A LiveConnect powered community contains a robust, flexible permissions engine that insures every member has exactly the right privileges in exactly the right place. Permissions are managed by Application owners on an Application by Application basis, and can be fine-tuned to the specifity of individual users and privileges.

Each Application has its own permissions settings so that community members can have different privileges across a number of Applications. A community member might have permission to Read, Comment, Post, Edit (all), and/or Administrate within a specific Application (of course, a member might also have no permissions whatsoever within a specific Application, in which case they are not aware of its' existence).

Let’s take a look at the permissions that a community member might have within an Application.

Admin

• Allows a member full administrative privileges to the Application, including adding and removing Members and Types, and administrating custom settings related to the Application such as landing page and custom panels.
• Note that only the Application owner can actually delete the Application.
• A member with Admin permissions necessarily has all of the permissions below.

Edit

• Allows a member to edit all Posts and Comments in the Application (including those of other members). This can enable lightweight, collaborative authoring.
• A member with Edit permission necessarily has all of the permissions below.

Post

• Allows a member to create new Posts, and to view and edit their own Posts.
• A member with Post permission does not necessairly need the Comment and/or Read permissions below.

Comment

• Allows a member to comment on all Posts, and to view and edit their own Comments.
• A member with Comment permission necessarily has Read permission below.

Read

• Allows a member to view all Posts and Comments in the Application. In communities that are visible to the public www, “Guest Users” can also be given permission to read.
• A member with Read permission does not necessarily need any other permissions.
• A guest user cannot have anything beyond Read permission.

Regardless of other permission settings, Application owners always retain full administrative rights in their Applications.

You can begin to see from the above list how different permissions are appropriate for different Members and different Applications. A Product Marketing Manager might create a “Product Feedback” Application for lead users that enables her to gather critical and timely market intelligence. This Application might allow all registered users to view the content (Read), allow a small group of hand-picked lead users to Post and Comment, and allow the entire Product Marketing Team to act as moderators by giving them permission to Edit all content within the Application. The same Product Marketing Manager might create a Blog Application in which she posts the latest product news and information (new product releases, press coverage, awards, industry trends, etc); in this instance, she alone might have permission to Post new content, while all registered users of the community might have permission to Comment, and even guest users from the www might have access to Read.

All the membership and permissions settings for an Application are under its Settings tab via the "Edit Members & Permissions" link.

More detail about permissions is available here

Below: A sample permissions-setting page

Permissions - Details

<-- previous feature | index | next feature -->