Admin mode in the Desktop Studio is used to manage domains associated with a Self Help server.

• Domains are used to define access restrictions to the knowledge base.
• They are managed by server administrators authorized to access all functionalities, and by one or more domain administrators who are restricted to specific functionalities.
• Each domain is accessible to users belonging to the appropriate user groups and to writers depending on their access rights.

     See Different accounts for the Self Help server.

Notes

• Admin mode is available to server administrators of on-premises customers. 
• It is also available to domain administrators, who are restricted to specific functionalities, for both on-premises and SaaS-based customers.

• Server administrator accounts are created by EasyVista.
  • Each Self Help server is associated with a single server administrator account.
  • SaaS-based customers do not have server administrator accounts. This is because their Self Help servers are managed by the EasyVista CMC team.
  • On-premises customers receive the credentials of their server administrator accounts when their Self Help platforms are created by EasyVista.

• As a general rule, two domains are defined for each Self Help server: a Sandbox domain for the test environment and a Production domain for importing the finalized tested versions of Self Help projects.

Different accounts for the Self Help server

Click to see a diagram of the different stakeholders' roles

      To find out more, see Deploying a Self Help project.

Domain administrator vs server administrator

Server administrator
Server administrators have an overview of the domains associated with the Self Help server.

• They can manage all accounts for the Self Help server and they are authorized to access to all server domains.
• They can create domains on the Self Help server.
• They can create domain administrators and manage their access rights.
   

Domain administrator
Domain administrators have writer access in addition to the relevant rights for managing the domain.

In the domains they are authorized to access on the Self Help server:

• They can create user groups, users and writers.
• They are the owners of all Self Help projects and have read, write, approve and publish rights.
• They can define the access rights of writers for Self Help projects. 

User vs writer

User access

• A user account is associated with one or more user groups, which in turn, are associated with one or more domains.
• This only grants users the right to run the procedures of published Self Help projects associated with the domains authorized for their user groups. These procedures are run on a Web browser. They are not authorized to access the Desktop Studio.
   

Writer access

• A writer account is associated with one or more domains. This grants writers the right to access the Desktop Studio in these domains.
• Depending on the rights granted for a given domain, writers may be authorized to create, modify or delete the associated Self Help projects. They may even be authorized to manage the domain.
• By default, writer accounts do not authorize writers to test the procedures of published Self Help projects associated with their domain. If you want to authorize a writer to do this, you must create user access for the writer and associate it with the user groups with access to the writer's Self Help projects.
   

Note: A given account may be authorized to manage one domain, be granted writer rights to a second domain, user rights to a third domain, and be unauthorized to access a fourth domain.

Best Practice

• For server administrators of on-premises customers: You should appoint two or more domain administrators for each domain. This way, there will always be a backup to ensure domain management.

• In admin mode in the Desktop Studio, move the panes to the spot you want.
• You can also modify the default size of the panes:
  • Explorer pane: 1/3 of the screen width.
  • Details pane: 2/3 of the screen width.

• Select View > Reset Views in the menu to return to the default display mode.

Screens description

Access: Select Mode > Admin in the menu

 In admin mode in the Desktop Studio, three zones will appear:

• (1) Title bar and menu bar.
• (2) Explorer pane: Tree structure providing access to the domains associated with the Self Help server and to domain properties.
• (3) Details pane: Used to configure domain properties.

Title bar and menu bar

Note: Certain functionalities will be available depending on the access rights of the logged-in user.

Writers & Users

        See User vs writer.

To create a new user, right-click Writers & Users in the Explorer pane and select New > User.

• You can create a user and initialize the corresponding access rights using a user profile.Note: Only for server administrators.
• You can also create users by importing a CSV file in the Online Studio.  See the description.

Info tab

Identity: Title, last name and first name of the user/writer.

Login/Password: Account login and password for accessing the Self Help server.

• Users/writers can click  to reset their password if required. In this case, an email will automatically be sent with a new account password.

External authentication: Used to specify if user/writer authentication is delegated to a third-party identity provider, e.g. SSO (box is checked) or not (box is not checked).

Email: Email address of the user/writer.

Connection without password: Used to specify if users/writers must enter their account password when accessing the Self Help server. If the box is checked, no password is required. If the box is not checked, the password is required.

• Note: The box is checked by default for users who are automatically created in Service Apps via an API key.

Suspended access: Used to indicate if the user/writer account is suspended for the selected domain (box is checked) or not (box is not checked).

• Note: You can also modify access:
  • By selecting Writers access rights in the Explorer pane for writers.
  • By selecting User groups access rights in the Explorer pane for users.
     

Additional user properties
List of contextual properties specific to the user/writer. This list is made up of two fields.

• Name: Name of the property.
• Value: Alphanumeric value of the property.

Writer rights tab

Used to manage writer rights for each of the domains associated with the Self Help server. 

Note:

• Only for writer accounts.
• Writer rights may be different for each domain.
• You can also define writer rights by selecting Writers access rights in the Explorer pane.
   

Description of options

• Create projects option: Writers can create new Self Help projects within the domain.

• Delete projects option: Writers can delete the Self Help projects they created within the domain.

• Read all the domain option: Writers have read access to all Self Help projects within the domain, but cannot modify or delete them.

• Manage the domain option: Writers have the three rights above and can also manage the domain with access to the Online Studio.

• Suspended access option: Access to the domain is temporarily suspended for the writer. The writer will not be able to work on the associated Self Help projects.

Group memberships tab

This displays the list of groups to which the user belongs. Users can run all published Self Help project procedures in the domain authorized for their user groups.

• To associate a user with a group, select User groups access rights in the Explorer pane, and click  in the toolbar of the Details pane.

• To remove a user from a group, click  next to the user.

Activity tab

Note: A message will appear if users without adequate rights attempt to view activity data.

Based on the domain selected in the Explorer pane and the selected user/writer, you can see:

• Writer activity: Information on tasks performed by the writer in the Desktop Studio.

• User activity: Information on procedures run by the user.

• Administration activity: Tasks related to the user/writer that were performed by the domain administrator.

User groups

To create a new user group, right-click User groups access rights in the Explorer pane and select New > Group.

• You can create a user group and initialize the associated domains using a user group profile.Note: Only for server administrators.

Properties tab

This displays the description of the group. Double-click the field to modify it.

Domains attached tab

This displays the list of domains the user group is authorized to access.

• To grant access to another domain, the administrator must have the appropriate access rights to this other domain.

• Suspended access option: Access to the domain is temporarily suspended for the group. Users belonging to the group will not be able to run the associated published Self Help project procedures.

Group members tab

This displays the list of users belonging to the group.

• To associate another user with the group, click  in the toolbar of the Details pane.

• To remove a user from a group, click  next to the user.

Writers access rights

Used to manage rights for each writer authorized to access the domain selected in the Explorer pane.

Note: You can also define writer rights by clicking Writers & Users in the Explorer pane and by selecting the Writer rights tab.

   See the description of options.

User groups access rights

Used to manage rights for each group authorized to access the domain selected in the Explorer pane.

• Suspended access option: Access to the domain is temporarily suspended for the group. Users belonging to the group will not be able to run the associated published Self Help project procedures.

Skins

Used to manage the skins applied in the Self Help projects associated with the domain selected in the Explorer pane.

• Custom skins can be modified, deleted or downloaded using an archive.
• EasyVista skins cannot be deleted.

• To see the skin: Select the skin you want. A preview will appear in your Web browser tab.

• To add a skin: Click Add custom skin.

Caution

• To configure skins, users must be very familiar with HTML and CSS. For this reason:
  • The EasyVista Support team will not resolve any issues related to the customization of the evSH skin made by customers themselves and its impact on customer platforms.
  • This is also applicable to skins created by customers.

• Please contact your EasyVista consultant if you want to make modifications based on your requirements.

Quotas

Used to define the space allocated to the domain. Once the maximum space is reached, writers will receive a message informing them that they cannot create new procedures.

• This tab is designed to be used by server administrators. Domain administrators can only access it in read mode.

Licenses

Note: Licenses are used to manage Self Help usage rights for a single domain.

User metadata

This displays the list of metadata specific to Self Help projects associated with the domain selected in the Explorer pane. This metadata is created by each customer based on their requirements.

• Click  to add an item of metadata to a Self Help project.
• Tick or untick one of the boxes to enable or disable an item of metadata for a Self Help project. Note: You can also enable or disable metadata in the properties of the Self Help project.

Procedures

How to create an account on the Self Help server

        See User vs writer.

Note: Server administrator accounts are created by EasyVista.

Create user access

Step 1: Select the domain.

1. Select the domain in the tree structure of the Explorer pane.

2. Right-click Writers & Users and select New > User.
The window for creating a new user will appear.

Step 2: Create the user.

1. Specify the information required for the new user.

2. Click Finish.

3. (optional) Specify additional user properties in the table at the bottom of the Info tab.

Step 3: Associate the user with a user group.

1. Select the Group memberships tab.

2. Click the link at the bottom of the window.

3. Select the groups to which the user will belong.
Note: To select several groups, you should press and hold the <Shift> or <Ctrl> key on your keyboard while selecting the relevant groups.

4. Click Finish.

Modify user groups subsequently

• Expand the tree structure of User groups in the Explorer pane for the selected domain.

• To add a writer to an existing user group:
  • Click the group.
    The list of group members will appear in the Details pane.
  • Click  in the toolbar of the Details pane.
  • Select the writer.
  • Click Finish.

• To remove a writer from a group:
  • Click the group.
    The list of group members will appear in the Details pane.
  • Click  next to the writer.

Create writer access

Step 1: Select the domain.

1. Select the domain in the tree structure of the Explorer pane.

2. Right-click Writers & Users and select New > User.
The window for creating a new user will appear.
 

Step 2: Create the writer.

1. Specify the information required for the new writer.

2. Click Next and select the rights for the domain.

3. Click Finish.

4. (optional) Specify additional user properties in the table at the bottom of the Info tab.

Step 3 (optional): Create user access for the new writer.

Note: By default, writers do not have user access to their domain. To do this, you should associate writers with a group authorized to access the domain.

        See Create user access > Step 3.

Modify writer rights for the domain subsequently

• Click Writers access rights in the tree structure of the domain in the Explorer pane.
  The list of users associated with the domain will appear in the Details pane.
• Select the rights for the writer.

How to delete an account on the Self Help server

Step 1: Remove the account from the groups to which it belongs.

1. Expand the tree structure of Writers & Users in the Explorer pane for the selected domain.

2. Click the account you want to delete.
The Details pane will display the account information.

3. Select the Group memberships tab.

4. Click  next to each group to which the account belongs.

Step 2: Delete the account.

1. Right-click the account in the Explorer pane and select Delete.
 The tree structure in the Explorer pane will be refreshed.

How to add a new domain

Note: Only for server administrators.

1. Right-click one of the items in the Explorer pane and select New > Domain.

2. Select the domain administrators.

Note: You can create a new user. To do so, select the dedicated option and specify the required information.  See Writers & Users > Info tab.

Domain administrators will automatically have expert rights, like writers of procedures.

3. Select the relevant boxes to specify the rights of domain administrators for the new domain.