In the previous recipe, we saw how we can add, remove, update, and search users in the portal instance. Now we would like to see how we can do the same operations for groups.
Notice that a group can be nested in another group, allowing for the creation of sub-groups, but in the security model of the portal, there is no inheritance for permissions.
We will create new groups dedicated to the Financials portal:
- Customer Care
- Customers
- Bank Operators
In order to create a new Financials group, carry out the following steps:
- Click on Group | Organization | Users and groups management.
- Click on Group Management to arrive at the following administration tool:
- In the Groups panel on the left, click on the plus icon.
- Create the root group by filling in the form with these properties:
- Group Name:
financials - Label:
Financials - Description:
This is the root group for the Financials portal
- Group Name:
- Click on Save to create the group.
- Click again on the plus icon in the Groups panel on the left.
- Create the Customer Care group by filling the form with these properties:
- Group Name:
customerCare - Label:
Customer Care - Description:
This is the child group dedicated to all the users that work on the Customer Care department
- Group Name:
- Click on Save.
- Repeat the same procedure, from steps 6 to 8, for the Customers and the Bank Operators group.
- The final result of the Financials group structure should be similar to the following screenshot:
Note
Notice that the Group Name must be filled with a unique string, without using separated words, that is, without any blank spaces used as a separator. You can use letters, underscore, and numbers. This property is used internally by the portal to identify the information about a specific group that is stored in a repository node. This property cannot be changed because it is the internal ID of the group.
GateIn provides the Group Management section inside one of the administration portlets as shown in the preceding screenshot.
Using this section, you can easily manage groups using a web interface that allows you to create groups and sub groups simply by clicking on the group that you want to edit, and then add a new sub group or change it for updating the existing properties and so on.
When you are adding a new sub group for a parent group, the groups panel will show you the tree structure related to the hierarchy of all the involved groups.
Here we will see all the other options available for manipulating groups in the portal.
Let's see how to change properties for an existing group if you need to update some information about it:
- Click on Group | Organization | Users and groups management.
- Click on Group Management.
- Select an existing group that you want to update from the Groups panel.
- Click on the note icon for accessing the Edit Current Group form that allows you to update the same properties that we have previously seen in this recipe:
- Group Name: This is the name of the repository node dedicated to the group described in the previous recipe
- Label: This is the label for the group
- Description: This is the field for adding a meaningful description for the current group
- Click on Save for submitting changes.