, grant access permissions, or assign users.

Create a new role

A group of users will do the same work in your application. You want to create a role and define which applications these users will have access to - and what actions they can perform.

1. In Xperience, go to the Role management application and createNew role.

2. Enter a Role name, and Save the changes.

3. Switch to the Permissions tab and start adding permissions one by one.

   1. In the drop-down list, select the application you want your user to have access to.
   2. Choose which actions the user can perform.
   3. Save your changes.

4. Go tothe Assigned users tab and select the existing users you want to add to this role.

   1. To add a new user, you’ll need to switch into the Users application. See below how you can add a new user to your system.

5. Save the changes.

Update permissions

When a user realizes they don’t have access to all the applications or actions they need, you need to update their role’s permissions.

1. Go to the Role management application.

2. Select the role you want to change.

3. Switch to the Permissions tab and update the permissions.

   1. In the drop-down list, select the application you want your user to have access to and choose which actions the user can perform.

4. Save your changes.

Exercise 1: Update a role

Suppose a digital marketing manager in your company complains that the Channel Managers must not have the right to send an email. The emails must be approved and sent only by the company’s Email Marketers. To update the Digital Channel Manager role, follow the steps below.

Task:

1. Navigate to the Role management application.
2. Open the Digital Channel Manager role.
3. Go to the Permissions tab on the left.
4. Find the permissions for the Marketing Emails channel.
5. Remove the Send email permission.
6. Save your changes.

Working with users

Anytime a user reaches out that they need to change something in their profile or a team lead wants you to add a new team member to your Xperience application, follow this quick guide to find your way around the Xperience Users application.

How to create or edit a user

1. Go to the Users application.

2. Select New user, fill in their information, and save the changes.

   • When you create a new user, Xperience sends them a confirmation email with a link to create their password.

3. You can change other users’ credentials as an administrator with appropriate permissions. Find the user in the Users application and update their profile.

4. Change the user’s general information and roles, or enable or disable the user.

How to update your own password

1. On the application dashboard, locate the User menu (bottom-left button).
2. Go to your personal Account.
3. Go to the Password tab and change your password.
4. Save your changes.

Exercise 2: Create a user

Suppose a new digital marketer starts working for your company next week. Create a new user, assign them the role of Digital Channel Marketer, and send them an invitation email.

Task:

1. Go to the Users application.

2. Select New user.

3. Add information about the user:

   1. New user email: lauram@kbank.com.
   2. Role: Digital Channel Manager.

4. Send the invitation.

Your Xperience demo website doesn’t send any invitations for this exercise.

• To see the invitation email, go to the Email queue application and find the user’s email in the To column, with the subject: “You have been invited to join…”.
• The email’s body contains a link to help you finish the new user’s registration.
• Open the link in a new anonymous browser tab, create a password for the user, and Sign up. (Using an anonymous tab prevents Xperience from switching into this newly created user account from the Global Administrator you use in your main browser.)

If you sign in as the user you’ve created, you will see only the applications with assigned permissions on the dashboard.

Laura Miller, the Digital Channel Manager:

Users and roles are an important part of Xperience by Kentico administration. By setting them up, you can help everyone focus on their daily jobs.