Administrators approve new editor accounts #

For: site owners, administrators and editors. Since: 6.0.15.

An editor may create the account of a new editor, but the account waits until an administrator approves it. Before that it is not published and cannot sign in. The administrators get an e-mail with a link to the approval; they sign in and approve or deny it in the administration, as they approve content.

In short #

• Editors create accounts in Users > Editors. The account is held: Waiting for approval.
• Every administrator gets the mail New user account waiting for approval. Its one link opens the approval item in the administration after signing in. The mail approves nothing by itself and holds no key.
• Approve publishes the account at once: it can sign in. Deny keeps it unpublished; it is a draft of the editor again.
• Administrators' own new editor accounts are published directly.
• An editor cannot move a member into Editors or give an account a location there: that would skip the approval.
• Everything is recorded in the audit trail: request, approval, denial, refused attempts.
• Which groups need approval, who approves and who needs none are the settings of the workflow event Approve user accounts at Setup > Workflows. A new installation has them; an existing one runs php bin/php/adduserapproval.php --apply.

For editors #

1. Open Users > Editors and choose Create here: User account.
2. Fill in the name, the username, the e-mail address and a password, and press Send for publishing.
3. The page says the object waits for approval. The account is listed in your Collaboration under Your items waiting for others and in My pending items.
4. When an administrator approved it, the new editor signs in with the username and password you set. When it was denied, the account is in your drafts again: change it and send it again, or remove the draft.

You cannot see or change the other editors' accounts; Editors shows only what you create there.

For administrators #

1. The mail New user account waiting for approval: <name> names the account, its username, the group and who asked.
2. Press Open the approval (or open Dashboard > Collaboration > Waiting for your decision). Sign in if asked.
3. The approval page shows the account. Add a comment if you like, then press Approve or Deny and confirm.
4. The message says what happened: The account ... was approved and published: it can sign in now, or ... was denied.

The approval is the one every administrator sees; the first decision counts, the item then says Approved or Denied for all.

Settings #

Setup > Workflows > Approve new editor accounts > the event Approve user accounts:

• User groups whose new accounts need approval (default Editors)
• Users who approve the accounts and Groups who approve the accounts (default Administrator users)
• User groups that need no approval
• Send the approvers an e-mail (default on)

The address in the mail is the administration's: set site.ini [UserSettings] RegistrationAdminBaseURL when it has a host of its own (for example https://admin.example.com). The collaboration notifications link there too.

Or by section #

Instead of the event above, you can use the kernel's plain Approve event: a section Staff for Administrator users and Editors, and an approval event for that section (approvers and no approval for Administrator users, new objects only). php bin/php/adduserapproval.php --mode=section shows what it would do, --apply does it. The approvers get the same mail with the link, and Approve and Deny are verified and recorded in the same way. Choose one of the two ways, never both: an account would be asked for twice, so the command refuses while the event Approve user accounts runs. When to choose which: Two ways.

More: the technical note Approval of new user accounts, the guide Approving new editor accounts, and member management, which lets editors manage the site's members.