Menus and Roles

Overview

When a user logs into the system, their view of the system is defined by the menus and/or portals associated with their role(s).

• If you create a portal interface for a role, then a user in that role will not see the administrative interface and only see the portal interface.
• The only exception to this rule is for an Administrator that always has access to all the SmartSimple menu items, regardless of their roles.
• An administrator can access portals associated with their roles by clicking the Application, My Portal menu.

Menus and Roles

• You must select the menu items required for each role, even if you are going to associate the role with a portal.
• Unless SmartSimple users are placed in specific roles that have associated menus, the menu associated with the “everyone” role will be displayed for those users.
• If you do not configure the Everyone menu, or place people in roles with menus associated, then users will not have any menu available when they log into the system!
• If a person has more than one role, then their menu will be composed of all the menu items for all the roles to which they belong.
• When you first set up your copy of SmartSimple, you should consider setting the "everyone" menu or, alternatively, place every person in a specific role with an associated menu.
• SmartSimple application programs will be displayed based on an organisation subscription to that program – access to these programs is not controlled individually by menu. You must, however, enable the Application Menu item – all subscribed programs will be listed under this menu.

Defining a Menu for a Role

In this example, you will configure a menu for the Employee role that you previously created.

1. Click the Configuration, Roles & Permissions menu.

2. Click the User Roles menu.

3. Click the Menu button to the right of the role name.

The menu items are displayed.

• If you wish to enable all the menu items, click the select all check box.

Menu Headings

The menu items are menu headings used to group together other menu items, and are indicated with icons that are displayed on the menu heading.

• Applications – Subscribed applications are listed under this heading.
• Communications – Pin board, Email, Quick Message, Calendars, Contacts, Discussions and Requests are listed under this heading.
• Organisation – People and organisation, and people search related information.
• Configuration – Personal, global and role configuration settings.
• Help – Downloads, Knowledge Base (Wiki), support request, feedback forum, about SmartSimple and People on-line.

There is no requirement that you have to include any of these headings in a role menu.

1. Click the check boxes next to each item to enable that item for the selected role.

You must select the APPMENU (Application menu) item in order for users to see any subscription application programs.

If you wish the user to only see their organisation and not the entire internal and external hierarchy, use the My Organisation menu and disable the Internal and External menus.

2. Click the following items: Applications, APPMENU, Communications, Pin Board, Quick Messages, Calendars, Organisation, Search People, Configuration, Personal Setting, People On-line.

3. Click the Save Button.

You can now login and test the user’s access.

Testing User Access

The best approach for testing a new role’s access to the system is to launch a new browser and log in as the user, at the same time as you are logged in as the administrator.

Using this technique you can adjust the user access in the administrator session while testing the access in the user session.

• If you are using Internet Explorer for both sessions, be sure that the Tools, Internet Options, Advanced Option – Reuse windows for launching shortcuts option is deselected. Otherwise the administrative and user session will merge and neither will be valid.
• Alternatively, you can use Internet Explorer for one session and FireFox for the other session.
• Don’t use FireFox for both sessions as these sessions will become mixed up.

1. Launch another browser.

2. Go to the Login Page for the SmartSimple Instance.

3. Enter the email address and password.

4. Click the Login button.

The left menu is set to the menu options that you enabled for this user’s role.

5. Click on each menu item to verify the functionality.

You can stay logged in as this user while you change this interface to a portal interface.