Users

Introduction to users in ConSol CM

User accounts are required to access the components of ConSol CM. They include the user data, assigned roles and set view criteria. Profiles for access to CM/Track are also managed as user but they do not include view criteria and have less data.

Concepts, terms and definitions

Concept	Other terms	Definition
user	engineer	User account for a person who works with the Web Client or Web Admin Suite. The permissions for the user account are defined by assigning roles.
CM/Track profile	portal user profile, Track user	User profile for contacts who work with CM/Track. The permissions for the user profile are defined by assigning roles. The user accounts for the contacts are created in the Web Client by selecting a CM/Track profile and entering the credentials for the contact.
role		Set of access permissions to objects and functionalities in ConSol CM.

Purpose and usage

Users accounts are required to access the components of ConSol CM. Access permissions are granted to the users by assigning roles. Roles also include views for the Case list in the Web Client. A CM/Track profile is a special kind of user, which is required for access to CM/Track. User data can be used in text templates.

During the initial setup of ConSol CM, an administrator account is created. You can access the Web Admin Suite using this account and set up further user accounts. Before creating the user accounts, you need to define the authentication method.

Available settings for users

There are two types of users, regular users and CM/Track profiles. In the Web Admin Suite, the available data fields depend on the type of user.

Regular users vs. CM/Track profiles

When you create a new user, you decide whether you want to create a regular user or a CM/Track profile.

• Regular user:
  User account for a person who works with the Web Client or Web Admin Suite. The permissions for the user account are defined by assigning roles. User accounts include at least the login, email address and, if database authentication is used, password.

• CM/Track profile:
  User profile for contacts who work with CM/Track. The permissions for the user profile are defined by assigning roles. The respective user accounts are created in the Web Client by providing the login data and assigning the CM/Track profile. User profiles include only the login, email address and, if database authentication is used, password. The email address and password set in the Web Admin Suite are never used. They only act as a placeholder for the credentials which are entered for each contact in the Web Client. See Granting access to CM/Track for detailed information about how to configure access to CM/Track.

  CM/Track profiles are indicated by a small T icon next to the login in the Login column.

You need to choose the type of user during the creation of a new user. See Create a new user.

Fields

Fields for users and CM/Track profiles

The following fields are available for both users and CM/Track profiles in the User data and roles tab:

• Login:
  Mandatory. This field contains the user name which has to be entered on the login page of the Web Client. For CM/Track profiles, this is the name of the profile which can be selected on the contact page in the Web Client.

• Email:
  Mandatory. The user’s email address. You can only enter one email address. It is not possible to specify several email addresses for one user.

• Password:
  The user’s password. The entered password is displayed as asterisks. See Supported characters for passwords in ConSol CM for details about the allowed characters.

  The Password field is only displayed if database authentication is configured (see Determining the authentication method). It is mandatory for database authentication only, and optional for a combination of database and LDAP authentication. For CM/Track profiles, the password field can be displayed although it does not serve any purpose.

  You can remove a password by clicking the Clear password icon in the header of details panel.

• Description:
  Optional. An additional description for the user account. This field is usually not displayed in the Web Client.

• Roles:
  Optional. The assigned roles of a user or CM/Track profile are displayed below the Select roles to assign field. Roles are needed to perform actions in ConSol CM. Without roles, users can log in to the Web Client or CM/Track, but they do not have any permissions in the system. This means that they do not have access to any objects, i.e., they cannot see any cases, contacts or resources. Please see Roles for further details about roles and permissions.

• Main role:
  Optional. You can choose the main role for the user in the Select main role field below the assigned roles. The views of this role are displayed at the top of the view list in the Web Client for this user.

Fields for users

The following fields are available for users only in the User data and roles tab:

• First name:
  Optional. The user’s first name. This field is optional but is usually displayed in the Web Client.

• Last name:
  Optional. The user’s last name. This field is optional but is usually displayed in the Web Client.

• Phone:
  Optional. The user's phone number. This field is usually not displayed in the Web Client.

• Mobile:
  Optional. The user's mobile phone number. This field is usually not displayed in the Web Client.

• Fax:
  Optional. The user's fax number. This field is usually not displayed in the Web Client.

• Division:
  Optional. The division in which the user works. This field is usually not displayed in the Web Client.

• Company:
  Optional. The user's company. This field is usually not displayed in the Web Client.

• Position:
  Optional. The user's position or function in the company. This field is usually not displayed in the Web Client.

• LDAP ID
  Optional. Only relevant if LDAP is used for authentication. The LDAP user ID. No password has to be set here.

  If you do not enter an LDAP ID here, the login will be used as authentication login parameter for the LDAP server.

View filters

The View filters tab in the edit panel shows the selected values for the user-specific filter properties which belong to the views assigned to the user’s roles. See Defining user-specific view filters.

Basic tasks

In the Web Admin Suite, users are managed in the menu item Access & Roles, subitem Users. This section provides a description of the most common tasks regarding users.

Finding a user

The list of users is displayed directly after accessing the Users page of the Web Admin Suite. You can filter the list to locate users more easily:

• Text search: Perform a free text search.

  Enter a text in the Search field to filter by name, login or email address.

• Role: Choose to display only the users which have a specific role assigned (see Assign roles to a user).

  Select the role in the All roles drop-down list.

• User status: Choose to display only enabled or disabled users.

  Select Active or Deactivated from the All users drop-down list.

• Type of user: Choose to display only regular users or CM/Track profiles.

  Select User profiles or Portal user profiles from the All profiles drop-down list.

Managing users

You can perform the following actions on users:

• Create a new user
  Click the New user button above the list of users. Choose the User profile tab to create a regular user, or the Portal profile tab to create a CM/Track profile. The text of the save button changes accordingly.

  If the new user is similar to an existing user, for example, because they share the same roles, you can prefill the Create new user screen with the data of an existing user by clicking the Duplicate icon in this user’s row.

• Edit a user
  Click the Edit icon or the user’s row and update the desired data in the edit panel on the right.

• Assign roles to a user
  This can be done when creating a new user or editing an existing one. Select the desired roles in the Select roles to assign drop-down list. The assigned roles are displayed below. You can set one of the assigned roles as the main role in the Select main role field. You can unassign a role by clicking the X icon next to the name of the role.

  If you want to assign roles to several users at once, click the Assign roles button. This opens a pop-up window where you can select several users on the left and the desired roles on the right. The selected roles are assigned to the selected users in one operation. You can set the main role for several users at once by selecting the users in the table, clicking the Assign main role icon in the action bar and selecting one of the roles which are shared by all selected users.

• Disable a user
  You can disable users who should not have access to the system for a certain period of time. This does not affect the cases assigned to them, but they cannot log in anymore and other users cannot assign any cases to them. You can disable a user by clicking the Deactivate icon in the user’s row. To disable several users at once, select them and click the Deactivate icon at the top of the table. Disabled users are displayed in gray italics.

  If you try to disable a user who is assigned as a main user to open or closed cases or who is currently representing another user, a warning message is displayed. Any representations are deleted upon confirming the warning message.

• Enable a user
  You can enable users which were disabled at any time by clicking the Activate icon. To enable several users at once, select them and click the Activate icon at the top of the table.

• Delete a user
  You can delete users who do not use the system anymore by clicking the Delete icon. To delete several users at once, select them and click the Delete icon at the top of the table.

  If you try to delete a user who still has open or closed cases, you have to transfer the cases to another user.

  The name of a deleted user is still displayed in all history entries which were performed by this user. This applies to case, contact and resource pages.

• Show user permissions

  Click the Show permissions icon in the user details tab or in the user row to open a modal window with a permission summary. It shows the aggregated permissions obtained through all assigned roles.

Advanced tasks

The advanced tasks are related to users but require additional configuration of items outside the user administration.

Determining the authentication method

The authentication method is usually determined during the initial setup of the ConSol CM system. It is the same for all users.

There are three authentication methods in ConSol CM:

• Database authentication
  The users log in with the login and password set in the Web Admin Suite. They can change the password using the Web Client. If database authentication is used, a password policy can be configured (see Authentication).
  -> Fill out the Password fields for every user. The password entered is shown as a string of asterisks.
  
• LDAP authentication
  The users log in with the login set in the Web Admin Suite and their LDAP password. If an LDAP ID is set in the Web Admin Suite, this ID is used towards the LDAP server, otherwise the login is used.
  -> Fill out the LDAP ID field for every user.
• SSO authentication
  The users log in with their Windows credentials.
  

Including user data in templates

It is possible to include user data in text templates. This is useful, for example, for email signatures, which usually include the contact data of the sender. If this data is part of the signature template, the user does not have to type it in manually. Please see Text templates for detailed information about text templates.

All the data described in Fields is available for text templates. Most of the fields are optional, so they might be empty for some of the users. If you plan to use any of the optional data fields in templates, make sure to fill them out.

Defining the display name of users

The way of showing the name of the users in the Web Client is determined by a template. Usually, the first name and last name of the user is displayed with the login as a fallback in case the first and/or last name was not provided. Please see Editing system templates for further information.

Defining user-specific view filters

User-specific view filters are used to give the users the possibility to adjust views in the Web Client. You can only set user-specific view filters if the user has at least one role with a view for which a user-specific filter property is defined. Please see Views for a detailed description.

In a view with a user-specific filter property, only the cases which match the selected values are displayed. If a user has not selected any values in his user profile or if the administrator has removed all selections using the Web Admin Suite, the user’s view will be empty.

Please proceed as follows to set user-specific filter properties for a user:

1. Click the Edit button to open the edit panel on the right.
2. Go to the View filter tab.
3. Select the checkboxes of the values which should be used for the view.

Example

The view has the user-specific filter property priority. The list includes the values not set, low, normal, and high. If you select the values normal and high, the user only sees cases with normal and high priority in the case list. If you do not select any values, the user does not see any cases for this view.