XPRESSO

Groups and Group Membership

This topic provides Group-related information and tasks which are relevant to all Group Membership roles (including the Group Administrator). See "Group Administration" for Group-related information and tasks that are exclusive to just the Group Administrator.

About Groups and Group Membership

Groups and Group Membership roles are the key collaboration principles within XPRESSO which:

  • Implicitly defines the permission settings of each Member in a Group.

  • Defines what actions each Membership role can perform and which GUI elements they can see on the XPRESSO dashboard.

You need to be assigned to a Group and assigned a Membership role within that Group in order to complete any XPRESSO actions.

All resources are shared among Group members, for example, all Jobs and testbeds within the same Group are usable by all Group members.

Group Members also share a common set of Group preferences to help simplify and expedite the creation of configuration forms in XPRESSO.

Group information and tasks in this topic includes:

  • Controlling XPRESSO Group Access

  • Defining Membership Roles in XPRESSO Groups

  • Transitioning from a Guest User Role

  • Determining your Current Active Group

  • Determining your Current Assigned Membership role

  • Changing your Membership role in a Group

  • Switching to Another Group

  • Determining which Actions your Group can Perform

  • Joining Another Group

  • Creating a Request to Create a New Group

  • Managing your Group Membership to determine:

    • Which Group(s) you currently belong to.
    • Your assigned Membership role in each Group you belong to
    • Your user ID for each Group
    • Who the Group Administrator is for each Group you belong to
    • If the Group you belong to is a Public or Private Group
    • If the Group you belong to Allows/Denies Guests to Join
    • How to a Leave a Group
    • How to Switch your Active Group to another Group

  • Viewing other Groups and their resources:

    • Provides a list of all Groups you don't have a membership in
    • Identifies the Group Administrator(s) for the Group
    • Indicates if the Group Allows Guest Access | Denies Guest Access
    • How to Join another Group

Controlling XPRESSO Group Access

There are two Group categories used in XPRESSO: Private and Public groups; both categories have different access rules that applies to the Group:

NOTE:
System Administrators are exempt from the access rules that apply to Group categories; they can view/access all Groups, Group resources, and Group members and perform all Group-related tasks.

Private Groups:

  • Private Groups are not visible on the XPRESSO dashboard to non-Group Members; only Group members can see the Group resources and which Members belong to the Group.

  • Guest access to Private Groups is not permitted.

  • Membership in Private groups is by invitation-only which is performed by the Group Administrator.

  • A locked Padlock icon adjacent to the Group name indicates this Group is a Private Group.

Public Groups:

  • Public Groups are visible on the XPRESSO dashboard to all non-Group Members.

  • Guest Access to Public Groups can be:

    • Allowed:

      • All non-Group Members are allowed to view Group resources (such as jobs and profiles) without having to join the Group.

      • Users may select a group that Allows Guest Access as their active group; they are automatically given the transient role of "Guest" Member.

      • Allowing Guest Access for a group is useful: (1) In the event you want to send a link to another user to help you debug an issue and they need access to the Group details. (2) Some Users may need to view test results from a large number of Groups but not perform any other actions.

    • Denied:

      • Only current Group members are allowed to view the Group resources and which members belong to the Group.

      • Non-Group members cannot set this Group as their current active Group.

      • Denying Guest access to a Group is a security access measure; you may want other users to find your Group so they can request access to the Group but you do not want the Group resources to be publicly viewable.

  • You can request membership to join any Public Group (Guest access enabled or not); see below for details. Joining a Public Group implies you will transition from a Guest User role to either a Member, Privilege Member, or Group Admin role.

  • An un-lock Padlock icon adjacent to the Group name indicates if the Group is a Public Group.

Group Administrators manage Group Categories by updating the Group Profile associated with a Group.

Defining Membership Roles in XPRESSO Groups

Each User's privileges within a Group are limited by their Membership role. There are four Membership roles within a Group: (ranked from the highest to lowest permission settings)

  • Group Admin role
  • Privileged Member role
  • Group Member role
  • Guest User role (a transient role assigned to new Group Members before reassignment to another group)

For information about what tasks each Group Membership role generally performs, see "Defining XPRESSO User Types and Group Membership Roles".

Transitioning from a Guest User Role

New registered users in XPRESSO are automatically assigned to a Guest User role which is designed to be a transient (default) role before they are assigned to another Membership role by the Group Administrator. As a new user, you are also automatically assigned to a default "Guest" group.

The following access restrictions are imposed on Guest Members:

  • They have minimum visibility of XPRESSO features and GUI elements.
  • They can only view details about public groups that allow guest access.
  • The only actions they can perform in XPRESSO is submit or rerun Job Requests.

How to Transition from a Guest User Role

You have three options to transition from a Guest User Role in the Guest Group to another Group:

  1. Submit a request to join an existing group; once approved, you need to switch from the Guest Group to the new Group. The Group Admin also changes your Guest User role to another Membership role as part of the group enrollment process.

  2. Submit a request to create a new Group, once the Group is created, you need to switch from the Guest Group to the new Group. By default, the user who requested the new group is given the Group Administrator role for the new group.

  3. In the event your Group Administrator has proactively added you to their Group (you will be notified by email), you need to switch from the Guest Group to the new Group. The Group Admin also changes your Guest User role to another Membership role as part of the group enrollment process.

Determining your Current Active Group

You may join and belong to multiple Groups, however, you can only have one active Group at a time. The actions you can perform with XPRESSO applies to your current active group. You may need to determine which Group is your current active Group.

To Determine your Current Active Group:

You can determine your current active Group by clicking the Login Name/Active Group Icon Button located at the bottom of the Main Navigation Bar. Your active group is identified to the right of your login name.

Determining your Current Membership Role

Since you can belong to several Groups, you may need to determine your Membership role in your current active Group. The actions you can perform and the visibility of XPRESSO dashboard GUI elements are determined by your assigned user type and Membership role.

To Determine your Membership Role:

This procedure allows you to determine your assigned role for each of the Groups you belong to and which Groups you are a member of. Other information (noted below) is also displayed.

  1. From the Main Navigation Bar, choose Settings, Contacts & Help→Group Management to open the Group Membership page.

  2. Click the My Groups menu if required. The My Group page displays indicating:

    • Which Group(s) you currently belong to.
    • Your Membership role in each group: Guest | Member | Privilege Member | Group Admin.
    • Your user ID.
    • The Group Admins.
    • If the Group is a Public or Private Group.
    • If the Group Allows or Disallows Guests.

You can view your current permissions to determine which XPRESSO actions your Membership role can perform within a Group. Group Administrators can also change the permission setting as required to grant or revoke the execution of a specific action for all members in a specific role. See "Viewing your Current Group Permissions" for more information.

Changing your Membership Role in a Group

In the event you want to perform an action in XPRESSO and you do not have the required permissions, you can make a request to be upgraded to a higher Membership role:

NOTE:
You can only perform this procedure if you currently have a Group Member role or Privileged Member role.

To Change your Role in a Group:

  1. From the Main Navigation Bar, choose Settings, Contacts & Help→Group Management to open the Group Membership page.

  2. Click the My Groups menu if required. The My Group page displays all registered Groups you belong to.

  3. Click the Group that you want to change your Role for. The Group Overview details display.

  4. Click Users→Members from the Left Menu Bar to display all Group members in the selected Group.

  5. Hover over the Group that you want to change your Membership role for and click the Request Role Modification floating action button located to the right of the page. The Request to modify role in form opens.

  6. Fill in the Request details.

  7. Click the Send Request button to complete the action. Your request to change your role will be sent to the Group Administrator for processing. You will receive both a notification and an email when the Group Administrator approves or denies your request.

Switching to Another Group

When a Guest member requests to join an existing Group or requests to create a new Group, the Group Admin changes their Guest User role to another Membership role as part of the Group enrollment process. You then need to switch from your current Group to the newly available Group.

You may also have to switch Groups if you belong to multiple Groups. You can conveniently switch Groups on-the-fly via the XPRESSO dashboard; having different Member roles in each Group does not impede this action.

The following icons are used to convey information about the Group you want to switch to:

  • The Lock/Unlocked icon indicates if the group is a Private Group or Public Group.

  • Grayed out groups indicate the Group is temporarily disabled.

When you switch Groups, it becomes your new active Group and any actions performed onwards will be registered against that Group.

IMPORTANT:
You have the ability to switch Groups on demand in XPRESSO. When you switch Groups, you must re-launch any open forms to reflect (refresh) the current Group details; any open forms that shows your old Group details persist until they are closed (they are no longer updated or may error-out since you have a new active group; this is design intent). Switching Groups only updates your current user group; it does not switch the views associated with a Group.

How to Switch Groups

There are two methods to switch Groups:

To Switch to another Group:

Method 1:

  1. From the Main Navigation Bar, click the Switch Group button to open the listing of all current Groups you are a current member of. Your current "active" Group is listed just below the Search Panel.

  2. Click on the Group you want to switch to. An Info notification appears to indicate/confirm the Group you switched to. You can also verify which group is your current active group using the Login Name/Active Group icon button located at the bottom of the Main Navigation Bar.

Method 2:

  1. From the Main Navigation Bar, choose Settings, Contacts & Help→Group Management to open the Group Membership page.

  2. Click the My Groups menu if required. The My Group page displays all the Groups you currently belong to.

  3. Click on the Group of interest that you want to switch to and click the Set as Current Group floating action button located on the right side of the page. An Info notification appears to indicate/confirm the Group you switched to. You can also verify which group is your current active group using the Login Name/Active Group icon button located at the bottom of the Main Navigation Bar.

Determining which Actions your Group can Perform

In XPRESSO, permissions control the system actions for each Membership role within a Group. You can view your current permissions to determine which XPRESSO actions your Membership role can perform within a Group.

Group Administrators can also change the permission setting as required to grant or revoke the permission of a specific action for all members in that role. See "Viewing your current Group permissions" for more information.

If you need to perform additional actions beyond what you can presently perform, you have two options: (both options required the Group Administrator to complete).

  • Request to be promoted to a role that has higher-permissions.

  • Request to change/customize the default set of actions assigned to a Group to grant the permission of a specific action for all Members in a specific role.

Contact your Group administrator through the messages to request the desired change.

Joining another Group

You can view other Group resources to determine if a Group meets your testing requirements. Once you locate an appropriate Group to join, submit a request to join that Group; the Group Administrators is responsible for accepting your request.

To Request to Join another Group:

  1. From the Main Navigation Bar, choose Settings, Contacts & Help→Group Management to open the Group Membership page.

  2. Click the Other Groups menu. The Other Group page displays all registered Groups.

  3. Hover over the Group of interest that you want to join and click the Request to Join floating action button located on the right side of the page. The Request to Join Group Name of Group form opens.

  4. Fill in the Request details.

  5. Click the Send Request icon button to complete the action. Your request to join the group will be sent to the Group Administrator for processing.

  6. You will receive both a notification and an email when the Group Administrator approves or denies your request. Once approved, this new group will be listed under the My Groups, page. You can then select this group as your current active group.

Requesting the Creation of a New Group

In the event you cannot find an existing Group that fits your testing requirements or you require a new group for your organization, you can submit a request to System Administrators create new Groups on your behalf.

NOTE:
The User who requests the creation of the Group is automatically assigned the Group Administrator role for the Group.

To Request the Creation of a New Group:

  1. From the Main Navigation Bar, choose Settings, Contacts & Help→Group Management to open the Group Membership page.

  2. Click the My Groups menu if required. The My Group page displays all registered Groups you belong to. If you are a new Member to XPRESSO, only the Guest group is visible.

  3. Click the Request New Group floating action button located on the right side of the page. The Request a New Group form opens.

  4. Fill in the Request Details.

  5. Click the Send Request button to complete the action. Your request to join the group will be sent to the System Administrator for processing.

  6. You will receive both a notification and an email when the System Administrator approves or denies your request. Once approved, this new group will be listed under the My Groups page. You can then select this group as your current active group.

Viewing other Groups and their Resources

By default, all Groups that you are not a Member of are listed under the Other Groups page. You may want to view other Group resources to determine if a Group meets your testing requirements prior to sending a request to join that Group.

To View other Groups and their Resources:

  1. From the Main Navigation Bar, choose Settings, Contacts & Help→Group Management to open the Group Membership page.

  2. Click on the Other Groups menu. The Other Group page displays the following high-level information about the Groups:

    • Provides a list of all Groups registered in XPRESSO you don't have a membership in.
    • Identifies the Group Administrator(s) for the Group.
    • Indicates if the Group Allows Guests | Denies Guest Access.

  3. You can optionally perform the following Group-related functional tasks at this level:

    • You can request to join another group by clicking the Request to Join floating action button associated with a Group.

    • Group Admins can also perform the following management functions to your Groups using the following floating action buttons: (Edit | Enable | Maintenance | Disable | Delete).

  4. Click on the Group of interest that you want to view further details about, for example, to locate a specific group by identifying a specific Group Member. See Managing your Group Membership below for detailed information about what information is provided for each group.

Managing your Group Membership

This information outlines the ongoing Group Membership tasks that can be performed by all Group Membership roles. This will help you manage your Group dependencies and help you quickly find Group-related information such as which Groups you belong to, your Membership role in each Group and which Members belong in the Group.

To Manage your Group Membership:

  1. From the Main Navigation Bar, choose Settings, Contacts & Help→Group Management to open the Group Membership page.

  2. Click the My Groups menu if required. The My Group page displays the following high-level information about the Groups you belong to:

    • Your user ID within each Group.
    • Which Group(s) you currently belong to.
    • Who the Group Administrator is for each Group you belong to.
    • Your assigned Membership role in each Group you belong to: Guest | Member | Privilege Member | Group Admin.
    • If the Group is a Public or Private Group.
    • If the Group Allows or Denies Guests.

  3. You can optionally perform the following Group-related tasks at this level:

    • To remove yourself from a group, click the "Leave" floating action button associated with the Group you want to leave.

    • To switch your active Group to another Group, click the "Set as Current Group" floating action button associated with the new Group you want to join.

    • To request the creation of a new Group, click the "Request New Group" floating action button (located on the top right side of the My Group Details page.).

    • Group Admins can also perform the following management functions to your groups: Leave | Edit | Delete | Maintenance | Disable.

  4. Click on a Group of interest if you need to view further details about the Group. The Group Details page opens showing the following Overview information:

    • Group name (cannot be changed)

    • Group current state: Enabled | Maintenance | Disabled; Group Admins can change the groups status by clicking the appropriate Status radio button.

    • Group Creation Date (cannot be changed)

  5. As required, click one of the following menus from the Left Menu Bar to access the following Group-related information or sub-menus:

    • LaaS Menu: Provides resource details used by the Group, for example, the LaaS instance name, domain, URL, and port used and the state of the LaaS instance. Group Admins can manage LaaS lab resources (Add | Disable | Delete) on this page as required.

    • Preferences Menu: Provides access to the following preference sub-menus that apply to your Group.

    NOTE:
    All Group members can view their Group preferences but only the Group Administrator can set the default value for them.

    • Workflow Preferences
    • Environment Preferences
    • Docker Image Preferences
    • Reservation Preferences
    • Webhook Preferences
    • Notification Preferences

  • Lab VPN Access: Provides access to the following sub-menus.

    • VPN Configuration Allows you to connect to external network devices and other resources using a VPN connection in order to create a reservation for these devices.

    • VNC Session: Allows you to create a VNC session to remotely control network devices.

  • Users: Provides access to the following sub-menus.

    • Members Provides a running count of the number of members in the current group, which members belong to the Group (by User ID ), and their currently assigned role (Guest | Member | Privileged Member | Group Admin). Group Admins can promote or demote Group members to another Membership role on this page.

    • Permissions: Allows you toview the current permissions assigned to a Group to determine which XPRESSO actions your Membership role can perform. Group Admins can customize the default set of actions assigned to a Group as required to grant or revoke the execution of a specific action for all members in a specific role according to their organizational and testing requirements.

  • More: Provides access to the following sub-menu:

    • History tab: Provides a time/date record of all changes made at a Group level such as indicating when members were added/deleted from a group, group status changes or deletions, or changes made to the Group Preferences.
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