Adding Users to CentraSite
To interact with a CentraSite registry, you must have a user account with the registry.
A user account is represented by an instance of a User object. A User object contains basic attributes such as the name, email address and phone number for an individual. It also includes a link to the individual's user account in an external authentication system. This attribute is required if the User object represents an individual who will actually log on to CentraSite. You can customize the User object type to include additional attributes as necessary.
A user account can be activated or deactivated by an administrator. Active users are allowed to log on to CentraSite. Inactive users exist in the registry, but they are not permitted to log on to CentraSite. Additionally, permissions cannot be granted to inactive users, inactive users cannot be assigned ownership of an asset, they will retain ownership of the assets that they already own and they cannot be assigned to groups. Administrators generally deactivate users who leave the company or cease to be valid users of the registry. If you want to delete a user from CentraSite, you must first deactivate the user.
Tip: | To keep your audit trail intact when a user leaves the registry, simply deactivate that user and leave his or her existing assets in place. If you delete the user or transfer the user's assets to someone else, the audit trail for those assets will be lost. |
You can also use inactive users to represent individuals who are actors within your SOA environment, but are not actual users of the registry. For example, you might model certain line-of-business managers as users in the CentraSite registry so that you can express associations between these individuals and various assets in the registry. Such users might never log on to CentraSite themselves, and don’t require an account that is active and linked to the external authentication system. However, the registry will know of these users, so assets could be associated with them. Points-of-contact for external parties such as suppliers and distributors are additional individuals that you might want to model as inactive users.
Note: | Because inactive users cannot be assigned to groups, users who are inactive are not eligible to receive automatic email notifications from CentraSite. You might want to take this point into consideration when deciding whether to make a user inactive or active. |
Only users who belong to a role that includes the Manage Users permission can add, modify and/or delete users on CentraSite. However, any user, including guests, can view other users of the registry.
