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Step 9: Set up permissions for your editors

When you have built a template, you need to make it available to content editors to add content to the site. To do this, you need to: . Create User groups and User accounts. . Apply permissions to your site.

How permissions are assigned

A user is assigned a user asset. The level of access a user has is determined by a combination of the type of user asset, individual asset permissions, and asset statuses. Permissions, such as read, write, and admin, are granted on individual assets and granted to user or group assets. The status of an asset, such as Under Construction, Live, or Safe Edit, affects permissions differently for different user types. For example a user needs to have at least write access to a permission, and be a content editor or backend user, to see unpublished draft content.

Permissions for content editors

To assign permissions specifically for content editors:

  1. Create a group called Content editors.

  2. Add Content editor users to the Content editors group.

  3. Grant them either Write or Admin access to your pages.

    • Granting Write will allow them to edit existing pages.

    • Granting Admin will allow them to add, delete, and change the status of pages.

Set up basic content editor permissions

You can control access by applying user groups to specific subsets of the site.

  1. Create a new folder under the Configuration folder. Call it Users.

  2. Create a new user group called Content editors.

    1. Right-click on the Users folder.

    2. Go to Create new…​  Users  User Group.

    3. Enter Content Editors in the Group Name field.

    4. Select [Create].

  3. Create a new Content editor user asset in the Content editors user group.

    1. Right-click on the Content editors asset.

    2. Go to Create new…​  Users  Content Editor.

    3. Enter FirstUser as the Username.

    4. Enter 123fgh as the password, and enter again to confirm.

    5. Enter Gordon as the first name.

    6. Enter Smith as the last name.

    7. You do not need to supply an email address.

    8. Select Create.

You can use any user ID, password, and name combination for testing purposes.

Make your user live

Users need to be live before they can log in. To make the user live:

  1. Go to the Details screen for the user you have just created.

  2. Select Approve and make live from the Change Status drop-down.

    This image shows the Change Status drop-down on the user details screen

  3. Select Save.

  4. Click the user asset in the asset tree. You will see that it is highlighted green, which is the color code for live.

    This image shows new user in the asset tree. It is highlighted in green.

  5. Release the locks on the asset.

You can release locks on an asset in two ways:

  1. Click on your name in the toolbar and select Release locks. This will release all of your locks.

    This image shows the Release locks option in the toolbar menu

    OR

  2. Select the Editing information dropdown next to the Save button.

    1. Select Release locks now to release the lock on this asset only.

      This image shows the Release locks option on an asset.

Test your permissions changes

Sign-in as the newly-created content editor in another browser window. Use incognito mode because you are already logged in to your Matrix instance.

  1. Copy the URL of your Matrix instance. Include the /_admin/ suffix.

  2. Paste it into your incognito window.

  3. Sign in as the user you have just created.

You should see that the new content editor has few or no permissions on the asset tree.

This image shows the asset tree access allowed to the new user. Most of the entries are marked 'Restricted assset'.

Give partial admin permission to the user

You can control how much of a site a user has access to. In this example, the newly-created user will be given write permission to the site that contains the content but not access to the Configuration folder. This means they can create and edit pages but not edit global includes such as headers and footers.

Grant admin permission to the site

  1. Right-click on the site asset.

  2. Go to Settings  Permissions.

    There are no permissions granted.

This image shows the settings > permissions page of the site asset. The section is called Grant or deny permissions. There are no permissions granted.

  1. Select Edit.

  2. Grant admin permissions to the content editors group:

    1. Select Add admin permission.

    2. Make sure the TYPE field says Grant.

    3. Enter the asset ID of the Content editors group to the USER/GROUP field, or use the asset picker.

    4. Make sure that the CASCADE check box is checked.

    5. Select Save.

This image shows the settings for granting admin permission

The permission changes will cascade through your site. Wait for the HIPO job to finish. This may take a few minutes.

Grant write permissions to necessary folders

You must also grant write permission to your editors for any folders higher in the asset tree than your site, so they can access them in the tree.

The top-level folder may be many levels above your site. You need to go back up to the level above your site that does not have any folders above it in the hierarchy. On the image below, the top-level folder is the folder called DX, asset number 5259.

This image shows the Matrix asset tree

  1. Right-click on your top-level folder asset.

  2. Go to Settings  Permissions.

    This gif shows the cursor right-clicking on the top folder of the site. It shows settings > permissions chosen from the menu and ends on the Permissions page.

  3. Select Edit.

  4. Grant write permission to your content editor group:

    1. Select Add write permission.

    2. Make sure the TYPE field says Grant.

    3. Enter the asset ID of the Content editors group to the USER/GROUP field, or use the asset picker.

    4. Make sure that the CASCADE check box is checked.

    5. Select Save.

The permission changes will cascade through your site. Wait for the HIPO job to finish. This may take a few minutes.

Test your permissions changes

Log in as a test content editor in another browser window. Use incognito mode because you are already logged in to your Matrix instance.

  1. Copy the URL of your Matrix instance. Include the /_admin/ suffix.

  2. Paste it into your incognito window.

  3. Sign in as the user you have just created.

You will see that access has been granted and cascaded underneath the top-level folder.

This gif shows the asset tree available to the user now that write permissions have been granted to the Content Editors group. All the folders underneath the top-level folder are available.

If you do not want to grant write access to the whole section of the tree, you can grant write access to the individual folders and uncheck the cascade checkbox. This will provide write access to the specific folders from the top level down to the site in question. This will allow the content editors to access the available folders in admin mode and create new folders, however won’t allow them to edit content in every sub folder of the tree.

See: Asset permissions screen for more information about cascading permissions.

Invite content editors

You can now invite content editors to your Content editor group.

  1. Create a Content editor user account.

  2. Enter a username, name, and password

  3. Right-click on the new content editor user account.

  4. Select Details.

  5. Select Edit.

  6. On the Change Status field, select Approve and make live from the drop-down list.

  7. Select Save.

  8. Release the locks on the asset.

  9. Add the content editor to the Content editor group.