ClickHelp User Manual

User Management

Managing users with different permissions and access within a single portal requires a solid understanding of the system's setup. This topic covers the two user types in ClickHelp, their roles, and permissions.

User Types

In ClickHelp, there are two user types — Contributors and Power Readers (PRs). The former are your internal users with access to the authoring environment, and the latter are readers with access to password-protected documentation and no access to the authoring environment. Anonymous readers are not considered ClickHelp users, although they can also use the system by accessing public publications.

Let's first look at the infographic to understand the setup better and then discuss it.

User types in ClickHelp Infographic depicting the user types setup in ClickHelp

Permissions and Access

Permissions control what users within a ClickHelp portal can do. Power Readers have only a single permission — to view the restricted publications. For Contributors, predefined Contributor roles grant various permissions: from Correctors, who simply edit topics, to Administrators with full system access.

Access determines which projects and publications a specific user can interact with, and does not define what a user can do. Unlike permissions, access can be granted to both Contributors and Power Readers, although PRs can not be granted access to projects.

Contributors

Contributors are internal users with access to the authoring environment. They can view unpublished content (projects), tweak settings, etc. The number of licenses in your subscription limits the number of enabled Contributor accounts.

Contributors have a set of predefined roles which determine their permissions within the system. Refer to the Roles and Permission Matrix to see all the Contributor Roles and what they can do.

While roles define permissions within the portal, there's one more system in place — Reviewer Access Groups. It organizes Reviewers — only Contributors with this specific role — into groups for easier access management to selected projects and publications. Access groups serve only for configuring access, not permissions.

Power Readers

Power Readers are readers with access to password-protected documentation. They do not have access to the authoring environment. They can view Restricted publications after logging in but cannot see Private publications or projects, edit documents, or add review comments. 

Power Readers can be united into groups for easier access management with the help of Power Reader Access Groups. Unlike Contributors, they do not have any roles.