Users and Content Creation
Next you will set up a new user, group, and asset factory for content creation. Users can be members of one or more groups. Access rights determine what content the user is allowed to manipulate and create.
There are five main types of roles in the system by default:
- Contributors, or authors, write and bring new content into the system. Once a new piece of content is entered into the system, it must be approved by the appropriate users or groups according to the workflow.
- Approvers are allowed to take part in a workflow process and review content from other users in the system.
- Publishers have the option to publish out content. They are not allowed to access the targets or system area in the CMS, and they are restricted by access rights.
- Managers give access to users in order to manage specific content within the system. Managers can control certain targets and certain system area assets. Managers are restricted by access rights throughout all areas.
- Administrators have access to everything in the system and control all aspects of the software.
A. Create a New Group and User
To create a group:
- Select Global from the top sites menu if it isn't already there.
- Click on Administration in the top navigation menu, and select Users, Groups, & Roles from the left navigation bar.
- Click on New Group.
- Type in staff for Group Name.
- For the Users select box, highlight all the users, and click the green arrow so that they are moved to the box on the right.
- Select Contributor for the Roles.
- Now click Submit to save the new group.
To create a user:
- Click on New User in the left navigation bar.
- Type in bill for Username, Full Name, Password, and Confirm Password.
- For Email, type in bill@site.com.
- Check Enabled.
- Select staff for the group, and click the green arrow so that the group is moved to the box on the right.
- Optionally set a Default Group or Default Site for the user to specify what they should see first at login.
- Select Publisher for the role.
- Click Submit to save the new user
To assign the group to a site:
- Select Site Management from the Cascade logo dropdown menu.
- Select the web site and click on the Edit tab.
- Switch over to the Roles pane and move the Site Contributor role to the box on the right.
- Select the staff group and move it to the box on the right as well.
- Click Submit to save your settings.
B. Create a New Folder and Assign Access Rights
With the new user and group created, you need to create a new folder under the web site and give ownership of the folder to the new staff group.
To create a new folder and set the corresponding access rights:
- Select web from the top sites menu.
- Click on Base Folder from the left asset tree.
- Select New -> Default -> Folder to create a new folder.
- Type in staff as the System Name of the folder.
- Click Submit to save the new folder.
- You will be forwarded to the View of your new folder. Click on the Access tab.
- Set the Group access to staff, and set the level to Write by clicking on the green arrow and moving the group access selection, staff, to the box labeled Write.
- Click Submit to save the access changes.
Auditing system activity is an important part of the CMS. The user-level audit trail provides management with an exact history of all activity within the software. It is a comprehensive guide to every action by every user every time there is a login to the CMS. The audit trail records and stores the time frames of user logins, the users’ actions, the asset types for which these actions are taking place, and relevant information regarding the different types of assets. The audit trail feature also allows the user to navigate directly to the current version of the asset listed in the audit trail entry.
C. View User Audit Trail
To view the user audit trail:
- Select Global from the top sites menu.
- Click on Administration on the top navigation menu and select Users, Groups, & Roles from the left side.
- Audit trails can be viewed for individual users, for groups, or for all users and groups assigned with a specific role. Click on the user you would like to audit. We will audit admin.
- Select the Audits tab.
- You will see a comprehensive list of all activities by that user. Use the time frame options to filter results.
- For some audit actions (like editing an asset), click on the link on the right side of the audit trail entry, to view the most current version of the asset or system item listed.
D. Create an Asset Factory
With a user and group created, the final step is to create an asset factory that provides a mechanism for content creation. An asset factory creates a copy of an existing asset in the system that can be edited with new content and placed in a particular folder. An asset factory can create any of the primitive asset types, e.g. page, file, format, template, folder, block or external link. The asset factory creates an exact copy of the chosen asset, including any assignments it might have like a page's content type, data definition, configuration set, and/or metadata set. An asset factory provides a mechanism for new content creation based on a pre-defined type and a series of business rules.
To create an asset factory:
- Select web from the top sites menu.
- Click on Administration in the top navigation menu.
- In the left navigation bar, click on Asset Factories, and click on New Asset Factory.
- Select Page from the Asset Factory Type radio options, and click Submit.
- For the Name, type in Web Standard.
- The Parent Container field will automatically select the current folder, but you may change this manually by clicking on the browse folder icon and selecting the desired container.
- The Base Asset is the asset upon which you want the asset factory to be based. Typically this page would be in a non-published folder like /_cascade/base assets/, storing all of your different types of assets (e.g. press release, FAQ, standard page, etc). Click the browse folder icon, and select the page example. Now click Confirm to approve the page selection.
- The Placement Folder is the folder in which a newly created asset would be located. Click the browse folder icon, and select the sub-folder staff that was just created; and then click Confirm to approve the selection.
- Folder Placement Position may be left blank.
- Ensure Overwrite is not checked, so that no existing assets will be overwritten.
- The applicable for Groups field indicates who will have access to the asset factory. Select staff and click the green arrow to have the selection moved to the box on the right.
- For Workflow Mode select None.
- Click Submit to save the new Asset Factory.
To test the asset factory with the new user:
- Logout by clicking the Logout button in the bottom right corner of the screen.
- Now login as the user bill, created previously. For Username and Password, enter the value bill, and click Login.
- As the user bill, click on New in the top navigation menu.
- You’ll notice the Web Standard menu choice representing the newly created asset factory.
- Now select New -> Web Standard from the top navigation menu, and you’ll see the same content in the word processor as before because it is a copy of the example page on the web site.
- Type in new content in the word processor and click Submit. You’ve just created a new page from an asset factory.
Thanks for going through Part 1 of the Technical Introduction. Part 2 covers:
- How to import existing templates and websites, set up dynamic menus, and create data definitions