Users and Permissions

All users must belong to a “home” group and any user can be a LiveWhale Admin regardless of what group they call home. (Nonetheless, we do tend to put the main LiveWhale Admins in the default LiveWhale Admin group.)

Users are able to edit the content of their home group plus any others for which they are allowed to “group-switch.” To allow a user to group-switch, edit their user and check off Manage content for other groups, and select the group(s) you want them to have access to.

Creating and importing users

Admins and those with user management permissions can create users one-by-one using the Toolbox > Groups and users page in LiveWhale. You can either click a group name and then “+ Add another user” on the Edit Group page, or clicking “+ Add another user” from the Users page will add them to whatever group you’re currently in.

Add user interface for LiveWhale Calendar

From this page you can set:

  • First and Last Name – will appear in the admin Activity Log and “Last modified by” system messages
  • Username
  • Permission level – see below for more info about User Permissions
  • Email address – see Email Notifications for more information

If you are using single-sign-on (SSO), the Password field will not be shown. Instead, only Username will appear and you must match this field to whatever username value will be sent by your SSO server.

UI for adding an SSO user

Giving a user access to multiple groups

By default, a user will be able to see and edit items owned by their group. You can check off “Allow access to other groups?” to make them a group-switcher. This will allow them to manage content in multiple groups and switch groups using the toolbar.

UI for adding a new user with access to multiple groups

Allowing a user to manage other users in their groups

By default, only Administrators can add and remove users. However, you can also delegate user management by checking off “Allow management of users for own group(s)?” in the Edit User page. This will allow that user to add/edit other users in their group, up to and including at their own permission level. (For instance, a Publisher can add Editors and other Publishers, but can’t create a Curator or Admin.)

Importing a CSV of users

You can also import users in bulk via CSV. The easiest method is to first use the Export tool first to see a sample CSV of the column/row formatting, and then to paste your user data into that same format.

Deleting and restoring users

You can delete users one-by-one from the Edit User page, or in bulk by checking them off and using “With checked items…” from the manager view.

Deleting a user is a non-destructive action. None of their content will be lost, and while they will no longer have access to log in to LiveWhale, their user record will remain in the trash (Deleted items) indefinitely in order to be associated with Edit and Activity Log histories. If you need to, you can restore them at any time using “Deleted items” in the toolbar.

UI for restoring a deleted user from the trash

User Activity

Administrators can view a full list of user activity in Toolbox > Activity log. Otherwise, the user list under Toolbox > Groups & users > Users gives a quick indication of who has been most active, including the below information and filtering options.

Text in users table Description
Green text “Logged in” Currently logged in
“Last logged in {date}” in black Logged in within the past 6 months
“Last logged in {date}” in red More than 6 months since last login
No date User has never logged into LiveWhale
Using the sidebar “Review” filter Description
“Active users” Shows users who have logged in within the past 30 days
“Inactive users” Shows users who have not logged in within the past 30 days

Permissions

User permission options fall into several levels. For more granular options within LiveWhale CMS, you can check and uncheck individual options on a per-user basis.

LiveWhale CMS LiveWhale Calendar
Newbie
• Make edits to public webpages
• Make changes to public webpages live
 
Editor
• Edit dynamic content (including files, images, and places)
• Allow/disable access on a per-module basis: Blogs, Blurbs, Events, Forms, Galleries, Stories, Profiles
Editor
• Edit dynamic content (including events, files, images, and places)
Publisher
• Publish dynamic content (i.e., set to Live)
Publisher
• Publish dynamic content (i.e., set to Live)
Curator
• View sitewide activity stream
• Manage globally shared content
• Manage content submitted by public users
• Add, edit, and delete navigations, create and delete pages
• Manage widgets
Curator
• Manage globally shared content
• Manage widgets
Administrator
• System administrator (catch-all)
• Manage groups and users
• Show file browser
• Edit raw page source code
Administrator
• System administrator (catch-all)
• Manage groups and users
• View sitewide activity stream

Administrator permissions

An administrator is a special type of user who possesses unrestricted access to all aspects of LiveWhale. These include:

  • Access to the activity stream.
  • Access to the backups module.
  • Access to send bulletins to your users.
  • Ability to export LiveWhale data.
  • Ability to manage users and groups.
  • Global page editing permissions.
  • Ability to switch to all groups.

Access of this type should be restricted to a small set of users requiring oversight of the entire CMS and the management of its users.

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