Introduction
In an Ondexx Site, the Site Owner role denotes an admin user who is responsible for that specific Site. By default, this role grants a user every right inside a Site. Typically, these Site Owners are responsible for site configuration and user management in their Site.
This article will serve as a guide to the main tools at a Site Owner’s disposal, as well as the workflows a Site Owner is likely to use, including:
- How to review and manage site settings
- How to enable optional workflows
- How to use user management menus, controls, and settings
- How to onboard new users
- How to use the mass email and calendar event functions
- How to generate reports on site content and usage
Site Owners tend to also act as Content Editors and End Users in their Site. For information on the features and functions used by these roles, we highly recommend first reading the Ondexx Beginner’s Guide and Ondexx Content Editor Guide before proceeding.
Administration Dropdowns
Site Owners have access to a variety of menus to manage their site’s setting, content, and users. These can be accessed from the administration dropdown menus, which are visible above the navigation bar on the right side.
Site Owners typically have access to every menu and control available, including those available to Editors. This article will not go into the various content management menus available, and instead focuses on site and user management.
Each button allows quick access to a variety of editor-specific menus:
- + Add New lists items that you can quickly create—including new user roles and groups, as well as the user onboarding workflow.
- Administration lists a variety of different menus for different aspects of the Site. These are logically organized in submenus like “Site Management” and “User Management” to make specific menus easy to find.
- Workflows lists workflow-specific menus, including those used during forms-based user onboarding.
- File Storage opens the File Manager, where files, such as images or documents, are stored within a Site.
Site Settings
Site Owners have the ability to configure and customize the site as a whole. This is primarily done in Site Settings, found under under Administration > Site Management > Site Settings.
The Site Settings page has the following sections:
- Identity allows the site name and description to be updated
- Security contains various access control settings
- Settings contains general options and settings
- Notifications contains settings related to the content update notifications
- Workflows contains settings to enable various optional workflows
Roles and Groups
Ondexx Sites have two tools used to organize users, and simplify access control: Roles and Groups. Both are entirely customizable, allowing Site Owners to clearly label every type of user.
Roles are a mandatory site user management tool—every user belongs to exactly one. Generally, roles are used to designate what a user’s job is with respect to the Site, i.e. “Content Editor” or “End User.”
As a best practice, Rights are assigned to roles—so placing a user in a role like “Content Editor” will also grant them the relevant Content Editor rights as configured by the Site Owner.
Groups are an optional user management tool—users can belong to any number of groups. Generally, groups are used to organize users, and correspond to a user’s job outside of Ondexx, i.e. “Canadian Team,” “Auditor,” or “Management.”
As a best practice, Viewing Permissions (if enabled) are assigned to groups. As groups tend to correspond to a user’s job at a company, permissions can be assigned to ensure users in a group only see the content relevant to them.
Users are assigned Roles and Groups at the time of onboarding, however, a user’s role and group(s) can be modified at any time using the User Management menus. New Roles and Groups can also be created at any time under Add New > Role or Group.
Rights
What are rights?
Ondexx uses Rights to control what users are able to do in a site. For example, the ability to edit pages, download pages as PDFs, or upload files, are each controlled with individual rights. Rights are designed to give Site Owners as much flexibility and control as possible to ensure their site runs smoothly and efficiently.
Rights can be assigned to Roles, Groups, or specific Users. As a best practice, rights should be assigned to Roles, as Roles tend to be used to describe a user’s function in a Site.
How to assign rights
Rights can be reviewed and assigned under Administration > Site Management > Rights.
Start by deciding where you would like to modify rights, and select the corresponding tab, Roles, Groups, or individual Users. Then, choose the specific Role, Group, or User you would like to edit from the dropdown.
The left side of the page will list the available rights as checkboxes, while the left side will list all users in the currently selected Role or Group.
Simply check the box next to each right you would like to grant your selected Role, Group, or User. When you finish making changes, click SAVE to immediately apply your changes.
Note that rights are additive. If a user receives rights from multiple sources (e.g. from a Role and from a Group) then all of those rights will apply to them.
Viewing Permissions
What are viewing permissions?
Ondexx uses Viewing Permissions to control what users are able to see in a site, allowing a Site Owner to control which modules, chapters, pages, and page components different types of users are able to view.
Permissions are broken into two different types, Page Viewing Permissions, which control which modules, chapters, and pages users can see, and Component Viewing Permissions, which control which Page Components within a page users can see. Both are optional settings that must be enabled before they can be used.
Permissions can be assigned to Roles, Groups, or specific Users, however, as a best practice, permissions should be assigned to Groups, as groups tend to be used to describe a user’s job outside of Ondexx. This makes it easier to recognize what users in a certain group will be able to view in a Site.
How to enable permissions
Viewing Permissions are an optional setting, and need to be enabled in a site before they can be used.
To enable Viewing Permissions, navigate to Administration > Site Management > Site Settings. Under Security, toggle Page Access Controls and/or Component Access Controls on.
Then, click SAVE to apply your changes.
How to assign permissions
Viewing Permissions can be reviewed and assigned under Administration > Site Management > Page Permissions / Component Permissions .
Start by deciding where you would like to modify permissions, and select the corresponding tab, Roles, Groups, or individual Users. Then, choose the specific Role, Group, or User you would like to edit from the dropdown.
The left side of the page will show the site structure as checkboxes, while the left side will list all users in the currently selected Role or Group.
Simply check the box next to each module, chapter, or page you would like to allow your selected Role, Group, or User to see. When you finish making changes, click SAVE to immediately apply your changes.
Note that permissions are additive. If a user receives permissions from multiple sources (e.g. from a Role and from a Group) then all of those permissions will apply to them.
User Management
How user management works in Ondexx
User Management in Ondexx is primarily done inside of Sites. Site Owners can onboard users to their Site, and control their access within that Site.
If a user does not have access to any Sites, a new account will be created for them upon onboarding. Once a user no longer has access to any Sites, their account will automatically be deactivated.
Onboarding users to a site
Site Owners can onboard new users at any time under Add New > Users.
Enter the email addresses of the people you would like to onboard (one per line), and click NEXT to proceed to the validation step.
Each email address will be transformed into row in a table, with the Validation column indicating what actions must be taken before an invitation can be sent.
At this time, assign each user to the desired Role and Groups by selecting the rows you would like to modify and using the Change Role and Change Group buttons. Note that each user must be assigned a Role before they can be sent an invitation.
The Seat License Status column will indicate is the user already has an account in your instance (active or deactivated), or if they will need to create an account as a part of onboarding.
When all users have been configured as desired, click SEND INVITATIONS NOW to continue the onboarding process. For users that already have an account, they will immediately be able to access the Site. For users that need to create an account, they will proceed to the next step of onboarding, described below.
Onboarding for new users – Single Sign-On
Ondexx can be configured to integrate with your internal access system with Single Sign-On (or “SSO”). If a user without an account successfully logs in with Single Sign-On, an account will be auto-provisioned for them without access to any Sites.
If an internal user that will use SSO does not yet have an account at the time of onboarding, they will be sent an encoded link to create an account via auto-provisioning that will grant them access to the Site.
The email invitation will also include an access code they can manually enter to gain access to the Site in the event they do not follow the encoded link when logging in to Ondexx for the first time.
Onboarding for new users – Forms-based
Users that log in with a forms-based username and password are subject to a layer of approval before they can access the Ondexx instance and the Site they are invited to.
The email invitation they are sent includes a link to a form to fill out with their personal information, including their full name, desired username, and job title.
Upon submitting the form, the user will enter the Pending Users Queue, which a Site Owner can access under Workflows > Pending Users.
In the Pending Users Queue, Site Owners can review the user’s submission to confirm their identity, and adjust the Roles and Groups they set if needed. If the pending user should not be granted access, the Site Owner can take the Decline action to deny their access and remove them from the Pending Users Queue.
The Change Expiry Date action can be used to set a user’s access to the Site to be automatically revoked on a specified date.
When ready, they can select the pending user’s row and click the Approve button to approve their access to the Site. The user will be notified via email, and will be sent an email to create their account password.
Managing existing users in a site
Site Owners can manage the users of their site at any time under Administration > User Management > Activated Users. Previous users of the site can be reviewed under Administration > User Management > Deactivated Users.
The Active Users datagrid will list information about each user in the Site, including their Role, Group(s), last login date, and number of logins. This information can be exported as a spreadsheet with the Export to Excel button.
From this menu, the Change Role and Change Group(s) actions can be used to modify a user’s access in the Site. Simply select the users you would like to modify, click your desired action, select the new Role/Group(s), and click Update.
Filtering user management menus
User Management menus can be filtered to find users that meet specific criteria.
Start by clicking “…” filter button of the column you would like to like to filter.
Under “Show rows with value that…” select the type of filter you would like to apply (e.g. “Contains,” “DoesNotContain,” or “EqualTo”), and enter the value on which you would like to filter. Then, click Filter.
For example, to view all users with an “@ondexx.com” email address, you could filter the “Email” column for “Contains” “@ondexx.com”.
To clear a filter, click the column’s filter button again. Then click Clear Filter.
Revoking user access to your site
If a user no longer requires access to the Site, the Revoke Selected action can be used in the Active Users menu to revoke their access to the Site.
From there, you have the option to Revoke with Email, informing the user via email that their access to the Site has been revoked, or Revoke Silently, which revokes without any sort of notification.
Alternatively, the Change Expiry Date action can be used to have a user’s access to the Site automatically revoked on a specified date.
Communication Functions
Email Messaging
Ondexx has the capability to send email communications to a Site’s users.
To send an email from Ondexx, navigate to Administration > Communications > Email Messaging. There you will see all sent and draft messages.
Click New Message to compose a new email as you would in an email client. Note that emails can be sent to entire Roles or Groups.
More information about email messaging in Ondexx can be found on this site: Sending Emails with Ondexx Email Messaging
Calendar Event creator
Ondexx is equipped with a calendar event creator that can be used to generate .ics files that can be added to a digital calendar.
Once created, Calendar Events can be embedded in pages and email messages as hyperlinks with the Site Links menu.
More information about email messaging in Ondexx can be found on this site: Using Ondexx Calendar Events
Reports
What are reports?
Ondexx Sites are equipped with many reports that compile information about a Site’s content and user activity. These filterable reports ensure that Site Owners can stay informed about their
Reports can be found under Administration > Reports, and can be accessed by users with the View Reports right.
Overview of available reports
- Certification Status Report
- View the Certification Workflow values of all pages in a site.
- Only available in Sites with the Certification Workflow enabled.
- Page Access Report
- View the list of users who accessed a given page within a specified date range.
- Page Hyperlinks
- View a list of all hyperlinks that appear within the content a given scope of pages.
- Page Keywords
- Keywords in Page – View a list of the keywords that appear in each live or draft page
- Pages in Keyword – View a list of the live or draft pages that have each keyword.
- Page Type Report
- View a list of all pages in a site with a column for Page Type (i.e. Content, Document Viewer filetype, Embedded Course)
- Pages by Date Published
- View a list of pages in a site within a given scope (i.e Module & Chapter) and date range, sorted by the date they were published.
- Pages by Hyperlink
- View a list of all pages in a site, with a hyperlink to each.
- Pages by Revision Activity
- View a list of all pages in a site, sorted by Revision Date (i.e. the date and time the page was last edited and saved)
- Pages in Chapter
- View a list of Chapters, sorted by Module, along with the number of live, expired, and retired pages contained in them.
- Page Views
- View the total number of page views for each page in the site, or a given scope (i.e. Module & Chapter), or specific user.
- Top Bookmarked Pages
- View the pages that have been bookmarked the most within a site.
- User Access Report
- Within a given scope, View a list of each user’s number of login attempts, page views, and pages visited within a given date range.
- User Logins
- Within a given scope and date range, view a list of each user’s number of login attempts, successful or otherwise, among other login statistics.
- User Viewing History
- View the viewing history within a given date range of all users, or a specific user.
How to filter report columns
Reports in Ondexx are equipped with column filters to ensure Site Owners can find specific data for their specific needs.
Start by clicking “…” filter button of the column you would like to like to filter.
Under “Show rows with value that…” select the type of filter you would like to apply (e.g. “Contains,” “DoesNotContain,” or “EqualTo”), and enter the value on which you would like to filter.
For example, to view only pages in the report inside a specific module, you could filter the “Module” column for “EqualTo” the name of the desired Module.
To clear a filter, click the column’s filter button again. Then click Clear Filter.
Exporting reports as Excel spreadsheets
All Reports in Ondexx can be exported .xlsx files using the Export as Excel icon, found at the top right corner of the report datagrid. In particularly large reports, you may need to scroll horizontally to the right.
Note that any column filters applied to reports will carry into the exported excel file. In other words, the currently visible rows will be exported into the spreadsheet.