DotAdmin User Guide

Editing Users

The Edit User interface spans multiple pages, each one dedicated to a particular type of user data. The first page presented when editing or creating a user is the Basic Information page.

The Edit User Interface

Before we discuss the Basic Information settings, here is a quick guide to how the User Edit interface works. Each page of user data is selectable from the drop-down options list on the right, shown in the example below.

Multiple pages of user data.

If you make a selection from these options, the system will ask if you want to save any changes you have made to the current form before you proceed. Clicking ‘OK’ will save your changes and then display the next page of data you selected. Clicking ‘Cancel’ will not save your changes, and instead just skip ahead to showing the next page.

Exiting the User Edit interface.

The buttons at the bottom of the interface, shown in the example above, allow you to save your changes or exit the editor, or both, in one click.

To save your changes without exiting the editor, click ‘Apply’. To save and exit, click ‘Done’, and to exit without saving, click ‘Cancel’.

Basic User Information

The ‘Basic Information’ page of the User Edit interface is the only page that must be filled in to create a new user. Each user in the dotAdmin system must have a valid username and email address and must have a password. Each of the Basic Information settings are explained in the list below:

Username

Each user must have a unique Username. Usernames must be no longer than 12 characters, and can only contain alphanumeric characters and the underscore ‘_’ character.

Email

Each user must have a unique email address.

Password

You must provide a password when creating a new user. When editing a user, the current password is not displayed, but it can be changed by entering a new password in the pair of fields provided.

Admin Group

All Site Authors must be assigned to an Admin Group, which governs the zones within the system that the author can access. Super Admins in the ‘main’ group are the only users who can edit this setting.

Lesser admins can only create new user accounts in their own Admin Group, and so this setting does not appear in the interface.

For more information about Admin Groups, see the Admin Groups section in this documentation.

Clearance

This setting is only shown to admin-level users. Individual users cannot edit their own clearance setting, and admins can only create users with clearance levels below their own setting.

For more information about the Clearance setting, see the User Management section in this documentation.

Title, First Name and Last Name

The Title field is optional when creating a new user, but the First and Last Name fields must be completed.

Screen Name

The optional Screen Name setting is provided as an alternative to publishing the author's real name, for sites where the author's name is published alongside the content he or she has created.

Detail

This optional setting is intended to store a brief description of the author to accompany any content the author creates.

Note: When a new user account is created, the username and password are automatically emailed to the new user's email address.

For information on other pages of the User Editor, please see the following sections: Editing User Affiliate Details, Editing User Privileges.