Managing roles and functions

It is possible to make many adjustments to the behavior of xMatters by altering roles or functions (it's not possible to alter or create permissions). You can also create roles or functions to support special use cases.

BEST PRACTICE: If you want to alter the permissions or functions of the pre-defined roles in xMatters, it's a good idea to manually create a copy of that role to make changes to. This can make it easier for support or Content Managers to troubleshoot later if there's a problem.

Functions are cumulative. Someone with a "Read-Only User" role and a "Standard User" role will be granted permissions of both roles.

See Role-on-role permissions and Product Permissions for more information about how xMatters controls how users interact, and which part of the system different users can access.

You can add or remove roles from a company, or define the details and permissions for roles, from the Roles Details page (for example, you may want to create a new custom role, or delete a role from a company).

To add or remove a role:

  1. Click the Admin tab.
  2. On the Permissions menu, click Roles.
    1. xMatters displays a list of the current roles.
  3. From the Roles list, do any of the following:
    1. To remove a role from the list, select the check box next to the role or roles you want to remove, and then click Remove Selected.
    2. To create a new role, click the Add New link. Type in a Name and Description of the new role configure the role-on-role permissions and then click Save.

You can specify the functions that make up each role on the Functions for this Role page (for example, you may want to give a role the ability to 'Send Messages').

To assign functions to a role:

  1. Click the Admin tab.
  2. On the Permissions menu, click Roles.
  3. Click the name of the role you want to modify.
  4. On the Roles Details page, click the Common Tasks drop-down menu and select Assign Functions to this Role.
    1. To add a function to a role, select the function you want to add in the Available Functions box, and then click Add.
    2. To remove a function, select the function you want to remove in the Selected Functions box, and then click Remove.
  5. When you are satisfied with your modifications, click Save.

You can define the details and permissions for each function from the Permissions page of the Function Details: for example, you may want to add the permission to view all scheduled messages (ability.act.ViewAllScheduledMessages) to the Send Messages function.

To modify function permissions:

  1. Click the Admin tab.
  2. On the Permissions menu, click Functions.
    1. xMatters displays the Functions page, with a list of the current functions.
  3. Click the name of the function you want to modify.
    1. xMatters displays the Function Details page for the selected function.

  4. On the Function Details page, do one of the following:

    • Modify the Name and Description of the function, and then click Save.
    • Click the Common Tasks drop down menu and select Modify Permissions.
  5. On the Permissions page, do one of the following:
    1. To add permissions, select the permissions you want to add in the Available Permissions box, and then click Add.
    2. To remove permissions, select the permissions you want to remove in the Selected Permissions box, and then click Remove.
  6. When you are satisfied with your modifications, click Save.

You add or remove functions for a company from the Functions page (for example, you want to create a new custom function, or delete an existing function).

To add or remove a function:

  1. Click the Admin tab.
  2. On the Permissions menu, click Functions.
    1. xMatters displays a list of the current functions.
  3. From the Functions list, do any of the following:
    1. To remove a function from the list, select the check box next to the function or functions you want to remove, and then click Remove Selected.
    2. To create a new function, click the Add New link. Type in a Name and Description of the new function, and then click Save.

When adding or removing permissions from functions, you may also need to update the role details for those users affected by the changes. For example, imagine that you modify the permission settings to enable Group Supervisors to view and generate events for user reports. When the supervisor searches for the user for whom they want to generate the report, they will not be able to click the user's name in the results table unless you have also modified the role details to allow Group Supervisors to view users.