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Managing users and groups

Default user

Upon installation a default user with name admin and password admin is created. It is recommended to log in with these credentials directly after the installation has completed and to change the default password.

User session

After the authentication process, a user session is created. This session will be closed automatically at some point by the server for security reasons. The default session timeout is set to 35 min (see User session timeout configuration for details).

When there is no activity in the browser and the session is about to expire, a warning is displayed next to the user details 3 minutes before the timeout takes place:

One (1) minute before the timeout, another message is displayed:

When the session seems to have been destroyed by the catalog, a message recommends to refresh the page and sign in again if needed:

Users, Groups and Roles

The catalog uses the concept of Users, Groups and User Profiles.

  • A User can be part of one or more Groups.
  • A User has a Role in a Group.
  • The Administrator Role is not related to a Group.

The combination of Role and Group defines what tasks the User can perform on the system or on specific metadata records.

Users can have different roles in different groups. A role defines what tasks the user can perform.

Roles are hierarchical and based on inheritance. This means that a user with an Editor profile can create and modify new metadata records, but can also use all functions a Registered user can use.

Rights associated with the roles are illustrated in detail in the list below:

  1. Administrator Profile

    The Administrator has special privileges that give access to all available functions.

    These include:

    • Full rights for creating new groups and new users.
    • Rights to change users/groups profiles.
    • Full rights for creating/editing/deleting new/old metadata.
    • Perform system administration and configuration tasks.
  2. User Administrator Profile

    The user administrator is the administrator of his/her own group(s) with the following privileges:

    • Full rights on creating new users within their own groups.
    • Rights to change users profiles within their own groups.
  3. Content Reviewer Profile

    The content reviewer is the only person allowed to give final clearance on the metadata publication on the Intranet and/or on the Internet:

    • Rights on reviewing metadata content within their own groups and authorising its approval and publication.
  4. Editor Profile

    The editor works on metadata with following privileges:

    • Full rights on creating/editing/ deleting new/old data within their own groups.
  5. Registered User Profile

    The Registered User has more access privileges than non-authenticated Guest users:

    • Right to download protected data.

Role and feature Matrix

The tables below show a comprehensive overview of Roles and Features, it explains in detail what role can do what in GeoNetwork.

Code Description
UI Feature visible in the UI, but not usable by the user profile
EDIT The user can edit the metadata imported by the user
DEL The user can delete the metadata imported by the user
Anonymous user Registered User Editor Reviewer User Admin Admini- strator
Metadata selection / Export (ZIP)
Metadata selection / Export (PDF)
Metadata selection / Export (CSV)
Metadata selection / Selection only
Metadata selection / Update privileges
Metadata selection / Publish
Metadata selection / Unpublish
Metadata selection / Approve
Metadata selection / Transfer Ownership
Metadata selection / Validate
Metadata selection / Validate records links
Metadata selection / Updates categories
Metadata selection / Delete
Metadata selection / Index records
Preferred Records
Watch list
"Sorted by relevancy, modified, title..."
Anonymous user Registered User Editor Reviewer User Admin Admini- strator
Edit EDIT
Delete DEL
Cancel working copy
Manage Record / Privileges
Manage Record / Transfer Ownership
Manage Record / Unpublish
Manage Record / Publish
Manage Record / Work flow / submit for review
Manage Record / Work flow / directly approve metadata
Manage Record / Work flow / approve metadata
Manage Record / Work flow / reject approval submision
Manage Record / Work flow / cancel approval submission
Manage Record / DOI Creation request UI
Manage Record / Duplicate UI
Download record / Permalink
Download record / Export (ZIP)
Download record / Export (PDF)
Download record / Export (XML)
Download record / EXport (RDF)
Anonymous user Registered User Editor Reviewer User Admin Admini- strator
Editor board
Add new record UI
Import new records
Manage directory UI
Batch editing EDIT
Access rights
Editor board / Export (ZIP)
Editor board / EXport (PDF)
Editor board / Export (CSV)
Editor board / Selection only
Editor board / Updates privileges
Editor board / Publish
Editor board / Unpublish
Editor board / Approve
Editor board / Transfer Ownership
Editor board / Validate
Editor board / Validate record links
Editor board / Updates categories
Editor board / Delete
Editor board / Index records
Anonymous user Registered User Editor Reviewer User Admin Admini- strator
Summary
Metadata and Templates
Metadata and Templates / Standards
Metadata and Templates / Formatter
Metadata and Templates / Validation
Metadata and Templates / Metadata Identifier templates
Users and groups / Manage groups
Users and groups / Manage users
Harvesting / Catalogo harvesters
Harvesting / Catalogo harvesters report
Harvesting / Feature harvesters
Statistics and status / Status
Statistics and status / Record links analysis
Statistics and status / Information
Statistics and status / Versioning
Statistics and status / Content statistics
Reports / Update matadata
Reports / Internal metadata
Reports / Metadata file uploads
Reports / Metadata file dowloads
Reports / Users access
Classification systems / Theaurus
Classification systems / Category
Settings / Settings
Settings / User interface
Settings / CSS and Style
Settings / Logo
Settings / Sources
Settings / CSW
Settings / CSW test
Settings / Map servers
Settings / Static pages
Tools / Catalogue admin tools
Tools / Batch process
Tools / Transfer ownership