Appboard/old/provisioning

This topic details how the AppBoard administrator can configure each element of User management. First, we present the concepts of establishing the basic User organization. Then we detail usage of the specific administration tools and interfaces. The primary elements of the User management are Domains, Users, Roles and Actors.

Basic Provisioning Concepts

Provisioning is how you create Users and Roles in AppBoard, and then provide the appropriate targeted information to them. For an overview of basic provisioning concepts, see the article: Provisioning Basics

Provisioning in the AppBoard Administration User Interface

Provisioning is Done at the Stack Level

User management is made up of three elements: Domains, Users, and Roles. Used together, these elements provide a flexible means of organizing Users and provisioning the appropriate content to those Users. This User organization is the foundation upon which content management and other system features are built. In AppBoard, provisioning is achieved by assigning Stacks to Users and/or Domains.

Provisioning in AppBoard is accomplished by performing the following steps:

1. Create a Domain
2. Create a User in the Domain
3. Create a Role
4. Assign Stacks to the Role
5. Assign the Role to the User

Domains

A Domain is a grouping of Users. Perform the following steps to create or modify an AppBoard Domain:

1. Log in to the AppBoard Builder as an administrator.
2. In the Builder Modes panel, click Settings. The System Configuration panel is displayed.
3. In the System Configuration panel, click the User Management button. The User management screen will be displayed. On the left is the Domains panel, which lists the currently defined Domains in the system. On the right is the Users panel, which lists the Users in the currently selected Domain.
4. Click one of the buttons in the bottom bar of the Domains panel:
   1. + - Click the green "+" to add a domain.
      1. Add AppBoard Managed Domain - Select this option to create a new Domain in the local AppBoard database. You will be prompted for the name of the Domain to create.
      2. Add LDAP Managed Domain - Select this option to create a Domain in AppBoard that will be mapped to an LDAP repository. Selecting this option will launch the LDAP configuration wizard.
   2. x - Click the red "X" to delete the selected Domain.
   3. / - Click the yellow "/" to modify the properties of the selected Domain.
5. Confirm that the new Domain is displayed in the Domains panel of the User management screen.

Users

Once you have created a Domain, you must create a User in the Domain.

A User is a named member of a Domain who has unique credentials for logging in to AppBoard. Perform the following steps to create or modify an AppBoard User:

1. Log in to the AppBoard Builder as an administrator.
2. In the Builder Modes panel, click Settings. The System Configuration panel is displayed.
3. In the System Configuration panel, click the User Management button. The User management screen will be displayed. On the left is the Domains panel, which lists the currently defined Domains in the system. On the right is the Users panel, which lists the Users in the currently selected Domain.
4. Select the Domain in which you want to create or modify a User.
5. Click one of the buttons in the bottom bar of the Users panel:
   1. + - Click the green "+" to add a User to the selected Domain.
      1. Enter the User ID.
      2. Enter the Password.
   2. x - Click the red "X" to delete the selected User.
   3. / - Click the yellow "/" to modify the properties of the selected User.
6. Confirm that the selected action is reflected in the Users panel of the User management screen.

Roles

Roles are the mechanism through which Stacks are assigned to Users. Perform the following steps to create or modify an AppBoard Role:

1. Log in to the AppBoard Builder as an administrator.
2. In the Builder Modes panel, click Settings. The System Configuration panel is displayed.
3. In the System Configuration panel, click the Stack Assignment button. The Stack Assignment screen will be displayed. On the left is the Roles panel, which lists the currently defined Roles in the system.
4. Click one of the buttons in the bottom bar of the Roles panel:
   1. + - Click the green "+" to add a Role to the system.
      1. Add AppBoard Managed Role - Select this option to create a new Role in the local AppBoard database. You will be prompted for the name of the Role to create.
      2. Add Roles from LDAP - Select this option to create a Role in AppBoard that will be mapped to an LDAP repository. Selecting this option will launch the LDAP configuration wizard.
   2. x - Click the red "X" to delete the selected Role.
5. Confirm that the selected action is reflected in the Roles panel of the Stack Assignment screen.

Stacks

Once you have created a Role, you must assign one or more Stacks to the Role.

Stacks are collections of Boards that can be assigned to Users by provisioning them to Roles. Perform the following steps to assign one or more Stacks to a Role:

1. Log in to the AppBoard Builder as an administrator.
2. In the Builder Modes panel, click Settings. The System Configuration panel is displayed.
3. In the System Configuration panel, click the Stack Assignment button. The Stack Assignment screen will be displayed. On the left is the Roles panel, which lists the currently defined Roles in the system. In the middle is the Provisioned Stacks panel, which lists the Stacks that are assigned to the currently selected Role. On the right is the Available Stacks panel, which lists all of the Stacks in the system that are not assigned to the currently selected Role. The Available Stacks panel also provides the option to create or delete a Stack, if desired.
4. Select a Role by clicking it in the Roles panel.
5. Assign one or more Stacks to the selected Role by dragging them from the Available Stacks column to the Provisioned Stacks column.
6. Confirm that the desired Stacks are displayed in the Provisioned Stacks column.
7. Log in to AppBoard as a User with the selected Role. Confirm that the assigned Stacks are presented to the User.

Assigning Roles to Users

Once you have created a User and a Role, the final step is to assign the Role to the User. The User will then be presented the appropriate Stacks when logging in to the system under that Role. You can assign Roles to either Users or Domains, using the same process. The only difference is that assigning the Role to the Domain will assign it to all current and future Users in the Domain.

Perform the following steps to assign Roles to a User or Domain:

1. Log in to the AppBoard Builder as an administrator.
2. In the Builder Modes panel, click Settings. The System Configuration panel is displayed.
3. In the System Configuration panel, click the Role Assignment button. The Role Assignment screen will be displayed. At the top is a Domain selector. On the left is the Users panel, which lists the currently defined Users in the selected Domain. In the middle is the Provisioned Roles panel, which lists the Roles that are assigned to the currently selected Domain or User. On the right is the Available Roles panel, which lists all of the Roles in the system that are not assigned to the currently selected Domain or User. The Available Roles panel also provides the option to create or delete a Role, if desired.
4. Select a Domain. The list of Users in the selected Domain is displayed in the Users panel.
5. Select a Domain or User. A list of Provisioned Roles and Available Roles will be displayed in the respective panels.
6. Assign one or more Roles to the selected Domain or User by dragging them from the Available Roles column to the Provisioned Roles column.
7. Confirm that the desired Roles are displayed in the Provisioned Roles column.
8. Log in to AppBoard as a User to whom you have assigned a Role. Confirm that the expected Stacks are presented to the User.

When you provision a Role to a Domain, the Role is inherited by all Users in that Domain. If you click on a User in the Users panel, you can see visually if each Provisioned Role was inherited or directly assigned. If the Role name is grayed out, that means it was assigned to the Domain and is inherited. In order to remove this assignment, you would have to click on the Domain and then remove the assignment from the Domain.

Tutorial

A tutorial walk-through of the the basic AppBoard provisioning screens is available at AppBoard Provisioning Quick Start.

Advanced Provisioning Techniques

Access Control Variables

AppBoard includes a special provisioning feature called Variables. Variables have a variety of uses throughout the application. For example, you can use Variables to apply provisioning at the data access layer by only displaying certain data elements to specific Users or Domains.

For more information on this provisioning feature, see Access Control Variables.

Batch Loading Users (via XML)

In cases with a high volume of Users, a tool may be desired that will enable the administrator to process batch updates to the system.

For more information on this topic, see Batch Loading Users.