Setting Access Rights for Different Editors in the Tree Structure

Within a large organization, it is customary to have control over editors, so that they can only create, edit, delete and publish in specific parts of the tree structure. On an extranet, it is also quite usual to grant different customers access to read different pages. To do this, you must start by creating more groups than WebEditors. There must be a group for each part of the tree that can be separated from the other editors.

For example, a website has three different main branches: Products, News and Support. Each section has two or more editors who will help to update information on the website. These editors will only be able to create and edit pages within their own branch of the tree. We start by creating three groups, either in Windows or EPiServer CMS, depending on the normal procedure. In this case, the groups are called Products_Editors, News_Editors and Event_Editors. If we have not yet created the users, we must do so now. Then we make sure that the different editors are members of the group where they are to edit. All editors must be members of WebEditors, otherwise they will not be able to access Edit mode. This means that all editors must be members of at least two groups: WebEditors and the group that specifies what they can edit.

Once the groups and users have been created, set access rights in the correct locations in the structure.

1. Select Set Access Rights on the Admin tab.
2. Select the page in the structure for which you want to set access rights. In this case, it is the Products page.
3. You can now see that no editors have access rights to this page, so we must start by adding the products_editors group. Click the Add Users/Groups button and add your group to the page.
4. Grant the required access rights to the group by selecting the check boxes beside the group. If you double-click a check box, all the check boxes on the left will be selected.
5. Make sure that none of the other groups are selected.
6. Select the Apply settings for sub pages check box.
7. Click Save. The current group will be added to the selected page and its sub-pages. The other groups will not be affected.
8. The access rights have been saved.
9. The next time an editor from the products_editors group logs on, he/she will only be able to edit the Products page and its sub pages.

Similarly, it is possible to create different groups in order to grant different visitors access to different pages. On a public website, for example, ensure that “Everyone” is not granted access rights to read those pages you do not want to be seen by the general public. By allowing extranet users to log on, they will have access to different pages, depending on the read rights you have set for them. If a visitor does not have the read rights to a particular page, that page will not appear in their menus. The visitor is simply not aware that there is more information available.