Efficient Access Rights Management with User Groups

Introduction

A Group is a manageable entity that represents a collection of users. All individual users as part of a group can be managed, controlled, and assigned content with ease. This means, by creating groups, the Manager+ user does not need to set permission settings for each user; rather they can collectively implement the permission settings on the group as a whole. Groups provide segregation within a Portal and improve a user's engagement by making sure the content and its permissions are of utmost relevance to the users.

Concept

VIDIZMO allows you to empower certain users by assigning them additional access rights over Portal's media using Group Permissions. When users are associated with a user group, they "inherit" the permissions of the user group.

In order to fully understand this feature, you will first have to understand the various user roles that VIDIZMO has:

As you can see in the above diagram, all user roles above Contributor role namely Moderator, Manager and Admin, have complete access rights to all media in the portal.

Hence, the permission sets available in Groups have the capability to empower only Viewers and Contributors by allowing them to perform more actions on Portal's media than they were allowed to do by default.

Below is a tabular demonstration to explain how permissions shall work in combination of Roles and Groups. The table shall also help clarify that default permissions allowed for a user in a role can not be revoked using Group permissions.

Now the question is, what if a user belongs to multiple groups with different sets of permissions? The user will have a union of the permission sets corresponding to all the groups he/she has been associated with. Here is a pictorial representation of the matter:

I feel you are fully equipped to grace your users with new powers now, but here are a few considerations you should keep in mind before you get started:

1. All of the permissions, when enabled, shall only be applicable to the media that the users have access to. This means that if the permission for "Manage Custom Attributes on all Media" has been enabled in a Group, the members of the group will only be able to manage Custom Attributes on media they have access to, not otherwise.
2. There are certain media-related permissions such as Sharing, Downloading and Commenting that when enabled on a Group, will only be applicable on a media file if the same permissions are enabled on that media's publish settings.
3. For a few option where you have the ability to empower users to have more control over their own uploaded media, when enabled, shall only be applicable to Contributor user roles as they have the permission to upload media in Portal. 
4. The permission sets you will read about further in this article are subject to the features available in your Product Package. For example, your Product may include Personalized Playlists, but not Learning Plans, etc.

Managing Groups in VIDIZMO

VIDIZMO allows the authoritative roles to execute the following operations on the Groups as stated below.

• Create Group: The ability to make a new Group within the Portal by defining the Name, Email Address, Description for the Group, and Group Permissions. 
• Delete Group: Utilizing the option to remove a Group.
• Edit Group: To redefine the Group details such as Name, Email and Description, and Group Permissions. In order to Create, Edit or Delete Group, read How to Create, Edit and Delete a Group.
• Filter Groups: To search for a Group by Name or Email Address for improved and fast results within a Portal. 
• Add Users in the Group- Once a Group is created, only the existing Users or Groups of the Portal can be added to the newly created Group. Moreover, VIDIZMO allows the search facility to enhance Manager+ roles experience while adding the Users or Groups. To add Users in a Group, read How to Add Users in a Group.

Media Viewing Access using Groups

You can configure access rights on media within your Portal only for specific user groups. This entails that VIDIZMO enables you to structurally segregate information to be visible to relevant organizational units within your enterprise.

To learn more about how to restrict access rights of your portal's media to specific users and groups, see: How to share media with Specific Users and Groups.

Media Action Controls using Groups

Following is a set pf permissions that can be configured within a group for its corresponding set of users:

Media Actions

The Media Actions section in Group Permissions allows authorized portal user(s) to grant the following permissions:

i. Allow Users to Download Media: Enabling this permission allows members of the Group to download media, given that the permission to download media has been enabled on the media's publish settings.

ii. Allow Users to Rate Media: Enabling this permission allows members of a Group to like or dislike media.

iii. Allow Users to Provide Feedback: Enabling this permission allows all members of a Group to report content. In this way, users can help identify if content of the media is inappropriate, offensive or abusive. Moreover, users can ask queries and provide suggestions on the media.

iii. Allow Users to Favorite Media: This option enables users to add media to their favorites. This helps users make a digital archive of bookmarked media files for quick access.

iv. Allow Users to Share Media: Enabling this permission allows users to share a media playback URL via email, given that it has been enabled on media's publish settings. Using this option automatically launches user's default mailing application and includes the link in the body of the email to be sent out to their preferred recipient.

v. Allow Users to Update Custom Attributes: Enabling this permission shall allow users to set values to custom attributes associated with the media. 

vi. Allow Users to Process Media: Enable this permission to allow users manually process on-demand media insights and transcoding.

Annotations

Annotations are small notes, tags, or comments in a video intended to achieve a lot within a limited canvas of a video frame. It helps redirect the user/viewer's attention to a particular still of a video and to focus on an object/facet which would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

You can allow specific user groups to add annotations on either all media they have access to or only the ones they uploaded. After selecting the media on which users can annotate, you can go one step further by defining whether they will be allowed to edit and delete their own annotations or not? Interestingly, you can also empower users to edit and delete annotations created by other users as well.

Comments

Providing comments is an effective way of giving feedback. VIDIZMO's on-demand media playback allows authorized users to leave comments under media for interactivity.

You can allow users to view Comments that have been made by other allowed users on the portal. Or you can go one step ahead and allow users to add, edit and delete their own Comments on media within the Portal. Please note that enabling Comments is subject to the Allow Comments permission set in media's publish settings.

Learning Plans

Catering to an audience who is self-driven, and motivated enough to complete courses and training guides according to their own set timelines, Personal Learning Plans have made it far easier to manage their content, set priorities against it, and track their progress from time to time.

You can give access to create and manage Learning Plans to members of a particular group.

Private Playlist and Private Collections

In VIDIZMO, a playlist is a compilation of audio and video content that is grouped together in a logical order for the viewers to enjoy the content sequentially and help form a structured understanding. A Collection is a more advanced form of a Playlist that can also have images, quizzes, documents and surveys beside a video or audio. A Private Collection/Playlist is different from a usual Collection/Playlist in such a way that only its creator can view and share it with others.

You can allow users to create and manage their own Private Playlists and Private Collections in the Portal.

Read Next

• Understanding Users and Groups
•  How to Assign Custom Permissions to a Specific Group