Managing Permissions

Permissions in Arches are handled on a few different levels.

Managing Users and Groups in Django Admin

Arches is a complex platform, and some users must be able to access specific areas of the application while being restricted from others. This level of access is handled by adding Users to certain Groups through the Django admin interface.

Note

You can access the Django admin at localhost:8000/admin, the default admin credentials are admin/admin, which must be changed in production. Any user with “staff” status can access the Django admin panel.

Once logged into the admin panel, you’ll see this at the top of the page:

../_images/django-admin1.png

Arches site administration in Django admin panel.

Click Users to see a list of all your Arches users. Selecting a user will yield a generic profile page like this:

../_images/django-admin2.png

User’s admin profile

In the “Permissions” section here there are three fields.

Active

This account is active and the user can log in. Unchecking this box allows you to retain a user account while disallowing them from accessing Arches.

Staff status

This user can access (and make changes within) the Django admin panel.

Superuser status

This user has full access to the entire Arches platform, and is considered a member of every Group.

Next, you’ll see where you can assign the user to different Groups. Arches comes with many default different groups, and each one gives its members access to different parts of the application. A user can be a member of as many different groups as needed.

Graph Editor
Use Case

For creating and testing branches and models.

Access Privileges

Create/design graphs, branches, functions, and RDM. Add/edit business data with Resource Editor privileges. Unable to access system settings or mobile projects.

Resource Editor
Use Case

Ability to add/edit/delete provisional data more liberally than a Crowdsource Editor user.

Access Privileges

Add/edit/delete resources.

RDM Administrator
Use Case

Add/edit/manage RDM concepts

Access Privileges

Full access to the RDM - no access to the rest of Arches.

Application Administrator
Use Case

Control over Django admin page… can add/edit/delete users and user groups within Django admin console

Access Privileges

Has Django superuser status (see above) which gives it full access to Arches.

System Administrator
Use Case

Changing data stored in the system settings graph.

Access Privileges

Ability to access/edit data in Arches System Settings.

Crowdsource Editor
Use Case

Creation of provisional data from an untrusted source. Default group user is assigned to when first added to the system via e-mail sign-up.

Access Privileges

Add/edit/delete resources your own provisional data tiles

Guest
Use Case

Read-only access for anonymous users (non-authenticated users are automatically in this group)

Access Privileges

Read-only access to all business data

Resource Reviewer
Use Case

Review provisional data and promote it to authoritative

Access Privileges

Add/Edit authoritative business data. Ability to promote provisional data to authoritative.

Feel free to make new groups as needed, but do not remove any of those listed above. Groups are also used in other aspects of permissions as described below.

Resource Model Permissions

Permissions are applied to each card and by default, the guest user (aka anonymous user) has read privileges to all data. If you have data you do not want to share with all users, follow these directions when designing your database: Permissions Tab.

Media Permissions

If you want to ensure that all media file (uploaded photographs, etc.) access requires authentication, you can set RESTRICT_MEDIA_ACCESS to True.

Be aware that in doing so, all media file requests will be served by Django rather than Apache. This will adversely impact performace when serving large files or during periods of high traffic.

In settings_local.py add this line:

RESTRICT_MEDIA_ACCESS = True