TransForm Central Permissions
Description
An overview of Permissions in Alpha TransForm.
- Name
- Description
- Statuses
Form value to help guide form through life cycle
- Roles
Distinguishes different classes of users
- Status/Role Groups
Specifies the functionality available to the various combinations of statuses and roles
- Saving and Loading
Updating shared account permissions and copying from one account to another
About Permissions
The Permissions functionality in Alpha TransForm lets you control access to applications and data. It is also used to help track the state of forms as data is entered and then processed by the system.
Each account has its own set of Permission Settings which are maintained using the Permissions tab in TransForm Central.
The Permissions Settings consist of three lists: Statuses, Roles, and Status/Role Groups:
- Status List
Each form (that is, a single instance of a particular type of form along with its current data, if any) has a "status" field. The Status List enumerates of all of the different values that forms in this account may have for this field. Examples of typical status values are "open" and "submitted".
- Roles List
Each user allowed access to an account may be assigned one or more "roles" for the purposes of permissions. The Roles List enumerates of all of the different values that users in this account may be assigned. Examples of typical role values are "user" and "FormDesigner".
- Status/Role Groups List
Each type of form has a setting that specifies which Status/Role Group controls its permissions. The Status/Role Groups List enumerates the different available values and their associated permission settings. Each Status/Role Group includes a variety of permission settings, such as the particular roles that users must have in order to be allowed to create new instances of forms of the types that have that Status/Role Group as its Status/Role Group.
The current Status of a form helps guide that form through its life cycle. Coupled with user Roles, and controlled by the Status/Role Group of the form type, the form may be presented to the appropriate individual at different steps.
For example, a form may start out as "open" and be editable in the Form Filler by a user. Once data entry is complete, the status may be changed to "submitted" as the user uploads the form to the server. At that point the form may show up in the Management Console for another user with the role of "Supervisor", and switch to read-only for the original user who does not have the role of supervisor.
Which statuses a form may be changed to, and which roles a user must be assigned to see a form in a listing, is specified by the Status/Role Group.
Using the Permissions tab
The Permissions tab in TransForm Central facilitates the entering, updating, and examination of the permissions settings for the logged in account.
When first displayed, a copy of the current settings will be shown. The Statuses and Roles are listed on the left, and the list of Status/Role Groups along with the permissions they specify are listed in the middle column. The right column is used to display fields for editing the Status/Role Groups and their permissions.
As changes are made to the various lists and settings, the copy will be modified and displayed. There is an Undo and Redo button in the upper-right of the window to facilitate dealing with simple changes (certain deletions of statuses and roles and their affect on group permissions may be beyond its scope).
If changes are made, they only affect the copy being displayed. They are not applied to the entire account until they are uploaded to the server to save the changes. See the Saving and Loading help section.