User Roles & Permissions in Appspace 7.x

WHAT’s IN THIS ARTICLE: 

Introduction

The Appspace console is the main platform for performing all administrative tasks such as inviting users and setting permissions, uploading and managing media, registering and configuring devices, and most importantly creating and publishing engaging channels for the signage, workplace, or room scheduling experiences. 

Business users, new to the platform, often wonder who does these administrative tasks in the console; Who is in charge of creating that beautiful signage the CEO wants? Who publishes that content and who indeed decides which devices should play which content? 

The answer to these questions depends on how an organization is structured, or how big the organization is. In a small company, one person may be tasked to do all of the above, and all he needs is an administrative role. While in other larger organizations with multi-level business and organizational hierarchies, several different people may be assigned to perform several different functions. 

So ideally, the organization or the principal Account Owner of the Appspace account, should determine in advance how they would like to create, manage, and publish content from the Appspace console. 

To make it easier for you, we have put together this introductory article, providing an overview of the user roles we have and the permissions necessary to perform the different functions. 

Personas & User Roles in Appspace 

There are typically four main user personas who use the Appspace platform:

• user or consumer of published content
• content author
• channel publisher 
• administrators who take care of all the device, network, or platform configurations

User

Anyone who accepts a user invitation sent from the Appspace platform is registered as a standard user by default. The standard user, will not have any access to the Appspace console until an administrator assigns a specific role(s) to this user.

The user inherits roles from user groups or networks assigned to him by the administrators, however, will not have access to the sub-networks.

A user without any role, cannot manage the console, but will still be able to view/consume all channels and content assigned to him or his user group, via the Appspace App on a TV/device or via the Appspace Content Portal. When there are multiple channels in interactive mode, the user will be able to browse through the available channels using a remote control, mouse, keyboard, or touch-screen.  

Author

An author uploads media into the Library, and creates content such as Cards (Announcement, Room Schedule, Google Slides, etc.). The author will have the permissions to manage these content in the Library and the channels assigned to him. 

Typically, an author must be assigned the Content Producer role in the Appspace platform. The author is responsible for uploading media, creating Cards, and managing content in the Library,

The content author will not have access to the channel settings or the channel approval workflows. An Account Owner must assign the Content Producer role to a user.

Publisher

A publisher manages the channel settings, approves changes, publishes channels, and is able to edit the content in a channel he has access to. The publisher has full control of the channel, channel properties, and publishing rights as well. 

An Account Owner must assign the Publisher role to a user for a specific channel(s) or channel group(s). The Publisher can assign others as co-publishers to the channels they are assigned to, and can also assign an Editor to the channel who will be able to manage the content for the channel. 

Administrators

Administrators make life easier for all authors, publishers, and users. They perform all the administrative functions such as platform configurations, device registrations, theme customizations for the Appspace app or cards, as well as device and user management. The following user roles in the Appspace platform are categorized as administrators:

• • Account Owner

    When you sign up for an Appspace account, this is the role your registered user account is given. The Account Owner is the administrator of one main Appspace account with full access and visibility to all user group libraries, the common library, content, channels, networks, users, devices, user groups, and device groups, within the account.

    In a multi-tenancy environment, the Account Owner also has full access to all networks for a single account only.

  • Account Administrator

    The Account Administrator has full access to all accounts and networks in Appspace but does not have access to system settings, in an on-prem environment.

    In a multi-tenancy environment, the Account Administrator has full access to all networks in multiple accounts.

  • Portal Administrator

    The Portal Administrator is a system administrator of the Appspace platform in an on-prem environment, with full access to all settings, accounts, and networks. 

    In a multi-tenancy environment, the Portal Administrator has full access to all networks in multiple accounts.

  • Network Administrator: 

    The Network Administrator is the administrator of the network assigned to him. He will also have access to all the sub-networks within the assigned network. The Network Administrator role is also required to register devices with the Appspace App, and manage these registered devices in the Appspace console (within his network).

These personas (author, publisher, administrator) are also applied to how we have recently categorized our documents on the Knowledge Center, making it easy for users to find articles curated for the function of their roles.

Assigning Roles

An Account Owner or an administrator must first invite users in his organization to the Appspace console. Then, he can assign the user with one or more of the roles described above. The roles cannot be assigned during the user invitation process, and can only be assigned after the user has accepted the invitation and activated the Appspace account. 

A user’s user group can be assigned either during the user invitation process, or manually via Users after the user has accepted the invitation.

However, do note that different roles are assigned from different places in the Appspace console based on the role’s functionality: 

• • • Account Owner and Content Producer via Users.
    • Editor and Publisher via Channels or Channel Groups.
    • Network Administrator and Content Administrator via Networks.

User Roles & Platform Management Workflow

User Roles & Content Publishing Workflow

Note: In small companies, Account Owners may function as an administrator, publisher, and author.  

Conclusion

Based on the structure and requirements of your organization, it is necessary to determine and assign the correct user roles to the people in your organization to ensure they have the right permissions to upload content, create channels, register devices, and correctly display the right content on the right devices at the right time.

Appendix

The table below displays the functionality available to each user role.