Blog items tagged with "group-management"

Tutorials: How to Create Password Protected Pages on your Exponent CMS Website

Exponent CMS offers a robust permissions system giving Site Administrators the power to easily grant Viewing and Editing rights on a granular level. It is very easy to create these Password Protected pages using any combination of usernames, passwords, and group rights.

The permission system for Exponent CMS allows Site Administrators to create both User and Group accounts with varying levels of administrative and viewing privileges.

For example, Site Admins have the ability to create a “Members Only” group and grant that group permission to view a certain set of Password Protected pages on your website. It is also possible to grant that same group of people or an individual user on the website the right to administrate a particular page or piece of content on the website.

The process Site Administrators must follow in order to achieve this powerful feature in Exponent CMS is:

  1. Create the Individual User Accounts necessary
  2. Create the Group Account that will receive the special Viewing or Editing permissions
  3. Assign the Individual Users to the Group Account
  4. Configure the Page or Set of Pages that you want protected to allow these permissions

Creating Individual User Accounts

The first step in creating Password Protected pages on your website is creating Individual User Accounts for users to login with.

Site Administrators can access Exponent's User Account Manager by clicking on the Exponent CMS logo on the Administrative Tool Bar at the top of the website. After clicking on the Exponent CMS logo, one of the drop down menu options is “User Management”. When hovering your cursor over “User Management” there are additional flyout menut options, one called “User Accounts”. To create an Individual User Account, select this menu item.

Exponent CMS User Accounts

Once Site Administrators have clicked “User Accounts” they will be redirected to the “Manage Users” page. Here, the Site Administrator can not only create new user accounts but can also:

  1. Reset passwords
  2. Edit Usernames and Email Addresses
  3. Delete User Accounts

Exponent CMS User Management Page

For the purposes of Creating Password Protected Sections on your Exponent CMS Website, this tutorial will highlight how to Add a new User Account. To do this Site Administrators must first click the “Add” link above the User Accounts table.
Once the Site Administrator selects the “Add” link, they will be directed to the “Create New User Account” form. Here, the Site Administrator will configure the new account with:

  1. A Username
  2. A Password
  3. An Email Address
  4. A First and Last Name
  5. Whether or not the new Account has Full Administrator Privileges.

Create New User Account Exponent CMS

The Site Administrator will need to create an Individual User Account for all users who will need to be assigned to the Group Account to view the Password Protected Section on the website.

Creating User Group Accounts

After creating each of the Individual User Accounts, the next step in creating Password Protected pages on your website is creating a User Group Account for the Individual Users to be assigned to.

Site Administrators can access Exponent's User Group Account Manager by clicking on the Exponent CMS logo on the Administrative Tool Bar at the top of the website. After clicking on the Exponent CMS logo, one of the drop down menu options is “User Management”. When hovering your cursor over “User Management” there are additional flyout menut options, one called “Group Accounts”. To create a User Group Account, select this menu item.

Exponent CMS Group Accounts Management

Once Site Administrators have clicked “Group Accounts” they will be redirected to the “Manage User Groups” page.

Here, the Site Administrator can not only create new User Group Accounts but can also:

  1. Manage Group Membership
  2. Edit Group Names, Descriptions and Settings
  3. Delete User Groups

Exponent CMS Group Management Page

For the purposes of Creating Password Protected Sections on your Exponent CMS Website, this tutorial will highlight how to Add a new User Group Account. To do this Site Administrators must first click the “Create a New User Group” link above the User Group Accounts table.

Once the Site Administrator selects the “Create a New User Group” link, they will be directed to the “Create User Group” form. Here, the Site Administrator will configure the new Group with:

  1. A Group Name
  2. A Description of the Group
  3. Whether or not new Individual User Accounts should automatically become members of the group with their new account is created.

Create New User Group Account Exponent CMS

Once the Site Administrator has created the new User Group, they must next Manage Group Membership.

To manage Group Members, Site Administrators must click on the Member Management icon next to the particular Group they want to Manage:

Exponent CMS Manage Group Membership

Once the Site Administrator has selected to manage the membership of a particular group, they will be directed to the Group Management Page.

Here, the Site Administrator can select Individual User Accounts to be members of that group, or grant certain Individual Users permission to Manage Users for that Group.

Manage User Group Members Exponent CMS

Now that Individual Users have been assigned to the Group Account, the Group account can now be assigned permission to View a section of Password Protected pages.

Assigning Group Permissions to a Page

The first step when assigning Groups with permissions to view or edit a page or set of pages on a website is for Site Administrators to go to Exponent's Page Manager.

To access the Page Manager, click on “Pages” on the Administrative Tool Bar at the top of the Website. Once “Pages” has been selected, click on “Manage All Pages.”

Exponent CMS Manage All Pages

This will direct Site Administrators to the Page Manager. Once the Site Administrator has arrived at the Page Manager, they must first make sure that the page(s) they wish to Password Protect is marked as “Non Public” and is not able to be viewed by just any site visitors.

To configure a page as “Non Public”, the Site Administrator must Edit the page configuration for that page by right clicking on the page and selecting “Edit this Page.”

Edit Pages Exponent CMS

After the Site Administrator has selected “Edit this Page” they will be redirected to the page configuration form where they can uncheck the Public box and resave the page so it is no longer available to the general public.

Make Pages Non-Public Exponent CMS

Next, the Site Administrator must then go back to the Page Manager and again right click on the page they want to assign the permissions to. This time after right clicking on the page, the Site Administrator will select “Manage Group Permissions.”

Assign Group Permissions to Exponent CMS pages

Once “Manage Group Permissions” has been selected, the Site Administrator will be directed to the Group Permission Management form where they can select which group has Viewing or Management rights on that particular page.

Assign Group Permissions

The Site Administrator also has the ability to assign Individual User Accounts the ability to View or Edit a particular section on the site by Assigning User Permissions to that page.

To do so, the Site Administrator must go to the Page Manager and right click on the page they want to assign the permissions to. After right clicking, the Site Administrator will select “Manage User Permissions.”

Manage User Page Permissions Exponent CMS

Once “Manage User Permissions” has been selected, the Site Administrator will be directed to the User Permission Management form where they can select which Users have Viewing or Management rights on that particular page.

Assign User Permissions to Exponent CMS Page

Once the appropriate permissions have been assigned to their pages, the Users will be able to login to the Website with the Individual User Accounts created by the Site Administrators and will be able to View or Edit those select pages.