A managed content server provides great flexibility for deciding who can make particular state transitions for an Item Revision in that server - the action of transitioning a revision from one state, to another different state, as defined by the lifecycle definition employed for its parent Item. It is possible to prohibit standard (non-administrative) users from transitioning between specific lifecycle states on-the-fly, while opening up permissions to more than just Server Administrators. You have the ability to specify permissions at the global level - as part of global server operation permissions - and also at the individual state transition level. The latter act in conjunction with those settings at the global level, and facilitate fine-tuning of permissions for those more important transitions (for example setting an Item Revision to be Ready for Production ).
With various levels of permission control, you can define a lifecycle state transition strategy that adheres to your organization's preferred approach.
Defining Permissions
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Permissions can be defined at two levels:
Globally - defining which users and/or roles can perform state transitions, for the entire range of defined transitions across all defined lifecycle definitions.Locally - specifying permissions at the individual state transition level.
Global State Transition Permissions
Global state transition permissions are defined and managed from within Altium Designer using the Edit Operation Permissions dialog . Access to this dialog is made from the Data Management - Servers page of the Preferences dialog . For the active server whose permissions you wish to browse/modify, click the Properties control at the right-hand side, and choose the Operations command from the associated menu.
The server operation entry of significance here is Move revision between lifecycle states .
Access and configure, at the global level, who is permitted to perform lifecycle state transitions.
For a new managed content server, the default permission settings for this operation are:
Administrators
Collaborator
Librarians
Managers
For most cases, these default permission settings will be fine and would need to be modified only in exceptional circumstances.
Define additional permissions as required (click the Add button). State transition permissions at this global level can be assigned to the following entities:
Management of users, as well as defined
Roles (groupings of users), is performed using the server's browser interface. This can be done from an external browser. For detailed information, see
Managing Your Team (Altium 365 Workspace), or
Adding Users & Roles (self-managed Altium Concord Pro).
Local State Transition Permissions
Permissions for a particular state transition are defined in the associated State Transition Properties dialog , accessed from the applicable States and Transitions region of the lifecycle definition currently being configured in the Edit Lifecycle Definitions dialog .
Access the
Edit Lifecycle Definitions dialog from the
Data Management - Servers page of the
Preferences dialog . Click the
Properties control at the far right of the Active Server's entry, then choose the
Lifecycles command from the associated menu.
To edit the properties of a transition, click to select it, then click on the
Access controls for defining permissions for the state transition being edited.
The State Transition Permissions field reflects the type of permission control that is to be employed for the transition. While two entries are listed - Controlled and Using Approvals - an Altium 365 Workspace and self-managed Altium Concord Pro support only the former.
It is advised not to switch the field to Using Approvals , since while you can go through the motions of defining this type of permission control, when the time comes to save the modified lifecycle an error dialog will present, notifying you that approvals in lifecycles is not licensed - i.e. not supported in an Altium 365 Workspace or self-managed Altium Concord Pro.
The Controlled permission type allows you to refine exactly who can perform this transition, through specification of one or more users and/or roles. This type of local permission control is used in combination with permissions set at the global level (see How Permissions are Applied ). Use the controls in the region below to define permitted entities accordingly. By default, the Anyone entity is added, meaning that all users at this local level are permitted to perform the transition.
To set up specific users and/or roles, first select and then remove, the
Anyone entity. You can then add a user or role as required from the menu associated to the
Add button. Use the subsequent
Search For Users dialog , or
Search For Role dialog , to find the required user or role respectively.
With Controlled permissions, you can switch from access by anyone, to only those users/roles specified.
Management of users, as well as defined
Roles (groupings of users), is performed using the server's browser interface. This can be done from an external browser. For detailed information, see
Managing Your Team (Altium 365 Workspace), or
Adding Users & Roles (self-managed Altium Concord Pro).
How Permissions are Applied
For a user to be able to perform the state transition, the following conditions must be met:
They must have permission at the global level to Move revision between lifecycle states (defined in the Edit Operation Permissions dialog ).
They must have permission at the local level for this particular state transition.
They must also be a collaborator for the Item Revision whose lifecycle state is being transitioned (i.e. they must have editing rights).
These three conditions are ANDed - if one is not met, then the user will be prevented from performing that specific transition.
For non-administrative users, the default permission settings (Collaborator at the global level, and Anyone at the local state transition level) mean that you just need to make a user a collaborator for the required Item Revision, to meet all conditions. Then for key transitions, you can simply tighten permissions at the local state transition level, so that not just any collaborator can perform the transition.
Server Administrators will always be able to transition Item Revisions between different states, irrespective of locally defined state transition permissions.
