Introduction to Users and Contacts

A user is defined as someone that uses eLab to manage their work, and a contact is a person or organisation that a user has an association with. For example, a laboratory assistant who uses eLab will be a user of the system and an external person, or a manager that is referred to by the system but who is never likely to use the system, is a contact in the system.

eLab users and contacts are created and managed through the User and Contact Wizard. The wizard is accessed by clicking the Users button from the Administration group of the Home tab.

Figure 31.1. The User and contact wizard.

Each user and contact has the following core properties:

Username. A name that uniquely identifiers the user.
Primary Group. This is the main group that the user belongs to (see Introduction to Groups).
Title, First name, Initials, Surname and Suffix, Position, Address, Country, City, Phone Number, Cell Number, State/Region, Zip/Post Code, Fax Number, E-mail, Home Page, and Comments

Users have the additional properties:

Password. eLab only accepts strong passwords unless this requirement has been explicitly turned off at the system and user level (see Changing Your Password)
Password Hint. A phrase to remind the user of their password.
Note: The hint cannot resemble the other information associated with the user account.
Role. The user may have one or more roles. The default roles are:
- Standard
- Administrator. Under a default installation, user s that are members of the Administrator group have access to all the data and functionality of the system.
Status. The status of the users account. The following options are available:
- Valid - This is the default value and represents a valid user account.
- Compromised - There has been unauthorised usage of the users account.
- Contact Only - This account is used for contact details, and allows you to easily change a user to a contact.
- Disabled - The account has been disabled.
- Obsolete - This account is no longer required.
- Suspicious – This account has potentially been compromised.

Note: Accounts not marked as valid cannot be used to access the system.