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Do the (user) shuffle

May 14, 2009

Managing information and access rights within a company is always tricky. On the one hand, it is necessary to grant everyone enough access for them to perform the work they have been assigned and feel comfortable in the process. On the other, being too generous with permissions could lead to the unwanted disclosure of sensitive data or, mundanely, to unnecessary confusion.

That’s why some of our users have been asking for a new feature in fluxiom: the ability to create read-only users, who could be allowed into a fluxiom account and given access to the full fluxiom catalogue, but without being able to alter the account or download the assets it contains.

For example, this would allow an intern to prepare a list of product shots for a presentation or an employee in marketing to reference packaging photos, but it would prevent these users from ever disorganising your collection — whether wilfully or by accident. (It also prevents them from vacuuming data out of an account and running away with it.)

To create these users, simply log in to fluxiom, and click on the “Users” tab, as you usually do to manage access rights. Upon creating a new user, you can now restrict its rights by un-checking the “Administer assets and stages” box, but leaving the account itself enabled. Since it makes sense for most users to administer the assets stored into an account, this privilege is still granted by default, as in the past.

Of course, you can edit your current users in a similar fashion to apply finer-grained restrictions to your existing base — no need to re-create accounts: simply click on the “Edit” link in their profile card. The “Users” tab has been slightly redesigned to reflect these finer-grained access controls.

If you’ve been using stages to grant limited access to users within your company, you can now merge them cleanly with the remainder of your employees, and grant them the many benefits of direct access to fluxiom, including a smooth upgrade path towards additional access to the system.

Do note that this new feature does not in any way signal the disappearance of stages, that are the preferred way to share information with clients and partners outside your company: not only do stages feature a simplified interface that is better suited to sharing, they can also be fully branded with your own logo and corporate colours.

You can read a full summary of the feature in our updated help documents.

As always, we hope you enjoy this new feature, and will be welcoming your thoughts, comments and ideas on both form and function. All feedback is always welcome!

related topics:

• Get organised with tags
• Put your assets on stage

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