User Management

Overview

Users can be viewed from a few places, depending on your role.

  • System administrators can access the Users page in the Appian Administration Console to view, create, and modify users.
  • All designers can access users from the Users view in Appian Designer.
  • The Users record type in Tempo contains the user profiles for users of Appian.
  • The Users record type can also be added to a site page. A user can go here to view other users and to modify their own user profile.

Create a New User

System administrators can create new users by doing the following:

  1. Navigate to the Users page of the Appian Administration Console. The Users grid is displayed.
  2. Click the Create button in the toolbar above the grid. The Create User dialog is displayed.

    images:Create_User_Dialog.png

  3. Enter the user's Username. It must not match an existing username regardless of case. For example, if "john.doe" already exists, you cannot enter "John.Doe". Appian usernames are case sensitive when the user logs in. A username can only contain up to 255 ASCII letters (a-z, A-Z), numbers, and the special characters listed below.
    • At symbols (@)
    • Periods (.)
    • Underscores (_)
    • Hyphens (-)

    Note: If you plan on creating an application that restricts user visibility, be sure to create a username that is not personally identifiable, as usernames are still visible within the system even when a user's Contact Information and Display Name are restricted. See also: User Profile Visibility

  4. Enter the remaining basic information for the user:
    • First Name
    • Last Name
    • Nickname (Optional)
    • E-mail Address (Must include the @ symbol and a domain such as .com)
    • Supervisor (Optional)
    • Title (Optional)
  5. Select one of the following options from the User Type selection:
    • Basic User: All users that are not system administrators. See below: Account Rights for Basic Users
    • System Administrator: Users that have access privileges to all tools and capabilities in Appian, can edit user roles, and create new administrators. System administrators are automatically added to the Designers group through a membership rule, but do not inherently have the designer role.
  6. (Optional) Enter a Temporary Password and re-enter it in the Confirm Password field. If a password is not entered, it is automatically generated and sent to the user in an email. Regardless of whether or not you specify a password here, the password will be marked as temporary and the user will need to change it the next time they sign in. Note: Passwords may be constrained to certain complexity or length requirements by your Appian administrator. See also: Appian Authentication.
  7. Click Create to create the user and return to the Users grid, or click Create & Add Another to create the user and continue creating new users in the Create User dialog.

View and Update Users

Administration Console

System administrators can view and search through a complete list of users in the Users page of the Administration Console. The search is a "starts with" search that will search on first name, last name, username, and email address and an exact match search on UUID. The users grid can also be sorted by these four fields and filtered by the user's active/inactive status.

images:Users_Page_RN.png

A specific user's information can be viewed or modified through the following steps:

  1. Click on a username in order to open the Update User dialog.
    • This dialog displays detailed information about a user, including the groups of which they are members and administrators. System administrators can administer all groups, although only system groups are explicitly listed here for them.

    images:Update_User_Dialog.png

  2. Modify any of the following fields:
    • First Name
    • Last Name
    • Nickname
    • Supervisor
    • Title
    • User Type
    • Email
    • Office Phone
    • Mobile Phone
    • Home Phone
    • Location fields
    • Address 1
    • Address 2
    • Address 3
    • City
    • State
    • Zip Code
    • Country
    • Custom Fields 1 - 10
  3. Click Change next to a username in order to update a username. Appian usernames are case sensitive, but a new username must not match an existing username, regardless of case. For example, if the current username is "john.doe", then changing it to "John.Doe" is valid. However, if the current username is "jane.doe" and "john.doe" already exists, you cannot enter "John.Doe". A username can only contain up to 255 ASCII letters (a-z, A-Z), numbers, and the special characters listed below. Note it is not possible for a user to rename themselves.
    • At symbols (@)
    • Periods (.)
    • Underscores (_)
    • Hyphens (-)
    • Apostrophes (')
  4. Click Change Photo to upload a JPG image, which can be zoomed and cropped.
  5. After completing desired changes, click Update.

Appian Designer

All designers can view and search through a complete list of users from the Users view in Appian Designer. The search allows designers to search by full name, username, and email; it returns any results that contain the search criteria. The users grid can also be sorted by these three fields.

images:Users_View.png

Designers who are system administrators can filter the grid by the user's active/inactive status, as well as view and modify a specific user's information by following the same steps above for the Administration Console.

Basic designers can modify their own user information and see a limited set of read-only details about the other users in the results.

NOTE: Users are not design objects and therefore will not appear as part of any application or objects list in Appian Designer, except in a group's members list and in the Users view.

User Record

The User record displays a limited set of read-only details for user. End users can view the user profiles of other users, although system administrators can prevent users from viewing each other's profiles by configuring User Profile Visibility.

End users can modify their own profiles from their User record, including name, email address, office phone, mobile, location, profile photo, cover photo, and blurb (system administrators cannot modify other users' blurbs). While system administrators can modify users' profiles, they cannot prevent end users from modifying their own profiles. To restrict what fields a user can edit on their own profile, go to the User Profile page of the Appian Administration Console.

Reset User Password

System administrators can reset a user's password from the Administration Console. End users can, however, change their own password at any time from the Settings page in Tempo or a Site.

To change a user's password, complete the following:

  1. Select the users that should have their passwords reset in the Users grid of the Administration Console.
  2. Click Reset Password. A new temporary password is emailed to each selected user.

Deactivate and Reactivate Users

Deactivate Users

Deactivating a user means the user account is still present in the system, but is not able to log in. Additionally, default and runtime object permissions for that user are revoked.

Running processes that were started by a user who was later deactivated will pause by exception. This will not happen immediately, but is guaranteed to happen no later than the next time the application server is restarted.

When designing applications, it's important to consider the lifecycle of the user separate to the lifecycle of the event. A user's departure does not mean the end of their responsibilities.

Process models or any node in a process model configured to run as their designer will fail to run if the designer user becomes deactivated. Also, when process models are imported from one environment to another, the user importing these applications becomes the process model designer. For these reasons, Appian recommends that applications be imported into test and production environments using a service account of type System Administrator that will not be deactivated.

If needed, applications can be force updated by an active user using an import customization file.

System administrators can deactivate users from the Administration console by doing the following:

  1. Select the users to be deactivated in the Users grid.
  2. Click the Deactivate button on the grid toolbar. You are prompted to verify that you do want to deactivate the user(s) in question. Click Deactivate.

NOTE: The Administrator user account cannot be deactivated.

Reactivate Users

When a user account is reactivated, its last login time is set to the current date and time to prevent the user from being immediately deactivated (if a policy is in place to do so for users who do not log into the system within a certain amount of time). See also: Appian Authentication

System administrators can reactivate users from the Administration Console by doing the following:

  1. Click on the Inactive or All radio button filter options to view deactivated users in the Users grid.
  2. Select the users to be reactivated.
  3. The Deactivate button is replaced by a Reactivate button. Click the button to reactivate the users. The user is now reactivated and is able to log in to the system. Expired passwords must be reset when attempting to log in.

Unlock Users

When a user account is locked according to a password policy (such as having too many failed login attempts within the designated time frame) a banner is displayed on the Update User dialog for that user.

images:unlock-user.png

System administrators can unlock users from the Administration Console by doing the following:

  1. Click the username of the user to be unlocked in the Users grid. The Update User dialog opens.
  2. Click the Unlock User link in the banner that appears at the top of the dialog in order to allow the user account to attempt to log in again.
  3. Click Cancel to dismiss the Update User dialog.

Manage User Rights and Security

System administrators assign certain rights to a user by making the user a Basic User or a System Administrator.

  • All System Administrator users have administrative rights (the highest level of rights).
  • Rights for Basic Users are listed below: Account Rights for Basic Users

To modify a user's type after creating the user, complete the following:

  1. In the Administration Console or Users view in Appian Designer, click the username in the Users grid. The Update User dialog opens.
  2. Select Basic User or System Administrator from the User Type field.
  3. Click Update. The user's rights are updated throughout the system and will take effect when the user next logs in.

Other User Rights

All user actions are verified using access control lists prior to execution. Individual objects can be secured by granting rights to individual users or groups based on group membership and user role maps.

Best Practice: Rather than assign rights for various objects to each individual user, as a best-practice, create a custom group for each role within your organization. Assign rights in the system according to group and then add the users in that role to the associated group.

See also: Configuring Security for Groups and User Roles.

Account Rights for Basic Users

As Basic User accounts interact with Appian, they are frequently assigned additional roles. These roles are granted the necessary rights to perform various tasks, such as administering the objects they create. Basic users must be given the Designer Role in order to access Appian Designer.

Preferences

A Basic User can select her preferred time zone, language, calendar settings in Tempo by doing the following:

  1. Click on the user avatar in the upper right and select Settings from the dropdown menu.
  2. Select the preferred settings and click Save Changes.

    images:User_Preferences.png

The System Administrator can override the preferred settings through the Administration Console.

Alerts

All portal and email notifications issued by the application can be configured by Basic User and System Administrator accounts. The server administrator can configure email notification settings for the entire site, but each individual user can override these settings for their own account.

A Basic User account can select a component to display its associated alerts (the alert type). Selecting an alert type displays its associated alert rules, which can be edited.

See also: Notifications

Tempo

The following user rights are available to viewers of the Tempo interface:

Ability System Administrator Basic User
View public events (events that are not targeted to any specific user). Yes Yes
View events targeted to a group the user belongs to. Yes Yes
View posts added by users the user is following. Yes Yes
Search for posts added by users the user does not have viewer rights to. Yes No
Post to his or her followers. Yes Yes
Post a comment on any visible feed entry. Yes Yes
Send a message to everyone. Yes No
Send a message to a user he or she does not have viewer rights to. Yes No
Send a message to a Tempo Message Audience Group the user is a part of. Yes Yes
Create a task for a user the user does not have viewer rights to. Yes No
View tasks assigned to the user or sent by the user. Yes Yes
View tasks assigned to other users. No No
Give kudos to other users. Yes Yes
View kudos given to other users. Yes Yes
View an action without view rights to the associated process model. Yes Yes
Take an action that is in a viewable process model and application. Yes Yes
Take an action without view rights to the associated process model. No No
Open a case without view rights to the associated process model. No No
View his or her own profile. Yes Yes
View a profile of a user they do not have viewer rights to. Yes No

NOTE: System Administrators have viewer rights to all users.

Add Users to Groups

Users can be added to a group by navigating to the group in Appian Designer, and clicking Add Members in the toolbar or by configuring a membership rule. See Group Management for more details.

See Also

Open in Github Built: Fri, Nov 04, 2022 (07:10:52 PM)

On This Page

FEEDBACK