With answer records, how do I limit access for certain administrators by the answer status?

Environment:

Answers

Resolution:

In order to restrict access so that staff can only access proposed answers, the staff profile used by those staff members must be configured to restrict specific functionality. This is accomplished by defining a restrictive answer report to use and defining a restrictive navigation set. Then, you can configure the staff profile to restrict access to other answer reports.

Therefore, to restrict staff access to only proposed answers, use the steps below:

Step 1: Define Restricted Answer Report 

Configure an answer report that includes a fixed filter for the answer status so that only proposed answers can be returned in the search results. You can include other fixed filters or run-time filters as you wish.

For more information on creating custom reports, refer to Answer ID 2509: Creating a Basic Custom Report.

Step 2: Configure the Navigation Set 

You must create a navigation set to be used by the staff members. The navigation set defines which reports the staff member can access when they are logged in to the application.

For the Answer navigation button, include the restricted answer report from step 1 above.  Do not include other answer reports that allow access to answers with a status other than Proposed. This is part of what restricts access to only view proposed answers.

For more information on navigation sets, refer to Answer ID 2439: Creating and Customizing Navigation Sets.

Step 3: Configure the Staff Profile 

When you configure the staff profile, you must restrict the staff member's ability to create or edit new reports and restrict access to open other answer reports. Configure the profile with the following restrictions:

• On the ribbon click the Analytics button, the profile cannot allow staff to create or edit reports. Make sure the Create/Edit Reports and Create/Edit Public Reports boxes are clear.  Only specific reports in the Reports area should be enabled with Open permissions. This restricts which reports a staff member can run.
   
• On the ribbon click the Interfaces button, select the navigation set you created in step 2 above. Consider disabling the ability for staff to customize their navigation set. If the Customize Navigation Set box is disabled (clear), staff cannot add reports to their navigation lists. Though staff can only access the reports that have the Open permissions enabled for their profile, you may want to remove the ability to customize the report lists as well. 

With the reports, navigation set, and profile configured to restrict access, log in as the staff member to verify which answers that staff member can access.