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Define groups

FirstSpirit provides the "Permission" module for the assignment of user permissions. It uses the CMS_INPUT_PERMISSION permissions definition component, which has to be configured by the project developer first before being used by the editor.

Possible groups can be:

 

internal users

external users

by topic / subject

  • Marketing / Sales
  • R & D
  • Production
  • Legal department
  • ...

  • Journalists: receipt access to picture material from the PR area
  • Customers: receive access to detailed product information
  • Shareholders: receive detailed information and documents on annual general meetings, etc.

by hierarchy

  • Boss
  • Heads of Department
  • Employees
  • ...

  • "anonymous" users: receive access to all unprotected areas ("Internet")
  • Partners / Dealers: receive access to areas of the extranet (e.g. price lists, sales documents...)
  • Customers: receive access to personalised or fee-based content

Permissions assignment / checking

Permissions can usually be assigned like editorial permissions.

In general, users must register first and then receive access to protected areas through a login function.

   

Definition of groups on XML basis

groups.xml configuration file in server monitoring

The groups are entered in the default configuration file groups.xml. This can be reached via server monitoring. As a default, the

  • Anonyme Besucher (Anonymous visitors),
  • Registrierte Mitglieder (Registered members) and
  • Kunden (Customers)

groups are entered under the group name "GroupsFile".

Depending on the requirements, groups can also have several sub-groups. On the one hand, these hierarchies can be manually entered in the groups.xml file, on the other hand, they can be automatically generated from the Content Store with the help of BeanShell scripts.

Definition of users on XML basis

Individual users can be entered in an XML file (for example users.xml) in an analogous way.

The structure of such a user definition file is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<USERS>

<USER login="visitor_1"
realname="Visitor 1"
password="password_visitor_1"
active="1"
groups="2" />

<USER login="member_1"
realname="Member 1"
password="password_member_1"
active="1"
groups="3" />

<USER login="client_1"
realname="Client 1"
password="password_client_1"
active="1"
groups="3,4" />

</USERS>

Service configuration (service.ini)

On the one hand, the path to the groups.xml file must be entered in the service.ini configuration file. This is already configured as a default. On the other hand, the symbolic names of the available group hierarchies must be entered. As a default, the group hierarchy “GroupsFile”" is already entered here.

If you would like to use user files the path to them must be entered in the service.ini file too, for example:

#
# global params
# -------------

# check each x seconds for changes
interval=20

# symbolic names for documents
documents=GroupsFile

#
# document specific params
# ------------------------
GroupsFile.path=groups.xml
GroupsFile.users=users.xml

Detailed information on configuring services and modules and on the service configuration files are given in the FirstSpirit Manual for Administrators.

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