Roles in Detail

This section describes roles in detail.

Types of Roles

There are a couple of different methods of classifying roles, as described below.

Where Is the Role Used?

The way a role is created determines what type of privileges can be added to the role:

context-specific roles – The privileges granted to these roles must be specific to a particular context. For example, a teacher might create a “guest lecturer” role for their course context. Anyone with the Can Admin privileges in a context can create a context-specific role there and give that role privileges specific to that context (for example, give the role permission to view pages and features within that context). However, when an administrator is working with permissions in a different context, that role will not be available.
base roles, or global roles – These roles exist throughout the system. Any context manager or administrator can grant privileges to these roles, but only a member of the Administrators role can create a base role.

How was the Role Created?

Roles can be either one of the following:

Predefined system roles are those created by JICS when the product is installed or upgraded. The predefined system roles are also listed in your ERP system, so you can assign users to roles from within the ERP system’s interface. In general, these roles cannot be modified or deleted. They are described in The Predefined Systems Roles section.
Custom roles are ones that you create. You can create both base roles and context-specific roles. Note that a custom base role can exist solely in the portal, or the role can be linked to ERP data (which means that the role can be populated from within the ERP system). The process of linking a custom base role to ERP data is not covered in this guide.

The Process of Assigning Users to Roles

The way you assign people to roles varies a bit depending on what type of user account the person has, and on what type of role you want to assign the person to, as described below.

Note also that in a few cases, the system automatically assigns users to roles. For details, see Roles that are Assigned Automatically.

Assignments Made Within JICS

In many cases you assign a person to a role from within the JICS interface. This is the case when you want to do any of the following:

Assign any user to the Administrators role.
Assign any user to a custom context-specific role.
Assign any user to a custom base role that has not been linked to ERP role data.
Assign a portal-only user to any role.

For help doing this, see the Modifying a Role (Assigning Users to Roles) section and the Modify a Portal-Only User Account section.

Assignments Made Within the ERP Interface

Certain types of role assignments must be made from within the ERP’s user interface. This is the case when you want to do either of the following:

Assign an ERP user to a predefined system role.
Assign an ERP user to custom base role that has been linked to ERP data.

Role assignments made in this way will be honored in JICS as soon as the DIS runs (after you make the assignment).

Note also that ERP users may need some sort of blanket permission in order to be able to log in to JICS. For details, see your ERP system’s documentation.

The Predefined System Roles

This section describes the roles that are predefined in JICS. Note that some are automatically assigned to users by the system, but with others, you must manually assign users to them.

Roles that are Assigned Automatically

In general, you manually assign individual people to roles. However, there are a few roles that are automatically populated by the system. These are listed in the following table.

Role	Automatically assigned to	Do you also need to add people to the role?
Guests	Anyone who visits your portal without logging in	No, in general you do not manually assign people to these roles.
Users	All users who have a valid JICS account
Everyone	People assigned the Guests and Users roles
Administrators	The Administrator user. This is the account that you created when you ran the JICS installer. (This was done on the ADAM / AD LDS tab.)	Yes, you may want to manually add users to this role.

Note also that if your system includes e-Racer, the system automatically creates a context-based Students role and a context-based Faculty role for each course context. These are automatically populated based on the roster for the course section.

Similarly, if your school uses Campus Groups, the system automatically creates a context-based Leader role and a context-based Members role for each group that exists. These roles are automatically populated based on the membership of the group.

Roles that Must be Manually Assigned

The following table shows the predefined system roles that must be manually assigned to users. Some roles are intended primarily for use with certain CRMs, as noted, but all roles can be used in conjunction with base JICS.

The information in the “Assign to” column is intended solely as a suggestion. You can manage these roles in whatever way makes sense for your environment.

Role	Intended for use with	Assign to
Administrators	All JICS	Individuals with responsibility for the initial setup and continued maintenance of JICS. Assign this role sparingly.
Admissions Administrators	CRM Admissions Officer, CRM Candidate	Users in your admissions office who are responsible for configuring admissions-related features.
Admissions Counselors	CRM Admissions Officer, CRM Candidate	Users who will be involved in working with prospective students.
Admissions Officers	CRM Admissions Officer, CRM Candidate	People such as vice presidents or directors of admissions who have admissions personnel as direct reports.
Advancement Officers	CRM Constituent	Members of the alumni or advancement office who require access to existing donor and constituent information.
Advisor Administrators	CRM Faculty	Faculty members who are responsible for configuring the features in the CRM Faculty.
Advisors	CRM Faculty	Faculty and staff members with academic advising responsibilities.
Constituents	CRM Constituent	Individuals and organizations who have donated or plan to donate to your institution.
Candidates	CRM Admissions Officer, CRM Candidate	Prospective students.
Faculty	CRM Faculty, e-Racer	All faculty members.
Financial Aid Administrators	CRM Student	Employees in your financial aid office who are responsible for configuring features.
Staff	CRM Staff	Members of your staff who need to interact with your ERP system through JICS.
Staff Administrators	CRM Staff	People responsible for configuring the features that are available to staff members.
Student Administrators	CRM Student	Employees in your registration office who are responsible for configuring the features in the CRM Student.
Students	CRM Student, e-Racer	Currently enrolled, matriculating students