Groups

Groups are an ideal way of categorizing users to simplify and streamline permission assignment. Rather than assigning permissions to one user at a time, you can use groups to conveniently assign the same permissions to many users at once.

For example, imagine creating a Group called HR to house the Users in the Human Resources department. You could then create a Folder called HR and assign the HR Group Read/Write Permissions to that folder.

Now as individuals join and leave the HR department, there is no need to worry about modifying each user's individual permissions - just add and remove users from the HR Group and the users' corresponding permissions will update accordingly.

Adding Groups

Only administrators can create groups. As an administrator, you can add new groups from Settings > Groups.

You may give a group a unique Group name relevant to its purpose (e.g. a department or organization name), and optionally enter a Note for your reference. You may then click the drop-down box under Group members to add individual users to the group (you can always edit the group to add or remove users later). When finished, click the Create group button.

Editing Groups

Administrators can manage the permissions and members of a group at any time. To make changes to a group, navigate to Settings > Groups and select the edit button in the rightmost column of the group list.

Deleting Groups

To delete a group, simply click the delete button in the rightmost column of the group list. The group will immediately be deleted, and its members will lose any permissions they had previously inherited from the group.

Delegating Group Administration

Files.com includes the Group Admin feature on Enterprise plans, providing administrators with the added flexibility of delegating user creation within a group to select non-administrators known as "group admins".

To designate a group member as an admin of a group, simply check the Group admin checkbox for that group member when creating or editing the group. You may designate multiple members of a group as admins.

Group admins can access the group(s) they manage by clicking the Groups icon in the web interface. There they will see the list of groups they can add users to, as well as the current user count of each group.

Group admins can click the name of a group they manage to view the members of the group. From there, they can use the Create user in this group button to create new users within the group.

Showing the Group Matrix

To better understand the structure of your groups and the members in those groups, Files.com provides a Group Matrix display. The Group Matrix shows all the members on your system and their associated groups.

To access the Group Matrix, select Settings > Users or Settings > Groups and select the Groups Matrix tab.

Additionally, you can filter the Group Matrix to show only select groups. Select the Columns box, to filter the specific group or groups to show in your Group Matrix.

Requiring That Groups be Used for All Permission Assignment

To ensure consistency in how your site is applying permissions, it is possible to require all Permissions to be assigned only to Groups, and not to individual users.

With this feature enabled, you can ensure that a group permission framework is followed, and no one - whether accidentally or purposely - grants users individual permissions.

Site administrators can enable this feature under Settings > Groups > Group Settings > Manage all permissions via groups. This setting requires the Power or Premier plan.

Enabling this setting will not remove permissions previously granted to individual users.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) with Files.com

Customers can use Groups in Files.com to implement RBAC with Files.com. If you determine the permissions and map them to the necessary roles in your organization and users, Groups can be created to reflect the roles and the associated permissions.

Additionally, if you are using an external identity/SSO solution (IdP) to manage the LDAP or ActiveDirectory of your users, Files.com can also integrate to many IdPs where the Groups will be synchronized between Files.com and the external IdP solution. Please refer to the SSO documentation for further information.