Permissions & Access Control

 

 

From a "New Folder" window:

You can control the accessibility and permissions of a folder that is located in either My Cmaps or Places if you created the folder or have administrative privileges over that folder. Just as an administrator of a place decides how others may create and use Cmaps, folders, and resources in that place, any administrator of a folder can permit or deny access to specific features in Cmaps, folders, and resources stored in that folder. To view or change how others may use a folder that you are creating, as well as any files or folders that may be stored in it in the future, left-click Permissions... (You can modify the permissions on an existing folder if you have administrative privileges on that folder. To modify an existing folder's permissions, right-click the folder, then left-click Properties.... From the "Edit Folder Properties" window that appears, you can left-click the Permissions... button.)


The "Permissions List" window opens where you can view and modify the permissions on a specific folder and its contents. The tab This Folder contains a modifiable list of permissions that initially establish the folder's creator as the sole administrator of the folder. The title "Everyone" is used to represent the set of permissions that any user has on the folder. To modify the permissions of a highlighted user in the permissions list, left-click Edit...


The "Edit User" window appears, where you can control user-specific permissions and access to the selected folder, as well as any files or folders it may contain. You can change the password of user accounts that you have set up on a selected folder by left-clicking Change Password. Only users who are listed as administrators of a specific folder can modify the permissions list on that folder, even if they have all of the other individual permissions that are given to administrators. To save effective permissions of a user account on the folder you are working with, left-click OK.


Now when viewing the "Permissions List" window, any changes in permissions for the account you edited appear next to the User ID for that account. The user account "jsmith" highlighted in the image below has the same permissions as an administrator, but lacks the ability to modify the permissions list. You can left-click the Add User... button to create a new permissions account for the selected folder, or highlight a User ID and left-click Remove to delete that user's account. To view or modify the permissions for folders located inside of the selected folder, left-click the Child Folders tab.


We saw in the previous image that "jsmith" lost only the Administrator permission over the selected folder. When no other administrator is specified for a folder, authority over the permissions list of the folder is determined by the first "admin" found in either the folder's parent directory, a subsequent ancestor directory, or even the root. The root directory is either the My Cmaps folder or a place listed in the CmapTools network. If no parent or ancestor directory has an admin listed, the administrator of the root will ultimately inherit full control over the folder where "jsmith" was previously an administrator. Similarly, the creator of a folder stored inside the selected folder (known as a child folder) is given, by default, administrative privileges over their folder. If the permissions list under Child Folders is modified so that no administrators are left, a parent, ancestor, or root folder administrator will acquire full control over all child folders through inheritance. To save changes made in any of the permissions lists, left-click OK.


Child Folders as well as Other Folders that are stored inside the selected folder have, by default, inherited permissions. However, the Inherit permissions list from parent folder box is not checked by default for the selected folder. If you check that box, you will be able to left-click the Show Effective Permissions button to verify which permissions would be inherited from the parent of the selected folder.


The "Effective Permissions" window appears, and all permissions listed would apply to the selected folder if you chose to inherit permissions. Notice that if an administrator chose to inherit permissions for a selected folder, and the folder's parent permitted "Everyone" the privileges of viewing folder contents and creating folders only, then that administrator may not wish to turn on inheritance under the tab This Folder in order to secure a larger range of available permissions for other users of the selected folder.