Provide access to external Users

]project-open[ makes it quite easy to integrate external users in Business Processes. External users might be accountants of your clients clients that want to get an overview of financial documents issued or Freelancers that are working on projects and that require access to general Project Data and Collaboration Tools such as the "Forum" or the "File Storage" 

External users are usual members of either the pre-configured "Customer" or "Freelancer" group. In the default set-up users that belong to these groups have very limited access to the system.

Following we provide instructions and best practices on how to configure your system to allow external users access to some of the ]po[ functionality. 

  • To configure and test your configuration please use a sample or an existing Customer/Freelancer user. Make sure that is this user is only a member of either the one or the other group.

  • Work with two Browser instances/products (e.g. Firefox and Internet Explorer). Log in to ]po[ in the first browser as a user with "System Administrator" privileges. Use this browser to do the configuration. Next login with your "test user account" using the other instance/browser. Keep in mind that as an System Administrator you can make use of the "Become this user" feature or use the "Fake User" feature available from the Developer Support Bar. 
       
  • Using the "test user account", check what parts of ]po[ the users gets access to. Switch to the other browser where you are logged in as a System Administrator and configure access to the relevant elements such as "Menu Items" and "Portlet Components". For further information please refer to the following manuals:

    Switch back and forth between the two browsers to monitor the impact of your changes. Keep track of your changes to ensure that you can always roll back the changes you did.   

  • Simply providing access to pages and portlets might not be enough. If you miss out certain content, links etc., check the users Privileges next.

  • Missing data in select boxes or incomplete user list might be caused by a mal-configuration of the User Matrix   

  • In few cases it might be necessary to change some of the applications Parameter to provide external users with access to certain functionality.

  • As an Administrator you can review the Parameter and Permission settings of a request by activating "User Switching" from the Developer Toolbar   

Configuring your ]po[ System in a way that stakeholders get exactly the right level of access permissions can be a challenging task. The Online documentation has been extended considerably and provides quite some support. However, ]po[ is powerful tool that is capable to cover a lot of aspects of business operations. It therefore comes with a sophisticated and relatively complex access permissions system that requires some study time in order to be understood completely.    

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  Project Open Business Solutions S.L.

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