Securing an Explorer Object

This article applies to versions 4.6 and later of P2 Explorer.

Overview

In the Explorer module, workspaces are the only object that can be secured at the object level. An individual workspace is an object of the Workspaces resource in the Explorer module.

Securing workspaces relies on default object security, which provides the Everyone role with implicit view privileges for all objects in the system. When securing a workspace, you will need to remove the View privilege from the resource, as well as default object privileges for other roles.

When applying object-level privileges, it is important to remember the cascading nature of privileges applied at the resource-level. If a role has explicit View privileges (or higher) on the Workspaces resource, all users with that role can view all workspaces. 

TOP TIP

If you intend on changing security for workspaces, avoid explicitly setting privileges on the Workspaces resource in Server Management.

 

Changing object-level security for individual workspaces is done directly within Explorer workspaces, and requires Explorer administrator privileges.

Related: How Security Works, How Roles Work, How Object Access WorksAdd an Administrator

What the Privileges Mean

Each resource may have different privileges. This is a list of the privileges for each resource, and what they mean.

Additionally, Explorer Admin privileges grants the user privileges to:

  • Set per-workspace privileges.
  • Create workspaces.

Styles

Privileges on styles apply to both styles and style constants.

Privilege What it means
Edit  Create and modify styles and style constants.
Delete  Delete styles and style constants. 

Workspaces

Privileges on a workspace apply to the workspace, and displays in the workspace i.e. the pages and trends belonging to the workspace.

Privilege What it means
View See the workspace and its displays. 
Edit 
  • Edit the workspace details
  • Approve submissions of displays for the workspace
  • Directly edit the displays in the workspace 
Delete  Delete the workspace and all of its contents. 

 


Tutorial 1. Changing Workspace Privileges

1. In P2 Explorer, open the workspace you want to lock down.

2. Click the  Settings button.

For each role, click the relevant privileges you want to assign.

What the Colours Mean

The privileges matrix is colour-coded to indicate the cascading nature of privileges. The colours are:

 Grey: Privilege not granted
 Green tick: Privilege is explicitly granted, associated privileges will also be automatically granted. 
 Green dot: Privilege is granted because a higher level privilege has been granted on the object.
 Blue: Privilege is granted because it is inherited by a resource privilege.

When you have finished, click Save.


Tutorial 2. Locking Down a Workspace

In this example, we show you how to lock down a workspace. We will use the Operations workspace as an example.

Step 1. Server Management Role Privileges

The first step is to make sure that no roles have resource-level privileges for workspaces.  

The exception is the administrator role for the module which owns the object you are locking down. In this case, you might allow Administrators and Explorer Administrators resource-level privileges, but no other role.

You will need to go through each and every role, one by one, and make sure that all privileges for workspaces are off. It may be easier to first check the workspace to see which roles are affected.

Related: Change a Role's Privileges

Step 2. Object Privileges

Next, open the module in which the object is located. In the case of workspaces, these are located in Explorer. However other objects, such as datasources, are located in other modules and the privileges can be found alongside the configuration options (for the datasources example, these are in Server Management > Configuration > Datasources).

Open the workspace you want to lock down, and click the  Settings button.

Take note of the View privileges, and especially the blue ones. These are the roles that have the privilege applied at the resource level. If you do not want any of these roles to see this workspace, go back into Role Privileges and remove it from the role (see Step 1 above).

Next, you will notice that the remaining roles all have explicit (green) view privileges for the workspace. This is because of default security, whereby all users have view access to all objects. We can override this default security here.

Related: Default Security for Everyone

For each role, except the Managers role, go through and untick the green View privilege. The only role want to be able to view this workspace is the Managers role, so that will remain green. 

Then, click Save.

You have now locked down the Operations workspace so that only Managers and some administrators are able to view it.

 

Comments are closed