Learning Centre

CMS User Permission Groups

You can create user groups with defined permission levels in the Govstack CMS. Once you have created user groups, you can add users and assign them the permissions defined within a group.

You need to have access to the 'Users' tab in your Govstack dashboard in order to create user groups and add users to them.

Please note: In the CMS, events, and forms tools user accounts do not automatically appear in these applications when created in the admin portal. The user will need to login to each application using their credentials to generate an account. Following this initial login the user will appear in each application and can be assigned specific permissions and access.

Default user roles

When users are added to the Govstack platform, they will gain access to the Govstack CMS. The specific user type at the platform level will inform the permissions each user receives within the Govstack Content Management System (CMS).

There are two default user roles for the Govstack CMS. Explore each user type and find out what permissions they have.

Website Administrators

Website administrators have the following permissions in the Govstack CMS:

Access to the Content, Media, Workflow and Users tabs
Optional features on your website may also include the Members tab
Create content templates
Browse, create, publish, delete, unpublish and update all content pages
Set up notifications for content pages
Allow access to change permissions for a node
Allow access to set up webpage publishing approvals with the Workflow tools

Editors

Anyone added as a Govstack platform User, will receive Editor permissions in the Govstack CMS. All Editors will have the following permissions:

Access to the Content and Media tabs
Create content templates
Browse, create, publish, delete, unpublish and update all content pages
Set up notifications for content pages
Copy, move and sort content pages in the back office

Note that the default permissions for the Editor group can be modified as required.

Create a user group

To create a user group with a defined set of permissions in your Govstack CMS, you need to:

Navigate to the Govstack CMS from your Govstack dashboard
Select the 'Users' tab from the Govstack main menu. This will only be available to website administrators.
Select 'Users' in the left column of the interface. Note that you may see 2 users entries. You are looking for the one accompanied by an icon.
Select the 'Groups' tab at the upper right of the interface
Select 'Create Group'
Enter a name for the user permission group
Enter the permission details, including which sections of the CMS users in the group can access

View the details for setting different types of permissions in a user group.

Assign which sections of the CMS users can access

You can choose which sections of the CMS you want the user group to have access to. This will determine which tabs users in that group can view and access at the top of their Govstack CMS main menu, including:

Content
Media
Users
Members
Translation
Workflow

To select which sections the user group can access:

Navigate to the 'Sections' heading under 'Assign access'
Select 'Add'
Select all the sections of the CMS you want the group to have access to
Click 'Submit'

To remove a section so that the group can no longer access it, select 'Remove' next to the section name in the list.

Assign which languages the CMS users can access

You can choose if users in your CMS have limited access to different languages. If a user does not have access to a given language they will not be able to edit fields or inputs marked as that language.

If your website uses a single language or if you would like users to have unrestricted use of all language-specific fields toggle on the 'Allow access to all languages' slider.

To allow a user group access to specific languages:

Navigate to the 'Languages' heading under 'Assign access'
Select 'Add'
Select all required languages
Click 'Submit'

To remove a language so that the group can no longer access it, select 'Remove' next to the language name in the list.

Assign the 'Content' start node

You can limit which pages a user group can access in the content tree. You must specify a node in the content tree or the group will have no access to content.

To limit which content pages the user group can access:

Navigate to the 'Content start node' heading under 'Assign access'
Select 'Add'
Select the page you want users to be able to access (as well as all pages nested below that page)

You can select 'Remove' or 'Edit' next to the assigned page if you want to change which ones the user group can access.

A group can have only one content start node. If a user needs access to multiple start nodes on the same level you can do this by creating multiple user groups and assigning users to all required groups.

Assign the 'Media' start node

You can limit which media folders a user group can access in the 'Media' tab of the Govstack CMS back office. You must specify a start node in the media folder or the group will have no access to media.

To limit which media folders the user group can access:

Navigate to the 'Media start node' heading under 'Assign access'
Select 'Add'
Select the folder you want users to be able to access

You can select 'Remove' or 'Edit' next to the assigned folder if you want to change which media folders the user group can access.

A group can have only one media start node. If a user needs access to multiple media nodes on the same level you can do this by creating multiple user groups and assigning users to all required groups.

Assign CMS admin permissions

You can assign which admin permissions you want a user group to have within the CMS.

To do this, navigate to the 'Administration' heading under 'Default permissions'. Toggle on or off the administration capabilities you want the user group to have.

Culture and hostnames

If you turn on this toggle, users in the group will be able to control the language settings for each page in the CMS as well as the CMS domain names.

Restrict public access

If you turn on this toggle, users in the group will be able to set and change access restrictions for specific pages in the CMS.

Rollback

If you turn on this toggle, users in the group will be able to roll back a page to a previous state.

Assign content permissions

You can assign which content page permissions you want a user group to have within the CMS. For example, you may want some users to be able to add content to a specific page, but not be able to publish the page.

To do this, navigate to the 'Content' heading under 'Default permissions'. Toggle on or off the content page capabilities you want the user group to have, including:

Browse Node - the ability to open and view a page's content in the CMS. Required to edit page content.
Create Content Template - the ability to create a content page template
Delete - the ability to delete pages
Create - the ability to create pages
Notifications - the ability to set up notifications for pages
Publish - the ability to publish a page. If your site has the Workflow option this is necessary to request page approvals.
Permissions - the ability to change permissions for a page
Send to Publish - the ability to send a page for approval before publishing. If your site has the Workflow option this setting is no longer required for approvals.
Unpublish - the ability to unpublish a page
Update - the ability to save changes to a page. Required to edit page content.

Assign website structure and navigation permissions

You can assign which page structure permissions you want a user group to have within the CMS.

To do this, navigate to the 'Structure' heading under 'Default permissions'. Toggle on or off the page structure capabilities you want the user group to have, including:

Copy - the ability to copy a page
Move - the ability to move a page within the content tree
Sort - the ability to change the order of the content under a page

Set unique permissions for specific pages

You can set the administrative, content and structure permissions for specific pages in the CMS if you want them to differ from your pre-selected page settings.

To do this, you need to:

Navigate to the 'Nodes' heading under 'Granular permissions'
Select 'Add'
Select the page you want to set specific permissions for
Toggle on or off the administrative, content and structure permissions you want the user group to have for that page
Select 'Submit'

Note that unique permissions are effective only for nodes within a group's content and media start nodes. Nodes outside the start nodes will not be visible to the user group so their permissions are ignored.

Add and edit group users

After creating a user permissions group in your Govstack CMS, you can add users to that group to assign them the permissions defined by that group. You can also remove users if they no longer require the group permissions.

Users can be part of multiple user groups. Users who have permissions that overlap or conflict will have the highest level of access provided by any of their user groups.

Please note that all users are assigned to either the Editor or Website Administrator user group on login. Given this, you may want to modify the Editor permissions so that they don't interfere with any of your custom groups.

Before you can add a user to a group, they need to already be added as a CMS user. Learn how to add a Govstack CMS user before adding them to a user group.

To add a user to an existing user group, you need to:

Navigate to the Govstack CMS from your Govstack dashboard
Select the 'Users' tab from the Govstack main menu. This will only be available to website administrators.
Select 'Users' in the left column of the interface. Note that you may see 2 users entries. You are looking for the one accompanied by an icon.
Select the 'Groups' tab at the upper right of the interface
Select the name of the group you want to add a user to
Under 'Users' at the right of the interface, scroll to the bottom of the list of existing users and select 'Add'
Type in the name of the user you want to add to the group
Select the name(s) of the user(s) you want to add, then click 'Submit'

Edit user group permissions

To edit the permissions of a specific user group in your Govstack CMS, you need to:

Navigate to the Govstack CMS from your Govstack dashboard
Select the 'Users' tab from the Govstack main menu
Select 'Users' in the left column of the interface. Note that you may see 2 users entries. You are looking for the one accompanied by an icon.
Select the 'Groups' tab at the upper right of the interface
Select the name of the user group you want to edit permissions for
Add, edit or remove the permissions you want
Click 'Save' to complete the process

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