Administer groups

Use Administer Groups to create and manage user groups, assign members, and delete groups. Groups created here are managed locally in CMS, and Opti ID roles can coexist with them. Group-based access rights are easier and safer to maintain than per-user assignments, especially as the editor team grows.

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Note

If your organization migrated to Opti ID, you must manage users in Opti ID. See the Opti ID user documentation.

• To add users with Opti ID, see Users in the Opti ID documentation.
• To add groups with Opti ID, see Groups in the Opti ID documentation.

You can still manage roles inside CMS 13 (PaaS), but those roles are not available to Opti ID users. CMS (PaaS) roles would typically be used for end users (site visitors, your customers); not the users accessing the CMS UI.

You can administer user credentials in the following ways:

• Administer Groups from the Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) Settings view.
• Manage users and user groups in Windows – Groups created in the CMS Settings view are available from the Settings view only; they are not accessible from Windows. You cannot add users created in Windows to groups created in Optimizely. See Virtual roles for information about working with membership and role providers.
• Develop a customized role and membership provider.

Smaller organizations with few editors tend to use the CMS administration view, whereas larger organizations with many editors tend to use the other options. You can combine these options.

Display members of a user group

Review group membership to verify that the right users hold the access rights granted to a group. Use this view to audit assignments before changing permissions.

1. Go to Settings > Administer Groups. The Administer Groups window displays.

   

2. Click a group name to view its members.

   
   • To see all users or groups, leave Search blank.
   • Type one or more letters in the Search field to see a subset of users or groups. The window displays any names that contain the string.

Create a group

Create a CMS-local group to bundle users that share the same access rights. Group-based assignment keeps permission management consistent and easier to maintain than per-user grants.

When you go to Settings > Administer Groups, groups display regardless of the provider used on the website. The group provider displays next to the group name.

1. To create a user group, click Create Group. The Add Group window displays.
2. Enter a group name (like MarketingEditors), and click Create Group to save it.

Delete a group

Delete a group when it is no longer needed so that obsolete access paths do not linger in the CMS. Removing unused groups reduces clutter and the risk of unintended permission grants.

To delete a user group, select Delete from a group's menu. The Delete Group window presents options for removing a user or group and managing their associated access rights.

• Delete content access rights – Select to remove the content access rights for the group MarketingEditors.
• Delete permissions to functions – Select to signify that the permissions to functions for the group will be deleted.

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Warning

• You can delete only user groups that were created from the CMS.
• You cannot recover a user group after you delete it.
• You cannot change the name of an existing group. Instead, delete the group and create a new one.