Arguably the most important tool governing user access to your community site are Security Groups. You can think of Security Groups as the high-level categories to which your users belong; they're powerful tools enabling you to determine what your users are allowed to view and access across your site, both in terms of navigation and content. Most content across your site, including communities, their associated Discussions and Libraries, and even specific pages and content within pages, can be assigned either a Join or View permission (or both, in some cases) to control who can access it.

Integrated vs. Higher Logic Security Groups

If you're a database/AMS-integrated client, you’ll likely have a mix of Higher Logic and database/AMS Security Groups. Database Security Groups are managed and assigned to users in your AMS, not your Higher Logic site. Database Security Groups have an AMS key that corresponds to the primary key for the member type/Security Group in your database. Data sync will automatically add and remove users based on your business rules on the database side only.

On the other hand, Higher Logic Security Groups are created and managed on your Higher Logic site, and users are added and removed from these Security Groups either via Automation Rules or manually doing so from the Admin interface.

Default Higher Logic Security Groups

If you're an integrated client, many of your Security Groups are likely determined by your member database configuration, but the Higher Logic platform includes several default Security Groups:

• Higher Logic Admin - Global administrators with universal access and editing rights, commonly referred to as "Super Admins."
• IsMember - Users with Member permissions, commonly referred to as IsMember. Content and functionality is routinely protected to Members as a benefit of membership. Those with Member permissions also have access to content and functionality protected to Authenticated.
• Authenticated - Any logged in user. An authenticated user may or may not have Member status. Content and functionality is routinely protected to Authenticated to encourage account creation and the sharing of user data.
• Public - Any user without a login to your site.

NOTE: See Manage Security Groups to learn how to assign users to Higher Logic Security Groups and manage them.

Member Access Overview

Users with Member access are considered members of your Higher Logic site. While IsMember is the default Higher Logic Security Group for Member access, you can, of course, create additional Security Groups that grant users Member access, if your organization has multiple groups of users who need it. The most common of these is the “Staff” Security Group for organization staff, while others include “Associate Member” and “Student Member.”

Users with Member access can:

• Be searched using the Member Directory,
• Send and receive contact requests and inbox messages,
• Create a personal network of contacts by connecting with other users
• View/join communities with “Members Only” permissions,
• And access content protected to "Members Only."

Member Access & Directory Profiles

IsMember Status = Yes

Users with Member access (i.e., those who are in a Security Group that grants Member rights) are, by default, searchable in the Directory, as illustrated below.

IsMember Status = No

Users without Member access (i.e., those who are not in a Security Group that grants Member rights) are, by default, not searchable in the Directory, as illustrated below.

CMS Security Settings

The CMS is Higher Logic's central navigation- and content-management editor. With it, you can:

• Manage site navigation
• Create new pages and update existing ones
• Add and remove content to and from pages, and determine content placement
• Hide or remove pages or content
• And perhaps most importantly, control who can access pages and content on those pages

See CMS Overview to learn more about the Higher Logic CMS.

See Control Who Can Access Pages & Content to learn how to set view permissions for your pages and content.

Security Group Summary Report

It's important to understand your various Security Groups and their access rights to your site. One way to view your Security Groups is through the Security Group Summary report. This report indicates whether certain member types are prohibited from coming over from your integrated database to Higher Logic, and provides a list of Security Groups that are considered IsMember. In addition, it shows the number of users belonging to each Security Group (you can click the blue numbers to view them).

How to Access the Security Group Summary Report

1. Click Admin in the Webmaster Links menu.
2. Click Admin.

3. Select Security Groups from the Users> Security menu.

4. Select Security Groups from the Users> Security menu.