Assign Security Roles To a Folder

Folder security may be inherited from its parent folder or explicitly defined for the folder. All of the role assignments for a folder and its sub-folders may be exported, cleared, and imported as a batch.

For information on configuring security roles, see Manage Security Roles and Role-Based Security.

Assigning roles to a folder is typically reserved for System Administrators who know what privileges have been enabled for each role in a vault. If you do not know the capabilities of each role, consult a System Administrator before proceeding.

You must be a member of a group that has the Assign Roles privilege to perform this task.

Notes About Functionality

If no roles are assigned to a vault, then no security restrictions are applied and everyone has full access to all documents in the vault. As soon as one role is assigned to the vault, that is the only role with access to the vault until other roles are assigned. We recommend that you first assign at least yourself to the role with the most privileges for the root level of the vault before assigning any other roles. This will prevent locking yourself out of the vault or from not being able to modify roles and role assignments. The role should have the Change configuration privilege in the Vault group and the Assign roles privilege in the Folder group.
If Inherited from parent folder is enabled, the roles list is empty, and the folder has the same role assignments as its parent. This parent folder might inherit its roles from its parent, and so on, all the way up the folder tree to the root of the vault.
If your Meridian environment has many groups and users and selecting them in the task below is tedious, a web server setting can be configured that will show an alternative Assign Roles dialog. This dialog allows you to filter the list before selecting the users or groups to assign to a role. The setting to enable this feature is AddRoleAssignmentsInDialog and it must be set to 1 in the PowerWeb profile file of the user that will use the dialog. The setting applies only to PowerWeb. For information about editing the profile file, see Configure Default PowerWeb User Settings.

PowerWeb Procedures

Use these steps for PowerWeb.

Assign Roles to Folder

To assign roles to a folder:

In the Folders navigation view, select the folder to which you want to assign roles.
Choose between two options:
- In the view bar, click Role Assignments.
- In the Folder ribbon, in the Information group, click Role Assignments.
  
  The list of current role assignments appears.
To disable role assignment inheritance and explicitly assign roles to the folder, disable Inherit from parent folder.

The Add to List button becomes enabled.
Above the Apply button, select the name of the user or group from the left list to which you want to assign a role.
Select the role from the right list that you want to assign to the selected user or group and then click Add to List .

The new role assignment is added to the list of current role assignments.
Click Apply.

Remove Roles from Folder

To remove roles from a folder:

In the Folders navigation view, select the folder from which you want to remove roles.
Choose between two options:
- In the view bar, click Role Assignments.
- In the Folder ribbon, in the Information group, click Role Assignments.
  
  The list of current role assignments appears.
In the roles list, place a check mark in the leftmost column of the role that you want to remove and then click Remove.
If you accidentally remove a role that you want to keep, click Undo Remove.
Click Apply.

Export Security Assignments from Folder and Sub-Folders

Security assignments are saved in XML format. You can open the file in a web browser to view or print the information. The file contains a reference to an example XSLT file named security report.xslt that, if copied to the same folder with the output, will transform and format the output using the styles that are defined in the XSLT file.

By default, the security assignments file is installed in the Meridian Enterprise folder at C:\Program Files (x86)\BC-Meridian\Program. You can modify the XSLT file to meet your own requirements. We recommend that you not modify the XML output file.

To export the security assignments of the current folder and its sub-folders:

In the Folders view, select the top-level folder from which you want to export roles.
Choose between two options:
- In the view bar, click Role Assignments.
- In the Folder ribbon, in the Information group, click Role Assignments.
  
  The list of current role assignments appears.
Click Export.

The file <FolderName>.xml downloads to your browser where you can save it.

Remove Existing Security Assignments

Note:

If the vault has many roles assignments, this operation can take a long time (hours). We recommend that you perform this operation after production hours.

To remove all existing security assignments:

In the Folders view, select the top-level folder from which you want to remove all role assignments.
Choose between two options:
- In the view bar, click Role Assignments.
- In the Folder ribbon, in the Information group, click Role Assignments.
  
  The list of current role assignments appears.
To disable role assignment inheritance and explicitly assign roles to the folder, disable Inherit from parent folder.

The Clear button becomes enabled.
Click Clear.

A dialog box opens, asking you to confirm your choice.
Click Yes.

The role assignments are removed.

Import Role Assignments from XML

Note:

If the XML file contains references to folders that do not yet exist in the current vault, the folders will be skipped and not created automatically.
The role assignments that are imported will replace all existing role assignments for each folder, not add to them. Be sure that no critical role assignments will be lost if you proceed.
If the vault from which the XML file was created has many roles assignments, this operation can take a long time (hours). We recommend that you perform this operation after production hours.

To import role assignments from an XML file that was previously exported:

In the Folders view, select the top-level folder to which you want to import roles.
Choose between two options:
- In the view bar, click Role Assignments.
- In the Folder ribbon, in the Information group, click Role Assignments.
  
  The list of current role assignments appears.
To disable role assignment inheritance and explicitly assign roles to the folder, disable Inherit from parent folder.

The Import button becomes enabled.
Click Import.

The Choose File to Upload dialog box appears.
Select the file that contains the role assignments that you want to import and then click Open.

A dialog box opens, asking you to confirm your choice.
Click Yes.

The role assignments are imported.

PowerUser Procedures

Use these steps for PowerUser.

Assign Roles to Folder

To assign roles to a folder:

In the Folders view, select the folder to which you want to assign roles.
Select Assign Roles from the Folder menu.

The Assign Roles dialog box appears.
To disable role assignment inheritance and explicitly assign roles to the folder, disable Inherit from parent folder.

The Add button becomes enabled.
Click Add.

The Add User Role Assignment dialog box appears.
Select a role from Add to role.
To assign a group to the selected role, enable Group and type or select a group name from the adjacent list.
To assign a user to the selected role, enable User and type or select a user name from the adjacent list.
Click Check Name to validate the selected name.
Click OK.

The role assignment is added to the list.
Repeat steps 4 through 8 to assign more roles to the folder.
Select a role assignment and click Remove to remove the role assignment.
Click OK.

The current role assignments are applied to the current folder.

Export Security Assignments from Folder and Sub-Folders

By default, the security assignments file is installed in the Meridian Enterprise folder at C:\Program Files\BC-Meridian\Program. You can modify the XSLT file to meet your own requirements. We recommend that you not modify the XML output file.

To export the security assignments of the current folder and its sub-folders:

In the Folders view, select the top-level folder from which you want to export roles.
Select Assign Roles from the Folder menu.

The Assign Roles dialog box appears.
Click Export.

The Save As dialog box appears.
Specify a location and filename for the file and click Save.

The role assignments are exported.

Remove Existing Security Assignments

Import Role Assignments from XML

Note:

If the XML file contains references to folders that do not yet exist in the current vault, the folders will skipped and not created automatically.
The role assignments that are imported will replace all existing role assignments for each folder, not add to them. Be sure that no critical role assignments will be lost if you proceed.
If the vault from which the XML file was created has many roles assignments, this operation can take a long time (hours). We recommend that you perform this operation after production hours.

To import role assignments from an XML file that was previously exported:

In the Folders view, select the top-level folder to which you want to import roles.
Select Assign Roles from the Folder menu.

The Assign Roles dialog box appears.
Click Import.

The Open dialog box appears.
Select the file that contains the role assignments that you want to import and then click Open.

A dialog box opens, asking you to confirm your choice.
Click Yes.

The role assignments are imported.