User permission framework
Configure safe and clear environment for your team
Flexible user permission settings help to create a productive communication and collaboration environment. With Virola permission framework you can allow or restrict specific actions for the whole team, in a specific chat rooms and/or for specific users.
Permission framework in Virola is room-centric, so most of the permissions are related to actions that users are or aren't allowed to perform in certain chat rooms. For example, the same user can have full access to messaging in one room and remain just a reader in another one.
User permissions hierarchy
User permissions can be applied on three levels:
- default application level - to all app users in general, all private and group rooms' participants
- common room level - to all users added to a specific chat room, either group or private
- personal user level - to individual user using the app or participating in a specific group chat room
App-level user permissions
For all app users and individually per user the following permissions can be set:
- Creating private chat rooms
- Creating group chat rooms
- Viewing other users' personal details
- Viewing Task board
- Viewing Meeting board
- Ability to change own password
- Ability to reset own Web API access token
These permissions are set globally, inherited by all users and can be overwritten by admin for specific users.
By default, all the above permissions are granted to all users.
Room-level user permissions
Room-level permissions are related to messaging, collaboration in the room, and its appearance. They are set for users in all group chat rooms, participants of specific rooms, and individually per specific room participant.
The same set of room-level permissions is available for all users in all private chat rooms. However, private chat rooms permissions cannot be overridden on the room or user level.
Permissions related to messaging and files sending are granted or restricted separately for main chat thread and for discussion threads:
- Creating text messages
- Editing or removing own text messages
- Sending files (creating attachments)
- Renaming or removing own attachments
- Adding reactions to messages
- Seeing who read the message
Another set of permissions allows configuring the scope of collaboration features available to users:
- Creating issues (tasks)
- Creating meetings
- Activating the intercom
- Screen sharing
- Recording meetings
- Sending nudges
- Managing issues in the room
And as of now there is one permission related to the room appearance:
- Seeing the room sidebar
By default, all permissions are granted to all users in all chat rooms.
Group chat rooms participation management
A group chat room moderator or a Virola administrator can configure group chat room options to add new users to the room automatically or allow them to join the room through the chat room link.
By default, "Auto-add new Users to this Room" and "Allow Users to self-add to this Room" options are disabled.
Additionally, the moderator can allow or disallow users to leave the group chat room. By default, "Allow Users to leave this Chat Room" option is enabled.
How can user permission settings improve my workflow?
There are many ways to utilize user permissions. However, the main purpose of this feature is to help users collaborate and communicate efficiently. Let's see how this feature can be used in Virola corporate messenger.
Organizing customer support via Virola
Virola messenger can be used to provide personalized customer support, to create and manage a community dedicated to your business or product, or even organize workshops and webinars. In all cases your customers will need to download and install Virola client app and login with credentials you provide them, or register their accounts on your server through the Virola app.
When organizing personalized support, you can restrict customers from creating private and group chat rooms - this way they won't be able to find other users and communicate behind your back. But you can add them either manually or automatically to restricted group chat rooms where they can get news, or create private or group chat rooms with personal managers who will assist them.
If you want to host a webinar for a large group of customers who don't know each other, you can create a restricted group room for the webinar. In this room, participants won't be able to see each other or know how many people are in the room. You can then share a link for joining the room.
When creating a community, you can relax the restrictions and allow users to interact in your group chat rooms in various ways, such as texting, participating in meetings, and sharing screens, all within a moderated environment.
Using permission framework is very convenient if you want to provide premium customer service in a number of different ways.
Configuring read-only news channels
When you need to create a communication channel to post company news, updates, and other valuable information but would like to prevent users from posting there, you can apply common room-level permissions to that group chat room and prohibit posting messages, attachments, etc. to the main chat thread.
If this news channel is intended for communication with your customers, you can disable nudges, intercom features, and screen sharing within the channel. You can also hide information about other users completely by restricting access to the room sidebar and disabling the ability to see users who read the message posted in a group.
However, when creating a news channel for your team, it's good to keep messaging allowed in the discussion threads. This way your team members will be able to discuss the news and ask questions if any.
Your new users can join such channels from a link you provide them, or you can activate an option to add all new users to your news channel automatically.
Setting specific per-room permissions
Sometimes it may be necessary to restrict specific actions in all chat rooms. For example, prohibit renaming or removing attachments or editing and removing own texts. In this case, you can configure default group chat room-level permissions and set restrictions which will be applied to all group chat rooms in your Virola server.
However, it is possible to override default permissions for specific chat rooms and apply common room-level permissions there. For example, you have a group chat room for your IT department. You would like to allow managing issues in this room, while in other rooms you would like to keep this feature prohibited. In this case, you can restrict "Change properties of other users' issues" permission on the default level and then grant it for a separate group chat room with the help of common room-level permissions settings.
Setting specific per-user permissions
Let's imagine that you've already created a read-only news channel. But now you need a moderator to keep the channel alive by posting news and updates. For this purpose, you need to allow some users to post messages and upload files to this channel. In this case, you can edit their personal room-level permissions and grant permissions for posting to the main thread and editing their messages.
