Managing User Groups in the Staff Area

A user group sets the limits, permissions and delivery servers of the accounts in it. The staff area of the new interface has three screens for user groups: the User groups list, Create user group and the group's Edit page. They replace the classic admin User Groups list and its create and edit pages.

Screen	Path on a default install	Permission
User groups list	/user/staff/user-groups	UserGroups
Create a user group	/user/staff/user-groups/new	UserGroups. Not available to a sub-administrator limited to some user groups
Edit a user group	/user/staff/user-groups/<id>/edit	UserGroups

INFO

The staff screens act as the administrator who is signed in. A sub-administrator limited to some user groups sees, opens and edits only those groups, and has no create, duplicate or delete action: Octeth refuses those for such an account.

The User groups list

Choose User groups in the left menu. Each row shows:

• Name. Click the row to open the group's Edit page.
• Users: the number of accounts in the group. Click it to open the Users list filtered by that group. The link needs the Users and User.Browse permissions.
• Delivery servers: the server assigned to Marketing, Transactional and Auto responder email, or Not assigned when the group uses the system send method for that channel.
• Send method: System, SMTP with its host, or the stored method (for example PowerMTA).
• ID.

Type in the Search user groups box to filter by name or ID. Click the Name, Users or ID column header to sort, and click it again to reverse the order.

The Create user group button opens the page described in Create a user group.

Create a user group

Open User groups and choose Create user group. The page has four parts.

• General. The Name and the Subscriber area logout URL are required. When a billing plug-in offers subscription plans, choose the Subscription plan and whether new sign-ups on that plan join this group. Only one group can be the default of a plan. Turn on This is a trial group to set the Trial length in days.
• Limits. Subscribers, lists, campaigns per month, emails per month, per day and in the account's lifetime, email gateway sender domains, and the import and send approval thresholds. 0 or empty means unlimited. Rate limits is a JSON document with the EmailGateway and SMS buckets. Load defaults fills it with the default buckets, and an empty field stores the defaults.
• Sending. System sends through the install's delivery settings. Custom SMTP server asks for the SMTP host, port, security, timeout and, with authentication on, a username and password. A test email is sent to your address first, and the group is not created when it cannot be sent.
• Permissions. What users of the group can do, by section, with All and None per section and Select all and Select none for the whole list. The plug-in section grants each enabled plug-in.

Click Create user group at the bottom of the page.

The new group uses the install's default theme. The delivery servers, headers and footers, sender domain options, AI assistant limits and sender screening are set on the Edit page once the group exists.

Edit a user group

Choose a group in the list. The Edit page has five sections in the menu on the left. Each one has its own save button, for example Save general settings, and changes nothing outside it, so an unsaved change in another section is not sent.

• General. Name, subscriber area logout URL, plan and plan default, trial, user area logout URL, the Links in every email options (require an unsubscribe link, require a reject link in opt-in confirmations, require double opt-in on every list) and the Campaigns options (show email throughput, simplified campaign creation, block campaigns with a SpamAssassin score).
• Sending. The send method, a delivery server for campaigns, transactional emails and auto responders, the X-Mailer header, the plain text and HTML headers and footers, the sender domain options, the default sender domain with its monthly limit, the email gateway and campaign DNS templates (a template once chosen can be changed but not cleared here), the email gateway options, and the custom email headers as JSON.
• Limits. The same fields as on the Create page.
• Permissions. Only the permissions you turn on or off are changed. A permission of a plug-in that is disabled today is kept.
• AI and screening. What AI assistants of the group's users may do (not connect at all, read only, read and change data, or also send), sends per day, recipients per send and the size above which a send must be confirmed. Under Sender screening, the threshold (0 to 100) and action for sign-ups, imports and campaign content.

Send method

The Edit page edits two send methods: System and Custom SMTP server.

• With SMTP the password field is always empty. When a password is stored, the hint says so: leave the field empty to keep it. The stored password is kept only while the host stays the same, so changing the host asks for the password again. Switching to System removes the stored password.
• Send a test email to me before saving is ticked by default. When the test email cannot be sent, the mail server's answer is shown under SMTP test failed and nothing is saved.
• A group stored with Local MTA, PowerMTA, PHP mail(), Save to disk or an SMTP provider preset (Octeth, SendGrid, Mailgun, Mailjet, Postmark or Amazon SES) shows the stored method and its settings read-only, and the send method reads Keep current. Saving the section with Keep current leaves the method as it is. To change it, switch to System or Custom SMTP server. Other methods can still be set with the API.

Not carried over from the classic screen

• The User interface tab (theme template, colours and product name). Existing theme settings stay as stored.
• The Payment settings tab. Stored payment and credit settings stay as stored, because the new screens never send them.
• Save As. Use duplicate in the list, then edit the copy.

Duplicating a user group

Click the duplicate icon on a row. The copy is named "Duplicate of" followed by the original name, gets its own copy of the theme, and is never the default group of a subscription plan. The copy opens on its Edit page so you can rename it. This replaces the classic Save As button.

Deleting a user group

Click the trash icon on a row. The dialog shows how many users the group has.

• A group with users needs a destination: choose it under Move its users to. The users take on that group's limits, permissions and delivery servers.
• A group with no users is deleted without asking for one.

Click Delete user group to confirm. The dialog refuses the delete, and names the reason, when the group is:

• linked to a billing plan of the new interface (any role),
• the signup, suspended or cancelled group in Billing > Settings,
• the default group of the new interface (OCTETH_DEFAULT_USER_GROUP_ID),
• the signup group of the classic settings, or one of the groups new signups can choose,
• the only user group you can reach.

Point those settings at another group first, then delete it. A deleted group cannot be restored. There is no bulk delete: each group with users needs its own destination.