Using the Security diagram

The Security diagram is where you can control which user groups can access and manage certain parts of the application.

The diagram is displayed as a security matrix where you can look down the rows and columns to see who has access to what things. The user groups are listed across the top, and the app’s entities and pages down the side. Inside each cell are letters which you can select to control the access type. If you want to speed things up, there are ‘select all’ options at the start of each row and column, which selects/de-selects all the cells in that row/column.

Please note, the security on this page applies to groups only, not individual users. If you want to change one individual’s access, you will need to either create a new type for them, or write custom code.

What is CRUD?

CRUD is a common development acronym used for security. Each of those letters stands for a type of access.

• C stands for Create, meaning users are able to create a new instance of that entity. (i.e. a user can add a new car)
• R stands for Read, meaning users are able to read (or view) the details about an entity instance (i.e. a user can see the cars details)
• U stands for Update, meaning that the users can make edits to an entity instance (i.e. a user can update a car’s details)
• D stands for Delete, meaning that the users can delete instances of an entity (i.e. a user can delete a car)

Checking that box means that they can do that thing (i.e. checking the C box in the Book row and the Librarian column will give all Librarians the ability to Create a new Book). Since pages can’t be created, edited or deleted by users, only viewed, they only have the R (read) option against them. Entities have all the options available.

Where do the user groups come from?

The user groups come using the User extension in the Entity Diagram. The name of the group is based on the name of the entity it is added to. There is one additional group called ‘visitors’, which is always added by default.

How do I give them access to the back-end?

If you want to give a user group access to the back-end bot-written administration section of the app, you can change the option in the user group settings (located to the right of the heading cell for that group).