Users and Roles


The main idea behind Contribute is to distribute the workload of editing and maintaining the content of a website. To accomplish that goal, you need to ensure that other content providers and editors have access to the pages. On the other hand, you want to keep unauthorized users from accessing the pages and ensure that those who are allowed to edit can make changes to the site only when appropriate.

By default, Contribute has three user levels:

  • Administrator Administrators have full control over the site including access to the administrative features. Administrators can make changes to pages and publish those changes immediately.

  • Publisher Publishers do not have access to the administrative features, but can edit and publish changes at will.

  • Writer Writers can make changes to content, but cannot publish them. Instead, writers must send their pages to a Publisher or Administrator to have that person review the changes and publish them if appropriate.

The Users and Roles category in the Administer Website dialog box, shown in Figure 32.1, enables you to view who is currently assigned to the various roles within your site. In addition, this category provides functionality to define custom roles, edit existing roles, and allow other users access to the site.

Figure 32.1. The Users and Roles category enables you to manage your users and their authority levels.


Editing Role Settings

By selecting an existing role and clicking the Edit Role Settings button in the Administer Website dialog box, you can access the various settings that control what someone assigned to that role can and can't do in the site.

Tip

Adjusting the settings for a user role affects every user who is assigned to that role. Before making changes to the default groups, be sure that everyone in that particular role will be able to continue working as expected after the changes are applied.


General Settings

The General category of the Edit Settings dialog box (see Figure 32.2) is where you determine whether or not users in that role can publish files. In addition, you can create a role description to help other administrators when assigning roles. You can also establish the default home page for users assigned to this role.

Figure 32.2. The General settings enable you to determine whether this type of user can publish pages.


Folder/File Access

The File/Folder Access category (see Figure 32.3) lets you specify which files and folders can be accessed by users assigned to this role. This is helpful when working with an organization where individual departments edit their own sections of a site. This category also enables you to determine whether users in this role can delete files from the site.

Figure 32.3. The Folder/File Access category lets you restrict access at the folder level.


Editing

In the Editing category, shown in Figure 32.4, you can clearly define what page elements a user is allowed to edit. For instance, by adjusting this category, you can determine whether users can make changes to form elements and custom scripts, decide whether users can insert images, and even implement rules such as requiring <ALT> text for images.

Figure 32.4. The Editing category allows you to clearly define restrictions for each role with regards to editing pages.


Styles and Fonts

The way that font styles are applied to the pages of the site can be adjusted in the Styles and Fonts category. The Styles and Fonts category, shown in Figure 32.5, enables you to specify whether styles or the <Font> tag is used to assign a font face to text. In addition, you can determine whether or not the various text styling tools such as the Styles and Font and Size drop-down menus, as well as the bold and italic buttons, are available to the user in the Contribute toolbar.

Figure 32.5. The Styles and Fonts category lets you restrict what text styling tools the user group can access.


New Pages

The New Pages category, shown in Figure 32.6, is used to determine whether or not the user group is allowed to create new pages within the site and by what means. In addition, you can use this category to maintain the continuity of your page layout by requiring that new pages be based on a copy of a specific page or Dreamweaver template.

Figure 32.6. The New Pages dialog box lets you determine whether or not new pages can be created and in what manner.


File Placement

The File Placement category, shown in Figure 32.7, enables you to specify where certain types of files are to be located within the site. For instance, when a user inserts a file from a website into a page, Contribute makes a copy of that image and places it in the local site. This category specifies where Contribute should place that copy. This category also controls the placement of PDF and FlashPaper files that are generated from within Contribute. In addition, if you want to restrict whether content editors can add files such as PDF documents or Word documents to the site, you can choose to reject linked files that exceed a specific file size.

Figure 32.7. The File Placement category specifies where certain types of files should be placed.


Shared Assets

The Shared Assets category, shown in Figure 32.8, gives users access to objects such as images, Flash movies, and Dreamweaver library items. When items are added to the list, users can quickly access them and add them to their pages by using Contribute's shared assets list.

Figure 32.8. The Shared Assets dialog box enables you to edit the list of images and objects that are available to all users via the shared assets list.


Note

Only the assets listed in the Shared Assets category are available to that specific role. If you want to restrict access to an asset, you need to ensure that it does not exist in the list of shared assets for the specific role.


Tip

The Shared Assets list can be a very useful tool for site administrators who want to give their users quick access to specific images and objects within the site. When an image is added to the list, all users can drop the image into their pages when needed, requiring less work on their part than having to search for the appropriate graphic on their computers or on another website.


New Images

The last category of settings for a specific role is the New Images category, shown in Figure 32.9. In this category, you can enable or disable the built-in image processing tool within Contribute that enables users to easily resize images and adjust for quality levels. In addition, you can maintain controls over bandwidth usage and download times by limiting the size of images that can be placed into a page.

Figure 32.9. The New Images category enables you to place restrictions on the images that are placed into pages.


Creating New Roles

One of the great features of Contribute is the capability to define custom editing roles to fit the needs of your client or organization. To create a new role, copy an existing role and then add or remove restrictions based on the appropriate editing levels of the users who will be members of the group.

The first step in creating a new role is to click the Create New Role button in the Users and Roles section of the Administer Website dialog. Contribute asks you on which existing role you would like to base the new role and to provide a name for the new role (see Figure 32.10). The new role is then added to the list of roles and you can edit the role settings to meet your needs.

Figure 32.10. The Create New Role dialog box enables you to designate a new role within your website administration schema.


Sending Connection Keys

As mentioned in the previous chapter, the easiest way for a user to create a connection to a website is to click on a connection key sent via email. The administrator of the site is in charge of sending these connection keys and does so by clicking the Send Connection Key button in the Users and Roles category of the Administer Website dialog box.

When the button is clicked, Contribute starts the Connection Key Wizard, shown in Figure 32.11, which begins by asking whether the current connection settings are appropriate for the target user. The connection settings that are sent include how the user accesses the site, the path to the site folder, and other necessary connection information such as FTP site and username/password. If everyone in your workgroup accesses the site in the same way (such as via a network drive), the standard connection settings are usually fine. If, however, your workgroup members access the site in different ways (for example, some via a network drive and some via FTP), then you need to customize the connection settings.

Figure 32.11. The Connection Key Wizard helps you send a connection key to a user that grants access to the site.


The next step in the wizard asks you to specify what role the user should be assigned. From this dialog, you can choose from the existing roles, including any custom roles that you have created (see Figure 32.12).

Figure 32.12. Choose a role that the target user will be assigned.


Note

Each connection key that you create is valid for only a specific role. Therefore, you need to send one connection key to your publishers and another to your writers.


When you have chosen a role, the next step is to determine whether the connection key will be sent via email or placed on the local machine (see Figure 32.13). If the user will be making edits on a different machine, emailing the key is the best method.

Figure 32.13. Select a delivery method for the new key.


Tip

Pay close attention to the warning to not send connection keys to web-based email accounts. Some web-based accounts add code to the connection key, rendering it useless. For details on the issue, check out the Macromedia tech note about this topic at http://www.macromedia.com/go/tn_18734.


In addition to choosing the delivery method, you need to type a password or phrase to be used as the base of the key encryption. After the connection key is sent to the user, you need to communicate the password or phrase so that the user can activate the key.

The final step in the wizard is to confirm the information and click Done. When the wizard is completed, an email is generated from your default mail client, which can then be sent to the user.



Special Edition Using Macromedia Studio 8
Special Edition Using Macromedia Studio 8
ISBN: 0789733854
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 337

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