Adding a new user

The document describes the mechanism of creating new users in the system and explains the options and functions of authentication mechanisms. Each user in the system must have an account. We log in to the system using the login identifier (login). The remaining data in the user definition allow you to define access mechanisms and places to which the user has access. In this document, we explain the authorization mechanism, the different types of users, and the functions that allow you to determine the level of access for each of them.

The list of system users is available in the system configuration section. The list of users can be filtered according to the available search criteria and exported to an XLS format.

In the system, each user must have an account to be able to log in. Each account is identified by a login. That is an identifier that is used to clearly indicate which user is planning to log in. However, a separate step that is required for proper authorization in the system is proper user authentication, i.e. indicating that the person logging in is actually that person.

In the system, we distinguish two types of users due to their authorization method: "Local Users|" and "Corporate Users". Typically, enterprises have a global authorization system, i.e., a place where a given user’s password is defined in one place, and then all systems in the enterprise use appropriate authorization channels. The AMAGE system can also authenticate users in this way. These users must be specified as Enterprise users. That means they have a disabled local user flag. In this case, when the user’s login is provided, the AMAGE system uses external authorization systems (e.g., Azure Active Directory or other LDAP servers) to authenticate the user.

A local user is a user who authenticates himself using a password/PIN that is defined locally in the database (properly secured). Such a user, after entering his login, will be asked to provide the above mentioned secret and will be authenticated on this basis.

The AMAGE system allows you to have local and corporate users in the same instance at the same time. That allows users from a particular company and centrally authorized to be added to the system, as well as additional local accounts such as subcontractors, users of other companies so that they can work on the data in the system.

That is the main distinction between user types and should be kept in mind when defining a new user in the system. It depends on the method of authorization. The system allows you to change the user type during system operation, i.e., create a local user and then change his type to a corporate one. Only the authentication method changes.

When adding a new user, we specify the basic data. The main ones are login/password/PIN and general information about the assignment to a department in the organization.

The second section defines system access flags. Here we define general flags that allow you to specify what areas of the system the user has access to. That allows you to roughly limit the user’s access to the system only to places/sections to which he should have access. Further detailed permissions are defined using profiles (explained later).

The flags that can be set in the system allow you to specify the following characteristics.

Global - global flags

WWW - AMAGE Web system access. Define access to the system accessible through the browser (i.e., the one to which the current document applies)

Fx application (offline) - an application dedicated to working offline on rugged devices. The application allows you to perform activities without access to the network (but also with access)

Desktop (with installer) - old version of the AMAGE application

Section left for customers who still have used AMAGE applications of the old type installed locally on users' computers. For new instances left only for compatibility purposes.

In the data sections, we may specify personal data, identifiers, email addresses. We may also add barcode/RFID identifiers that are used to identify the user in certain parts of the system.

The system user can also have a photo and his signature attached. The signature is used when generating PDF documents with orders. That allows those captions to be embedded.

Access profiles allow access to selected sections of the system. They are covered in detail in the user manual and other tutorials. Here we can assign a list of access profiles to the user.

In the case of correct user authentication, the AMAGE system starts checking access profiles to determine access to a given section of the system or to perform an action (e.g., adding/deleting a record). For initial users then there is a problem as no permissions/profiles are defined. In this case, the user would not have access to any section of the system.

Therefore, the super-administrator flag has been introduced in the system. Enabling this flag allows you to bypass the access profile mechanism. A user with this flag always has access to all sections and functions of the system (the system always replies YES to the query "Does the user have the authority to function X?"). That allows the main users of the system to access the full functionality and then define access through profiles for other users.