Introduction to Users and Groups

This page will explain the User and User Group functions available for your Web site. The following tutorials contain step-by-step instructions for creating new Users and User Groups, editing User and User Group permissions, and deleting Users and User Groups from your Digital Bell Web site.

Permissions are settings which allow, or deny, access to specific functions within your Web site, such as Web page creation. Users are assigned their own specific set of permissions, while User Groups take a single set of permissions and assign them to all members of the group. 

To access the Users and User Groups registered on your Web site, begin by clicking on the "Administration" tab, located at the top of your Digital Bell Dashboard.

Admin Tab

1. Users and User Groups

After clicking on the "Administration" tab, you will be forwarded to the Administration section of your Digital Bell Dashboard. For the purposes of these tutorials, we will focus on the first two sections, titled "Users" and "User Groups," as shown in the image below.

Users

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2. Add a New User

To begin adding a new user, click the link labeled "+Add a new user," under  the "Users" section of the Administration dashboard. This will bring you to the Add User form, as seen in the example image. Enter the new User's first name, last name, e-mail address, and password into their respective fields.

To allow a new user to access Digital Bell content and features, permissions must also be assigned. The Built-in Groups section includes several default options. Check the box next to the appropriate group to grant the new user access. Custom permissions can also be assigned (see "Permissions" section). The most commonly used User Groups are described below:

Website Administrator: Full access to all features and content, including all content created by other users.

Teacher: Cannot access other's content, unless granted permission. Can create pages, add page content, and upload documents and images. Cannot access Posts or Calendar Events by default.

Faculty: All "Teacher" permissions, plus access to Posts and Calendar Events.

Once finished, click the "Submit" button at the bottom of the page. This will take you to the list of Users on your Web site. Here, you can edit the User's details and assign additional permissions, if necessary.

Note - For District Administratiors who need to give a User access to an additional school / site, please contact support@gslsolutions.com to request this change. A second User account cannot be created on a different site with the same email address (an "email address currently in use" error will appear).

Add New User

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3. Edit an Existing User

To edit an existing User's details and/or permissions, mouse over the "Administration" link, located in the menu at the top of your Digital Bell Dashboard, to create a drop-down menu. Next, click the "Users" link. This will take you to a page listing the user accounts currently registered on your Web site.

view list of users

Details

To edit a User's details, click the "Edit" button (pencil icon) to the left of the User name. This will allow you to modify the User's name, e-mail address, password, and User Group assignments.

user details

User Groups

To assign a User Group, locate the "Security Information" section of the page, then tick the checkbox(es) next to the appropriate Groups. Finally, click the "Submit" button to complete the process. Click here for a list and descriptions of the built-in User Groups.

user groups

Permissions

To edit a User's permissions, click the "Permissions" button (key icon) to the left of the User name. This will take you to a page containing all possible permission options available to the User. Here you can define what a particular User can or cannot do within your Web site. This is one of the more complex Administrative features available in The Digital Bell, and recommended only if the default User Groups do not meet your needs.

Each seperate permission option on this page is composed of three elements: the component, its functions, and their settings.

The components are listed throughout the page in the gold colored headers. The Digital Bell is made up of these components - Pages, Text Blocks, FAQs, and Files are examples of components. By editing this page, you determine what a user can or cannot do with the components of The Digital Bell.

The functions are listed directly beneath each component. Add, Delete, and Edit are examples of functions. The functions list every potential interaction a user can have with the selected component. Add Pages, Edit Images, Delete Posts, etc. The Any and Own (ex. DeleteAny / DeleteOwn) descriptions determine whether a user can affect any component, or only those they own.

The settings are radio buttons placed to the right of the functions. They are Default, Allow, and Deny. The setting determines whether a User can perform the given function on the selected component. Allow giver the user permission to perform the function, while Deny prevents the User from performing the function. Default reverts to the selected User Group's default setting (if a User Group has not been assigned to the User, all settings default to Deny).

As an example, in the "Pages" component, setting the "Publisher" function to "Allow" will give the user permission to publish pages to the Website. 

permission settings

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4. Remove a User

To remove a User, and prevent them from logging into your Web site, mouse over the "Administration" link, located in the menu at the top of your Digital Bell Dashboard. Next, click the "Users" link. This will take you to a list of your current User accounts. You can use the "Quick Search" box in the upper left hand corner to search for a user by first name, last name, or email address.

Once you have found the appropriate User, click the red "Delete" button (minus sign icon) at the far right of the User's row. A pop-up window will appear, asking you to confirm your action. Click the button labeled "OK" to remove the selected User from your Web site.

Note - For District Administrators who need to transfer a User account to a different school / site, please have contact support@gslsolutions.com to request this change. While removing a user from one site will prevent them from logging in, another account cannot be created on a different site with the same email address (an "email address currently in use" error will appear).

delete user

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5. Add a New User Group

The Digital Bell comes with an "Administrator" User Group by default. New User Groups can also be created, for example: "English Department" or "Teacher's Assistants."

To add a new User Group, mouse over the "Administration" link, located in the menu at the top of your Digital Bell Dashboard, to create a drop-down menu. Next, click the "User Group" link. This will take you to a page listing the existing User Groups on the Web site.

Click the "Add new User Group" link, located in the right margin. Clicking this link takes you to the "Add User Group" form.

add user group

Here you will enter the name and description of the User Group in their respective fields.

add user group form

Clicking the "Submit" button returns you to the list of User Groups, and adds the new User Group. Next, click the Permissions button (key icon) to assign permissions to your new group.

The permissions you assign to the group will be applied to any Users who are added to the group. However, note that User Group permissions will not override an individual User's permissions if they have been explicitly given non-default ("Allow" or "Deny") permission settings. The section above includes an overview of the permissions settings

To add Users to your new User Group, you must edit the details of each User you wish to add, as described here.

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6. Edit an Existing User Group

To edit an existing User Group, click the link labeled "View the list of user groups" in the User Groups section of your Dashboard. This will take you to a list of all User Groups on your Web site, as seen in the image below. You can search for a particular User Group using the "quick search" box in the upper left hand corner. Once you have found the appropriate Group, you can edit the Group's details and permissions from this page.

User Groups

To modify a User Group's details, click the Edit button (pencil icon) to the left of the Group name. This will take you to a page where you can edit the Group's name and description. When you are finished, click the "Submit" button on the bottom of the page.

To modify a User Group's permissions, click the Permissions button (key icon) to the left of the Group name. The Group permissions function in the same way as User permissions, as described here, but will apply to all members of the Group.

However, note that User Group permissions will not override an individual User's permissions if they have been explicitly given non-default ("Allow" or "Deny") permission settings.

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7. Delete a User Group

To delete a User Group, click the link labeled "View the list of user groups" in the User Groups section of your Dashboard. This will take you to a list of all User Groups on your Web site. Search for the User Group using the "quick search" box in the upper left hand corner, or simply locate it on the list.

To delete the Group, click the red minus sign icon at the far right of the User Group's row. A pop up box will appear asking you to confirm your deletion. Click "OK" to delete the User Group from your Web site.

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Descriptions of Built-in User Groups

The Digital Bell's built-in User Groups provide a base set of permissions, for Users with different requirements. This section lists the User Groups an Administrator can select from when creating or updating user accounts.

Before creating a new User Group, or assigning permissions from scratch, check to see if the following User Groups meet your needs (ex. even if a user is not a teacher, the "Teacher" group may meet your needs).

Teacher - Teacher users cannot access content created or uploaded by other users, unless given permission to access it. Teachers cannot permenently delete any content by default (it can be removed or deactivated, but will remain stored in the CMS). Teachers can access the following systems and components by default:

  • "My Profile" (where applicable)
  • Pages
    • Text Blocks
    • FAQs
    • Photo Galleries
    • Links
    • Files
  • Warehouse
    • Documents
    • Images

Faculty - User group for support staff/faculty members. Includes the permissions from the "Teacher" user group, and adds access to additional features. Like Teacher users, Faculty members cannot access other users' content without permission. The Faculty user group adds access to the following:

  • Forms
  • Calendars
  • Posts

    NOTE: Faculty users must be given access to the each Post Type they should be able to work with. See "Updating Post Type Permissions" for more information.

School Administrator - Includes all of the Faculty group's permissions, and is expanded to include access to all content and files that have been added by any user. The School Admin user group also adds access to the following:

  • Labels
  • User Administration

Website Administrator - This user group includes access to all of the Digital Bell's features and functions that are available to end-users. Like the School Admin, this group includes access to all content and files from any user, and is expanded to include the following:

  • Athletic Calendar
  • Reservations *(where applicable)
  • Site Settings
  • User Group Administration

District Administrator -  This user group is reserved for administrators at the District level. The permissions are the same as those of a Website Administrator, but may also include special features that can only be accessed when logged into the District website (ex. Feature Groups that can sync news posts to all district websites).

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*Note for District Administrators

District Administrators who are adding Users to the individual sites within their district can use the Site Selection Drop-down menu to jump between schools/sites. If your personal user account can access multiple schools/websites, this menu will appear in the lower right corner of any Digital Bell page (see example image). Any User accounts you add will automatically be assigned and restricted to the site selected in this menu. 

Site Selection Menu

If a User account will need access to multiple Digital Bell sites, or transferred from one Digital Bell site to another, please contact support@gslsolutions.com to request these changes. If you attempt to manually remove a User from one site, and create a new account on another with the same email address, you will receive an error message stating the email address is currently in use. 

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