Managing Contacts, Users, and Groups

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About Users and Contacts

In Enterprise HelpDesk, you work with two types of users:

Users, who have logon names and passwords and can log on to Web views, HelpDesk Web Admin, HelpDesk Admin, or the Web View Editor.
Contacts, who cannot log on. Contacts are people who report issues, either by phone, e-mail, fax, or through submit-only views.

Users are not specific to projects. For example, a user can use the same logon name and password to log on to any Web view of any project. However, each project can store different information for users. When you add a field to the Contact tab of a project, that field is a project-specific user information field. That is why you have to choose a project before you can create or edit users in HelpDesk Web Admin.

Administering User Accounts

Users are created and managed through either HelpDesk Admin or HelpDesk Web Admin. However, user information fields added to the Contact tab are available only in HelpDesk Web Admin.

Administering Contacts

Contacts are created and managed through HelpDesk Web Admin and, if you have the required permissions, through Web views.

About Security

Enterprise HelpDesk provides security features that allow you to manage user access to issue data and Enterprise HelpDesk features. In Enterprise HelpDesk, security is based on the concepts of users and groups.

When you install Enterprise HelpDesk, the Setup program automatically creates Admin, demo, and guest users, along with a number of sample, role-based user accounts.

To secure your projects, you must create user accounts for other Enterprise HelpDesk users. You use the user and group accounts you create to assign privileges for Enterprise HelpDesk tools such as HelpDesk Admin and HelpDesk Web Admin and for individual features such as the Report Editor.

About Groups

Every user is a member of one or more groups. Access to Enterprise HelpDesk features and projects is based on group membership. You can enable and disable features and projects on a group-by-group basis. A user can only access a feature or project if the user is a member of a group where the feature or project is enabled.

Enterprise HelpDesk has several default groups.

The Admins group has all features enabled. Other groups enable only some features.
The Users group enables features that you want to make available to all users. All users are members of the Users group.
The Help Desk Analysts and Help Desk Group Leaders groups have access to all Web view features controlled by security permissions.
The Employees group cannot access any of the Web view features controlled by security permissions.

To control access to Enterprise HelpDesk features, you assign users to the groups based on their roles and responsibilities in the issue tracking process. For example, a help desk group leader or analyst who is also responsible for administering Enterprise HelpDesk must be a member of the Admins group.

Use the Web View Editor to control who can log on to a given Web view of a project. The Web View Editor allows you to set group access permissions for Web views.

Use HelpDesk Admin to control access to projects. See Enabling and Disabling Projects.

Creating User Accounts

You can create user accounts with either HelpDesk Admin or HelpDesk Web Admin. However, if you add new user information fields (for example, pager number) to the Contact tab, you can edit those fields only in HelpDesk Web Admin.

New users are members of the Users group. To add a new user to other groups, use HelpDesk Admin.

To create a user account:

In HelpDesk Admin, click Security on the Tools menu.
In the Security Editor dialog box, click the Users tab.
Click New User and enter the user information.

You can also create user accounts over the Web with HelpDesk Web Admin.

Disabling User Accounts

Users are not deleted, only disabled.

Disabled user accounts cannot log on, however the user names still appear in the Owner and Contact lists. That’s because existing issues may still refer to the users.

Disabling a contact has no effect.

To disable a user account:

In HelpDesk Admin, click Security on the Tools menu.
In the Security Editor dialog box, click the Users tab.
In the User Name list, click a user and then click Delete User.

You can also disable user accounts over the Web with HelpDesk Web Admin.

Assigning Users to Groups

Group membership determines which Enterprise HelpDesk features are available to a user. Each group enables and disables different features. Users that belong to more than one group have access to any feature enabled in at least one of the groups.

Group membership also controls access to projects and Web views.

You use HelpDesk Admin to assign users to groups.

To add a user to a group:

In HelpDesk Admin, click Security on the Tools menu.
In the Security Editor dialog box, click the Users tab.
In the User Name list, click a user.
In the Available Groups list, click a group, and then click the right arrow button to add the group to the Member Of list.

Changing Passwords and Editing User Information

You can change passwords and edit user information (for both users and contacts) with either HelpDesk Admin or HelpDesk Web Admin. However, if you added fields to the Contact tab, you can only edit those fields in HelpDesk Web Admin.

To edit user information:

In HelpDesk Admin, click Security on the Tools menu.
In the Security Editor dialog box, click the Users tab.
In the User Name list, click a user and then click Edit User . Edit the user information in the dialog box.

Defining User Groups

Groups allow you to assign privileges to users. By enabling and disabling features for a group, you control the features (privileges) available to the members of that group.

To add or remove groups:

In HelpDesk Admin, click Security on the Tools menu.
In the Security Editor dialog box, click the Groups tab.

The Groups tab allows you to add and remove groups, enable and disable features for each group, and set access permissions for projects.

Enabling and Disabling Features

About Features

Enterprise HelpDesk provides the following set of features that can be enabled and disabled. Most features correspond directly to menu commands, such as Security or Report Editor. When a user does not have permission to use a feature, the feature is hidden in the Enterprise HelpDesk user interface.

To enable or disable a feature for a group:

In HelpDesk Admin, click Security on the Tools menu.
In the Security Editor dialog box, click the Groups tab.
In the Modify permissions for list, click Features.
To disable a feature, click the feature in the Enabled Features list and then click the right arrow.

To enable a feature, click the feature in the Disabled Features list and then click the left arrow.

Web View Features

Feature	Permits the user to
Ad hoc Queries	Access the Ad-hoc Query Editor.
Add Contact Editor	Open the Users and Contacts dialog box in a Web view by clicking the Contacts button.
Add Contact	Create contacts.
Delete Contact	Disable contacts.
Update Contact	Edit contacts.
Password Editor	Change password.
Report Viewer	View Enterprise HelpDesk reports.
Report Viewer - Hardware Inventory	View Hardware Inventory reports.
Report Viewer - Software Inventory	View Software Inventory reports.
Revision History	View the change history for an issue.

Example

The staff responsible for logging issues received from customers need to be able to add new contacts (each customer is a contact). To allow users to add new contacts in Web views, enable these features:

Add Contact Editor
Add Contact

HelpDesk Web Admin Features

The following features enable and disable the different tabs in HelpDesk Web Admin.

Feature	Permits the user to
Web Admin - Choices	Create and edit choices lists.
Web Admin - Integration Editor	Connect projects to PC-Duo Enterprise site databases.
Web Admin - Notifications	Set the user account used for notifications.
Web Admin - Tabs	Create new tabs.
Web Admin - Users	Edit users and contacts.
Web Admin - Workflow	Edit workflow rules.

When Web Admin - Users is enabled, you can selectively enable features for editing user accounts.

Feature	Permits the user to
View User Editor	View user information (such as the logon name, full name, and password) in the Users and Contacts window.
Add Users	Add new users.
Delete Users	Disable users.
Update Users	Edit user information.

When Web Admin - Users is enabled, you can selectively enable features for editing contact information.

Feature	Permits the user to
Add Contact Editor	View contact information (such as the full name and e-mail address) in the Users and Contacts window.
Add Contact	Create contacts.
Delete Contact	Disable contacts.
Update Contact	Edit contact information.

HelpDesk Admin Features

To enable HelpDesk Admin features, you must enable Admin Utility. Otherwise, users cannot even log on.

Feature	Permits the user to
Admin Utility	Log on to HelpDesk Admin.
Delete Project	Delete a project.
Delete Issues	Delete issues from a project.
Import Issues	Import issues into a project.
Integrity Editor	Open the Integrity Editor.
Layout Editor	Open the Layout Editor and define custom layout styles for the Summary List.
Licenses	Open the Licenses dialog box.
Logons Editor	Log off users.
Migration Editor	Migrate a project database to another database engine.
New Project	Create a new project.
Notification Editor	Set up automatic e-mail notifications.
Password Editor	Change password, in Web views and in HelpDesk Admin.
Page Editor	Create and edit report pages.
Print	Print reports when previewing from the Report Editor.
Project Properties	Edit project properties, such as which groups are allowed to open a project.
Project Relocation	Move project files.
Query Editor	Open the Query Editor and define custom queries.
Repair and Compact	Repair and compact a project database.
Report Editor	Define new reports, and edit existing reports.
Security Editor	Add, edit, and delete users and groups. Enable and disable features for groups.
Sort Editor	Open the Sort Editor and define custom sorts.
Field Editor	Add new fields. Change labels. Modify the values that appear in choice lists.
Upgrade Editor	Upgrade Enterprise HelpDesk server files.
Web Tools Menu	Start the Web View Editor and HelpDesk Web Admin from the Tools > Web menu.
When Editor	Edit the when conditions for notifications.
Windows Account Editor	Edit the Windows user account used for anonymous access to virtual directories and for running the notification service.

Example

If you want to allow users to create new reports, you need to enable, at a minimum, the Admin Utility and Report Editor features. This will allow users to log on to HelpDesk Admin and create new reports using existing queries, sorts, and report pages. The new reports will be automatically made available in existing Web views.

Enabling the Query Editor, Sort Editor, and Page Editor features will allow users to create new queries, sorts, and report pages and use them in report definitions. New queries won’t be available in Web views unless you export the queries and regenerate the views. All new sorts, however, will automatically be made available in Web views.

Enabling the Print feature allows users to print reports from HelpDesk Admin.

Web View Editor Features

You can prevent users from logging on to the Web View Editor by disabling the Web View Editor feature.

Enabling and Disabling Projects

When you disable a project for a group, members of that group cannot:

Log on to Web views of the project.
Edit the project in HelpDesk Admin.
Edit views of that project in Web View Editor, or generate new views of that project.

You can disable specific Web views for members of a group.

To enable or disable a project:

In HelpDesk Admin, click Security on the Tools menu.
In the Security Editor dialog box, click the Groups tab.
In the Modify permissions for list, click Projects.
To disable a project, click the project in the Enabled Projects list and then click the right arrow. To enable a project, click the project in the Disabled Projects list and then click the left arrow.

You can also enable or disable projects from the Groups Allowed to Open list in the Project Properties dialog box.

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