Role-based Access Control

A role defines permissions for one or more users to perform an action on a document. Rethink Workflow provides a quick and easy way to configure roles for your workflows.

To manage roles for a workflow, switch to ROLES tab on the Design screen:

By default, each workflow comes with two pre-defined roles: Document Owner and Initiators.

Document Owner

Document Owner is a pre-defined role representing the owner of a document. 

Most of the time, the person who creates a document out of a workflow plays Document Owner role. For example, in Timesheet workflow, Document Owner is the employee who creates and submits the timesheet.

Document Owner role can also be assigned to a user other than the creator of the document. For instance, in Event Registration workflow, we could use the email address entered to be Document Owner.

Initiators

Initiators role is a special role that determines the list of internal users who can create documents out of a workflow. By default, anyone belongs to your organization can create a new document from any workflow, but you can limit this access to a certain set of users only.

For example, in a workflow that allows only users having "Manager" title to nominate their subordinates for Employee of the Month, the workflow designer can configure Initiators as in below screenshot:

Configure a Role

To create a new role, click on "+ ADD NEW" button.
To edit an existing role, click on the corresponding EDIT button as in the screenshot below:

On the edit panel displayed, you can configure Name, Description, and Members belong to this role:

The screenshot below explains how to configure the list of members:

Using the Value from a Field as a Member of a Role

One of the unique features of Rethink Workflow is an ability to use the value of an Email, or User Dropdown field as a member of a role.

There are many use-cases in which this feature is particularly useful, for example: 

• In Timesheet workflow, the employee can specify the Manager who is going to approve the submitted timesheet. 
• In Letter of Recommendation workflow, the requesting student can select the recommending professor from a list of users. 
• In Event Registration workflow, the workflow creator can enter an email address to be one of the Document Owner. 

The following video demonstrates how to use a field value as a member of a role: