Creating User Accounts

Whether site-wide password protection has been enabled to lockdown your entire site to authenticated users, or if you have specific content you wish people only access after logging in, and for staff users who manage your site, there are various reasons you may need to create user accounts. 

Users with the Administrator role can create all types of user accounts, and if needed, self-registration can also be enabled to allow users to create patron accounts for themselves.

This article will focus on the understanding user accounts, specifically:

• Considerations for creating user accounts
• How to create user accounts
• Role definitions

Considerations for creating user accounts

User role

There are various roles that could be assigned to a user account depending on an individual's need for logging into your Stacks site. Role definitions with a full explanation of the permissions granted by the role can be found towards the end of this article, but at a high-level a couple of things to consider when selecting someone's role are:

• Patron role - provides no administrative access, this is used by users/patrons for accessing your Stacks site and/or content
• Administrator role - this role provides full access to Stacks, including the ability to create, edit, and delete all content, as well as access to system settings and integrations
• All other roles - will provide limited levels of administrative access
  • For example, the Moderator role provides the next closest access to the administrator role, without the system setting and integrations access; whereas something like the Event Manager role only provides access to the events management dashboard tile, for the purpose of creating and managing events

Content protection

If you have a need to control the content that certain groups of users should see or have access to, the segments feature may provide an option for you. 

Segments can be created to group users together for the purpose of content management. Users can be assigned to a segment either manually, or by completing a survey at login, at which point they will be assigned to the segement based on their survey response. These users will then be able to see the content their segment has access to.

For more information on these features, see the Segments and Surveys article.

Multi-domain sites

For customers with multiple domains, its important to consider which domain(s) each user should have access to, including administrative users, so they are able to properly perform their functions as it relates to modifying settings, creating, editing, and deleting content in the domain(s) they are responsible for.

Third-party authentication

While administrators can manually create Patron accounts, third-party authentication solutions such as an ILS or SSO can automatically create patron accounts. 

In this scenario, these must be managed at the Identity Provider (IDP) level; meaning, if you use OpenAthens to authenticate users at login, any patron passwords or information must be modified within OpenAthens.

How to create user accounts

1. From the Dashboard, click the People tile
2. Click  + Add User
3. Complete the fields in the window that opens
   1. Email Address
      1. Enter a valid unique email address; this will also be the default email address for the user to receive all Stacks communications (password resets, booking request, event registrations, and possibly easyform notifications)
         1. Email is the unique identifier for all users, you cannot re-use the same email address for multiple accounts
   2. Username
      1. Provide a unique username which the individual will use to log into the Stacks site
         1. This can be an email address and can contain special characters
   3. Password
      1. Enter a strong password that meets the strict guidelines implemented by the Stacks site, parameters are:
         1. Passwords length of 8-64 characters 
         2. Passwords cannot contain repeating characters
         3. Passwords cannot contain sequential identical characters
         4. Passwords cannot contain context words
         5. Passwords cannot contain the users name
   4. Status
      1. Blocked, select this option to disable the (existing) account and prevent the user from logging into Stacks
      2. Active, select this option to indicate the account is enabled and in good standing
         1. This is automatically selected as the default option 
   5. Notify User of New Account, check this box to send an email notification to the user alerting them of the creation of their user account
      1. This notification will include instructions on how the user can update their password and access your Stacks site
   6. Roles
      1. Select the most appropriate role for the user. Note: Users can only be assigned to 1 role.
         1. For more information on permissions granted to each role, see role definitions and at the bottom of this article
   7. LDAP Options
      1. This section is only applicable to Stacks sites that are using LDAP authentication
         1. This section allows administrators to set a rule to allow creation of LDAP accounts and define conflict resolution for associated accounts
   8. Patron Segments
      1. If this feature is being used, select the the segment the user should be assigned to
   9. Domain Access
      1. For multi-domain sites, select the domain(s) the user should have access to
   10. CAPTCHA
       1. Complete a captcha challenge to prove you are a human
          1. This is designed to prevent multiple unwanted submissions
4. Click Create new account when finished

Role Definitions

PATRON

• Provides users/patrons with access to your Stacks site using Stacks internal authentication or third-party authentication. With this access, users/patrons will have access to various features within your site, including the 'My Account' page where they may be able to manage event registrations, bookings, and saved searches.
  • Patrons do not have access to the dashboard and cannot create or manage any content on the site

BOOKING MANAGER

• This role provides limited administrative access to the Stacks dashboard, specifically for the purpose of setting up and managing rooms, booking settings, and approving or denying room bookings. Users with this role will only have access to the Booking Management tile in the dashboard. 
  • Users with this role will can:
    • Add, edit, and delete rooms
    • Manage booking settings
    • Approve or deny booking requests

EVENTS MANAGER

• This role provides limited administrative access to the Stacks dashboard, specifically for the purpose of managing events. Users with this role will only have access to the Events Management tile in the dashboard.
  • Users with this role can:
    • Create, edit, and delete events
    • Edit or delete event registrations
    • Manage event emails

PROGRAM MANAGER

• This role provides limited administrative access to the Stacks dashboard, specifically for the purpose of managing both Bookings and Events. Users with this role will only have access to the Booking Management and Events Management tiles in the dashboard.
  • Users with this role can perform the same functions described above in booking manager and event manager roles described above

CONTRIBUTOR

• This role provides limited administrative access to the Stacks dashboard, specifically for the purpose of creating and editing content. It is best suited for volunteers, interns, or other specialized team members responsible for content creation.
  • Content created by users with this role can change the Save As value to a Draft, Needs Review, or Published state depending on your workflow process for content creation
  • This role can create and edit the following:
    • Custom Blocks, Index Pages, News Articles, Pages, Research Guides, Reserves, Resource Flows, and Sliders

EDITOR

• This role provides limited administrative access to the Stacks dashboard, specifically for the purpose of creating and editing more content types than the contributor role. This role is often assigned to regular or part-time staff members.
  • Content created by users with this role can change the Save As value to a Draft, Needs Review, Reviewed, Published or Unpublished state depending on your workflow process for content creation 
  • This role can create and edit the following:
    • Callouts, Collections, Custom Blocks, Directory Listings, Easy Forms, Feeds, Files, News Articles, Pages, Research Guides, Reserves, Resource Flows, and Sliders

MODERATOR

• This role provides the second highest level of access to Stacks, next to the Administrator role. Specifically, this role can create, edit and delete all content types, as well as moderate and manage the publishing status of content created by Editors and Contributors, including the ability to add content to landing pages. This role is typically reserved for more experienced staff members.

ADMINISTRATOR

• This role provides full administrative access to Stacks, including the ability to manage integrations, site configuration, design, content, and manage user accounts
  • Users assigned to this role are typically in a management or decision-maker position who require the highest level permissions