How to set user roles and permissions

Table of Contents

• What types of roles are there in TabTool?
• How many roles can a user have?
• Create a new role
  • Copying a Role
  • Create a new (project) user role.
    • 1. Rights for folders and record types.
    • 2. Define permissions for record contents 
    • 3. Hiding or Showing Functions
  • Create a new administration role
• Deleting Roles
• Assigning Roles
  • 1. For New Users
  • 2. For existing users
  • 3. Project User Roles

In TabTool, you have the ability to precisely control the use of the software through various user roles and access rights.

This way, you ensure that sensitive data is only accessible to users who actually need it and increase the efficiency of your team by displaying only the functions relevant to their specific tasks. Employees no longer have to navigate through all options and features, but instead have a workspace tailored to their needs.

In this article, we explain how TabTool administrators can define and assign roles and access rights for the users of the TabTool packages they manage.

To edit roles and access rights, log into the TabTool Office web application and open the system menu. Then, click on the "Roles" button.

A window will open with a list of all the standard user roles that are already available in TabTool. These may vary depending on the TabTool product being used.

What types of roles are there in TabTool?

In TabTool, a distinction is made between administration roles and user roles. User roles control access rights when working on projects, while administration roles determine which access rights a user has in the TabTool administration area. For example, does the user have permission to create and delete projects, edit master data and create or delete users?

How many roles can a user have?

TabTool follows an additive role concept. This means that a user can have multiple roles. If a person in TabTool needs to perform administrative tasks and document project work, it makes sense for this user to have both an administrative and a user role. 

Create a new role

To create a new, self-defined user role, click on the button  above the list of existing user roles.

In the window that opens, you can select the type of user role (administration role or project work role) and specify whether the user role should initially be equipped with all rights (from which 

you can remove individual ones) or if you want to add the rights individually. Then, click on
 to proceed.

In the next step, you can enter a name and a brief description for the new user role. Name the role in such a way that it is immediately clear who it is intended for (e.g., "Service Technician Field") or what function the role fulfills (e.g., "Hide date fields"). In the description, you can provide additional details about the rights or limitations the role includes.

When creating a new user role, you can also specify whether holders of the role should have access to newly added software components. By default, this is enabled. If you want to exclude this for a user role, simply uncheck the blue checkbox.

Copying a Role

If you want to create a new user role that only slightly differs from an existing role, you can use the existing role as a template by copying it.

To do this, click on the copy icon  in the existing role.

The copy of the role can now be found in the role list with the addition "Copy" in the name. In our example, it is called "Technician field copy". 

You can now make the desired adjustments to the role copy and assign a new role name.

Create a new (project) user role.

1. Rights for folders and record types.

When creating a new project-related user role, you can determine for each record type and folder in the project record whether it will be displayed to the users and whether users can edit records or folders. The record types and folders are listed in alphabetical order.

Info: folder = collection of all records of a specific record type

For both folders and the level of record types, you can make the following settings:

Show

• Never: The document type/folder does not appear on the TabTool user interface.
  
• Always: The document type/folder is displayed on the user interface.

• If cross-reference (applies only to document types): The document type is only displayed if users are assigned to a file of this type as a participant or responsible person via cross-reference.

Edit

• Open: Users can open records/folders (and possibly edit them). They cannot create or delete new files of the corresponding record type.
• Create and delete: Users can open, create, and delete records/folders.

Special case checklists: In TabTool products with editable checklists, such as TabTool PV O&M, the checklist inspection groups (e.g. modules, electrical distributions, inverters) are treated like record types. Therefore, you can also define display and access options for these.

2. Define permissions for record contents 

In the list of record types listed in a user role, there is an arrow symbolnext to each record type name. By clicking on this symbol, you open a list with the contents of the respective record type.

Depending on the record type, the following elements may be included:

• Attribute groups and attributes (e.g., attribute group = categorization, subordinate attributes = category, inspection area, type).

• Labels (section headings).
• Cross-references (relations, e.g., employees assigned to a task).
• Assets (e.g., images, audio and video files, plan annotations, reports, other documents).

• Never: The record content element does not appear on the TabTool user interface.
• Always: The record content element is displayed on the user interface.

Edit

• Read: Users can see the record content element but cannot edit it, meaning, for example, they cannot make any entries.

• Write: Users can both view and edit the record content element.

Note: Settings for parent elements override those for subordinate elements. For example, if you select the option 'never show' for an attribute group, the associated attributes will also not be displayed.

3. Hiding or Showing Functions

In the "Modules Rights" section of the user role settings, you can define which functional modules of the software are available to holders of a user role. If you select the option "Never Show" for a module, users will not have access to the functions provided by that module.

Create a new administration role

When creating a new administration role, you can define which components of the TabTool system menu the role holders will have access to.

Specifically, you can determine which components of the menu are displayed and whether role holders can only read the component's information or also edit it.

Deleting Roles

User roles that you no longer need can be deleted. Simply click the delete iconin the upper left corner of the info area of the corresponding role.

Please note that you can only delete roles that you have created yourself. It is not possible to delete global user roles predefined by TabTool.

Assigning Roles

1. For New Users

When creating a new user in TabTool, you must assign an initial user role. Use the dropdown menu to select the most suitable role from those available in your TabTool package.

Additionally, when creating a new user account, you will be prompted to assign an initial project role. However, this assignment is optional and does not affect the user's access or editing permissions.

Info: Unlike user roles, which control users' access to TabTool's content and functions, project roles are purely informational. They can be maintained as a dropdown in the master data and indicate a person's role or area of responsibility. Possible project roles include operator, client, site manager, technician, etc.

2. For existing users

To assign a new or additional role to a user, open their entry in the user management and click on "Package User Role" in the right column.

Here, you will now see the role(s) already assigned to the user. To assign one or more additional roles, click on the "Next" iconin the top left.

Now select the role(s) you want to add by checking the respective checkbox(es). Click on "Add" to complete the process.

If you would like to remove the old user role after assigning a new one, check the checkbox next to the role you want to remove and then click on the "Remove" icon.

3. Project User Roles

While the package user roles are global roles that apply across projects, in TabTool you also have the option to assign roles specifically for individual projects. This can be useful when a user should have more or fewer access rights within a project compared to their global role.

In the specific project, the project user role will override the permissions the user has in their global role.

To assign one or more project user roles to a user, open their entry in the user management and click on "User Projects" in the right column.

Select the project from the project list in the right column for which you want to assign the user role and click on the corresponding row.

Now, click on the "Next" icon in the right column to open the list of available user roles.

Select the role(s) you want to assign by checking the respective checkbox(es). Then click on "Add" to complete the process.