Several of my coworkers need to be able to see academic and financial information without having the ability to make changes. Could you add this read-only permission?
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82 comments
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Gail Haeussler This is becoming a huge issue for us. We are almost to the point where in order for people to do their job, I need to make everyone a 'Registrar'!!
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David Stauffer Its very exciting to see this area being worked on. Thanks! Is there any chance that the data slicer could somehow be 'incorporated' into this renovation? I'm thinking that basically everyone has access to the data slicer, but can only slice data that their role(s) has access to, if that makes sense. There are so many administrative uses for the data slicer, but its only available under the academics tab. I did see that something similar is being added under admissions, which is great. If this isn't workable as part of this renno, let me know, and I'll open a new feature request for it.
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Adam Sentz @David - A "Read-only Academics" role would most likely have access to the Data Slicer in Academics sans the ability to perform actions (e.g. tagging) on the results.
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Robert Damon Any way we can see this happen, sooner than later? Seems like a lot of schools are asking for it... We would REALLY value this, and have felt this need for the last two years of using Populi.
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Brad Florence As a relatively new user to Populi we also have to agree we need the abilty to have "read-only" users. Jeremiah's comments I think are right on. I would take it one step further when "asking for the moon". Could we just make the roles configurable by the administrators?
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Steven Kleiner I would like to see this feature active through Populi as well. We have staff who need access to information only, but should not have access to make changes. I am the Registrar and the Director of Safety and Security and this is a major security issue under FERPA regulations not to mention standards set forth by AACRAO who over see the registrar office at all colleges.
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Joel Badal Agree with all the above. Needs to have soon! Compliance and standards are changing in ABHE and will be a major issue coming into the next self study for us.
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Patrick Friesen Psalm 13 - How long? :smile:
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Brendan O'Donnell @Patrick: I examined the Hebrew of Psalm 37:34, and I believe this is a plausible translation:
Wait on Yahweh, And keep His way, And He shall exalt you to inherit the land;
When audit roles for permissions are released, you shall see it.Sparing everyone on this list an exhausting technical explanation (that may yet show up on the blog in some form... we'll see), there are two ways we could add an audit dimension to user roles.
One involves hacking our current permissions structure to enable a "read-only" dimension to the admin roles. The other involves moving Populi's codebase into a far more flexible, dynamic structure that will enable not just audit roles, but also a zillion other things. You can guess which course we'd rather take...
The "hack" would involve modifying a lot of our current code for user roles; it would entail an enormous amount of development and testing on our part (literally everything in Populi would need to be exhaustively scrutinized); and it would delay our other development plans by who knows how long... all to create more legacy code that we are currently in the process of rewriting.
The other path, which we favor, is a fundamental rewrite of the guts and heart of Populi. Besides enabling more flexibility with user roles, it will minimize bugs and other errors (and let us deal with them more nimbly than before), open up almost all of your data via the API... and generally create an environment that we can use to improve Populi wildly beyond what we're able to do now.
So, in the balance of things, we feel that it would be best for our customers to pursue the code that will give everyone more bang for the buck. For what it's worth, the rewrite of Admissions we're currently working on is the first major phase of this ground-up rewrite of Populi, and it sets the stage for what we want to do next with user roles and Academics.
Of course, mum's the word on timelines here, but suffice it to say that we are impatient for this to happen, also. We know our customers want and need this, and therefore it's a priority for us, too. But there's a way we could fumble into a temporary, error-prone solution, and a way to build something far more solid and powerful and high-value for everyone.
Think of it this way: you can buy the flakeboard bookshelf from Walmart right now and throw it out in a year, or you can hire the cabinet maker to build you a real bookshelf that you can someday bequeath to your grandchildren.
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Patrick Friesen Well played. Hopefully I didn't poke the bear.
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David Stauffer Dare I say we are VERY excited to hear this response, even if it means more waiting. It is very helpful for us in deciding when to move to the Populi Library. We were thinking possibly this summer, but we'll happily wait until next summer. Keep up the excellent work (and the great sense of humour) and may God bless you all as you work on this tool that has been a blessing to us.
Also, thanks for more definite info on this process.
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Adam Sentz Library and Bookstore staff no longer require the Staff role.
https://support.populiweb.com/entries/23536438
#andtherewasmuchrejoycing
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David Stauffer #rejoice!!!
Thank you!!!!Now we get to transition our library over this summer after all.
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Emily Lawson I agree with Takus. The ability for staff to view transcripts without being able to export them would be very helpful. The option for read only roles, would be excellent.
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Phuong Nguyen I don't think anyone has mentioned this but along with the audit/ read-only roles, it'll be great for a faculty member to view all the course materials without being able to make any changes.
One prime example is the Academic Dean or Curriculum development person, who likes to know what's being taught without taking the chance of accidentally deleting a course file. Similarly, since courses rely on one another, our faculty members would also like the ability to view what's being taught in other courses so he/she can shape the lessons based on what students have already been taught in other courses. If there's a view only role, we could set up a guest faculty profile for this purpose. -
Marilyn Dansart As a program chair, it is necessary to view other courses and students for planning purposes, but not to change.
Could there be a Chair level of permission?
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Sam Dean Read Only Role - Yes please!
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Sam Dean = Registrar "Lite"; read all, change none.
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Marilyn Dansart What's happening on this?
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Adam Sentz @Peter - We're working on it.
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Sam Horowitz Will there soon be a way to do any kind of advanced reporting/filtering outside of the Data Slicer? I have multiple staff who want to do something like, say, find everybody in Georgia and do an export on certain contact data. Right now they have to request it from the Registrar, or else I have to give them Registrar privileges (i.e. give them a sledge hammer to hang a picture on the wall). I realize this is complex, but something similar to the Data Slicer that only allows searching/filtering by what the user already has the right to see is what I have in mind. A read-only Registrar is only a partial solution--our Development director doesn't need to see final grades and confidential notes in files.
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Adam Sentz @Sam - Can't say exactly how soon, but the short answer is "yes".
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Nancy Butler Will the "read-only" ability allowiing printing of reports?
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Adam Sentz @Nancy - Yes. If you can "read" it you can print/export it.
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Marilyn Dansart Adam,
Just give us a short possible date that this will be available. Possible 2014 or will it be 2015?
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Adam Sentz @Peter - We're still working on it. We'll let you know more when we're ready.
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Marilyn Dansart Happy New Academic Year!
We are still in great need of a Dept Chair View. How is it going? Or when is it coming?
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Jason Holland We need this as well please. Any updates?
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Registrar ASAOM This feature would be so beneficial in so many ways. Looking forward to the future!
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Stephanie Grendzinski We would like student workers to be able to add a new person or add a new organization as well as search for existing organizations without having access to current student private information (basic is fine) or admissions records. Where are the user role updates in the grand scheme of things? It looks like the conversation started years ago and since I'm new to Populi I'd like to gauge the turn around time.
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