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 Site administrators can create groups. Type Manage Groups in the search bar at the top of each page, then click on the matching result. Click the New Group button to create the group.

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

Site administrators can manage the permissions and members of a group at any time. To access the list of groups, type Manage Groups in the search bar at the top of each page, then click on the matching result. To make changes to a group select the edit button in the rightmost column of the group list.

Deleting Groups

To delete a group, 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".

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, type Groups Matrix in the search bar at the top of each page, and then click on the matching result.

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, Site administrators can 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.

To access the setting, type Manage all permissions via groups in the search bar at the top of each page, and then click on the matching result. 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.