The Groups form is used to set up Group security. Specific permissions for a group of users can be set in one instance. Once Groups are created, accounts can then be associated with a Group. Aeries also supports Group Inheritance, meaning groups within groups.
NOTE: Do not add attempt to add groups for Parent or Student accounts in this area. Those groups are handled under the Portal Groups area.
To set up Group Security, click Groups under the Security node on the navigation menu.
The following form will display. Existing groups will be listed by name.
Add a Group
To add a new Group, click the Add button. The following form will display. Enter all information and then click the Update button.
ID – This number will be automatically assigned by the system.
Group Name – Enter a name for the Group. Good group names are usually job roles or specific tasks, such as "Attendance Secretaries" or "Manage Fees"
Date Created – The system will generate this date upon creation of the group.
Expiration Date – Date for the group to expire. If the expiration date has passed, membership in this group is ignored; permissions granted to this group or inherited from this group will NOT be applied. This field is optional.
Status – Currently you can tag a Status of Active, Locked, Disabled or Pending. For any Status other than Active, membership in this group is ignored; permissions granted to this group or inherited from this group will NOT be applied.
Comment – A comment can be entered regarding the Group.
Once a Group has been created the following form will display.
To assign permissions for the Group, click the Permissions icon. The Display Current Permissions checkbox will default to on. When creating a new account, no permissions will display initially. Uncheck this option to display all available permissions.
The form will now expand and display all Aeries security areas with check boxes for the available permissions such as Read, Insert, Update, and Delete.
Read – Allows users to read the data on the form
Insert – Allows users to insert or add data on the form
Update – Allows users to update or change data on the form
Delete – Allows users to delete data on the form
Mass Update – Allows users to mass change data
Administer - Special permissions for certain tasks (covered in a separate article)
Expiration Date - Used to temporarily elevate a user’s permission. Permissions will automatically expire at the end of the date specified. Read permissions do not expire.
These boxes will be used to assign which permissions the group is allowed for each form. To set permissions for the group, click the appropriate permission box for each form. If no permissions are to be granted for a form, leave all that form's corresponding boxes unchecked.
There are tabs for the Current Year, Last Year, and Before Last Year. To give users access to prior year databases, permissions must be assigned on those additional tabs. If no permissions are specified for prior years, the user will only have access to the current year.
NOTE: If permission to a form is not granted for a user, the user will not see that form on the navigation menu.
To deny certain permissions to a form, click twice on the appropriate permissions box. A red X will now display in the box and the corresponding permission will be denied to the user.
Once all permissions have been set for the group, select the Display Permission Only checkbox. The form will now only display the permissions that have been assigned to the Group, hiding any that have been unassigned.
NOTE: The permissions selected are saved automatically. To assign additional permissions for a Group, deselect the Display Current Permissions option to again view the full list of security areas.
Group Members are shown under the Group Members tab. Click a username to add them as a member of the group. Click the X next to the username to remove the member from the group.
Group Inheritance
The Group Inheritance tab gives the ability to have nested groups. Different sets of permissions for security Groups can be linked together. An example of a use of this option would be if the district has a group that allows read permissions on all of the basic student information forms and has another group that allows full permissions to all discipline related data. If the Discipline Group inherits the Basic Student Information group, you would only need to assign the one discipline group to a user for that user to have both sets of permissions.
To add Group Inheritance to an existing Group, click the group name under the Group Inheritance tab.
To remove a group inheritance, click the X next to the group name. You will receive a confirmation message before deleting. Changes are saved automatically.