Managing Users in the Staff Area

The staff area of the new interface has three screens for user accounts: the Users list, Create user and the user Edit page. They replace the classic Users browse screen, Users > Create and the user Edit page of the classic admin area. The user page itself, with its tabs, the account actions and containment, is described in Managing one user from the staff area.

Screen	Path on a default install	Permission
Users list	/user/staff/customers	Users and User.Browse
Create user	/user/staff/customers/new	Users and User.Create
Edit user	/user/staff/customers/<user id>/edit	Users and User.Edit to open it, User.Update to save

INFO

The staff screens act as the administrator who is signed in. A sub-administrator sees only the users in the user groups their account may access, and controls for actions they lack the permission for are hidden. Octeth checks the same permissions again on every request.

With UI_ENABLED=true, the classic admin Users section forwards to these screens, see Coming from the classic Users section.

The Users list

Sign in to the new interface with your Octeth administrator credentials and choose Users in the left menu.

[[SCREENSHOT: The staff Users list with the search box, the filter row, the Categories and Create user buttons, and a table of users with limit status dots and 7-day send charts]]

Searching

Type in the search box above the list. The search matches the first name, last name, company name, email address and username of a user, and a user ID when you type the whole number. Results update as you type.

The search box in the top bar of the staff area opens this page with your search filled in.

Filtering

All filters combine. Choosing a user group and Disabled, for example, lists the disabled users in that group.

Filter	Shows
User groups	Users in any of the ticked groups. Shown when your account has the UserGroups permission
Status	Enabled or disabled users
Reputation	Trusted or untrusted users
Category	Users in one category, or uncategorized users
Limit status	Users within their sending limits, near a limit, or over a limit
Online now	Users active in the last 10 minutes
Blocked sender domains	Users with at least one blocked sender domain. Not available to an administrator limited to some user groups

The limit status comes from a job that runs every 15 minutes. On a new install, until that job has run once, the limit status filter shows an error. Clear the filter to see the list again.

Click Clear search and filters to start over.

Billing filters

When billing is on, a second row offers plan, add-on and credits filters. These come from the billing records of the new interface, so they work as a separate mode: choosing one clears the search and the filters above, and choosing a search or filter clears the billing filters. In this mode the list shows 20 users per page and cannot be re-sorted.

Sorting and page size

Click the Name, Email, Created or Last active column header to sort by it, and click again to reverse the order. Name sorts by first name. The Sort by menu also offers last name, company, user ID and single sign-on ID. Show 25, 50 or 100 users per page.

The search, filters, sort order, page size and page number are kept in the address of the page, so a reload or a shared link opens the same view.

What each row shows

• The user's name, or the company name when the user has no name, with the company underneath.
• A Disabled label on disabled users.
• A coloured dot for the limit status: green within limits, amber near a limit, red over a limit. Click it to open the user's Limits tab.
• Username, email address and user group.
• Sends, 7 days: a small chart of the campaign emails the user sent on each of the last seven days (UTC), with the total. Shown when your account has the User.Edit permission.
• Plan and credits, when billing is on.
• When the user was created, and when they were last active.
• Open user and, when your account has the User.Impersonate permission, Switch user.

On an install with no users yet, the page says so and, when your account may create users, offers a Create user button.

Acting on several users

Tick the users you want, or tick the box in the header to select every user on the page. A bar appears above the list with the actions your account may take. An action applies only to the selected users on the current page.

Action	What it does	Permission
Enable	Enables each selected user	User.Update
Disable	Disables each selected user, who can then no longer sign in	User.Update
Set category	Puts each selected user in a category, or makes them uncategorized	User.Update
Delete	Deletes the selected users with their lists, subscribers and campaigns	User.Delete

Enable, disable and set category update the users one by one. When some users cannot be changed, for example because they are outside the user groups your account may access, the result above the list names each one and the reason. The others are still changed.

Delete asks you to type the number of selected users to confirm. Octeth deletes all of the selected users or none of them: if one user cannot be deleted, nothing is deleted and the result says why. A deleted user cannot be restored.

Every bulk action is written to the staff audit log, one entry per user.

Managing categories

Categories group users for your own use, for example by sales channel. Click Categories at the top of the page (needs the Users permission) to:

• add a category,
• rename a category with the pencil icon,
• delete a category with the bin icon. Its users become uncategorized. No user is deleted.

The number of users in each category is shown to administrators who may access every user group. It is hidden from an administrator limited to some groups, because the count includes users in other groups.

Creating a user

1. On the Users list, click Create user.
2. Fill in the Account section:
   • Company name, or both First name and Last name. One of the two is required.
   • Username and Email address. Both must be unused by any other user.
   • Password. Type one, or click Generate for an 18-character random password. Copy a generated password before you create the user: it is shown only on this page and cannot be shown again.
   • Time zone and Language. Both start at your install's defaults.
   • User group. Only the groups you may access are listed. Limits, permissions and the delivery server come from the group.
   • Reputation. Leave it on Default for new users to apply the new-user reputation set in Octeth's settings, or choose Trusted or Untrusted.
3. Optionally fill in the Personal section: website, other email addresses (one per line), address, country, phone, fax, and whether the phone number is verified.
4. Click Create user. You land on the new user's page.

Rate limits, the delivery server and plug-in options are set on the user's Edit page once the account exists.

If something is wrong, the message appears next to the field that needs fixing, for example "This username is already taken" or "You may not create users in this user group". For security, the password field is emptied after every attempt, so enter or generate it again before you retry.

[[SCREENSHOT: The Create user page with the Account section filled in, the Generate button next to the password field, and the Reputation menu on Default for new users]]

Editing a user

Open a user and click Edit. Everything is on one page in three sections. Click Save user at the bottom to save all of it at once. Without the User.Update permission the page opens read-only and has no Save user button.

To remove an optional value, empty the field and save. The field is cleared.

Account

• Name, company, username and email address.
• New password. Leave it empty to keep the current password.
• Time zone, language, user group and reputation. Without the UserGroups permission the current group is shown but cannot be changed.
• Available credits, shown only when the user's group uses the credit system.
• Category: an existing category, Uncategorized, or New category with a name. A new category is created when you save.
• Options: disable the List-Unsubscribe header, disable the suppression check, and disable the revenue tracking parameter in links.

WARNING

With the suppression check disabled, campaigns, journeys, transactional and email gateway sends go to suppressed addresses too, including hard bounces and spam complaints.

Personal

Website, other email addresses (one per line), street (two lines), city, state or region, postal code, country, phone, fax, VAT number, and whether the phone number is verified.

Settings

• Delivery server. Keep User group's delivery server, or pick a server to send this user's email through. Without the DeliveryServers permission the current setting is shown but cannot be changed.

• Default sender domain. Overrides the group's default sender domain. Leave it empty to use the group's.

• Rate limits. A JSON document that overrides the user group's sending limits. Leave it empty to apply the group's limits. Click Load group defaults to start from the selected group's limits. Use the buckets EmailGateway and SMS, each with any of Minute, Hour, Day, Week, Month and Year. -1 means unlimited and 0 blocks sending. For example:

  {
    "EmailGateway": { "Hour": 1000, "Day": 10000 },
    "SMS": { "Day": 500 }
  }

• Custom email headers. A JSON document applied to every email the user sends. Add sets headers and Remove lists headers to drop:

  {
    "Add": { "X-Campaign": "spring" },
    "Remove": ["X-Mailer"]
  }

• Whitelisted email addresses. One address or regular expression per line. These addresses are never added to the suppression list, even after an opt-out or a hard bounce.

The rate limits and custom headers are checked before anything is saved. A mistake is shown under the editor and nothing is changed.

[[SCREENSHOT: The Settings section of the Edit user page with the delivery server menu, the rate limits JSON editor and its Load group defaults button]]

Plug-in fields

Enabled plug-ins can add their own settings to the Account and Settings sections, for example the Amazon SES "Whitelist User" option. Each is labeled with the plug-in it comes from. They are saved after the account itself.

• If a plug-in refuses a value, the reason appears under that field and no plug-in value is saved. The account changes are saved.
• If a plug-in fails while saving, a warning names the field. The account changes are saved, and other plug-in values may already be saved too, so check them before you try again.

Troubleshooting

Message or symptom	What to do
This username is already taken, or Another user already has this email address	Choose a different value.
You may not create users in this user group	Pick one of your groups, or ask an administrator for access to the group.
Your administrator account cannot list any user group	Ask an administrator for the UserGroups permission or for access to a group.
Your license does not allow more user accounts	Delete an unused user or upgrade the license.
Limit status is not available yet	The limit job has not run on this install. Clear the limit filter, or wait up to 15 minutes.
This filter is not available to an admin account limited to specific user groups	The blocked sender domains filter needs access to every user group. Clear it.
You are taken to the sign-in page while saving	Your administrator session ended in Octeth. Sign in again and repeat the change.