What is the difference between groups and roles?

Groups are used by our system to perform two functions:

1. To assign a role or combination of roles to the users contained within the group.
2. To organise users into groups to make it easier to perform bulk actions, like assigning pathways and reporting on user activity, for example.

Roles are used by our system to:

1. Assign users with permissions and capabilities, i.e. roles control what users can do and see in our system.

Roles can only be assigned to users via groups.

Users who do not have a group are assigned 'standard user' permissions by default.

N.B. It is possible to create a group without any roles attached to it. This is useful if you need a group for the purposes of organising users for bulk actions and reporting (as above), but do not wish to change the roles (i.e. the permissions and capabilities) of the users within that group.

To conclude, the 'groups' in your system are integral to being able to add, remove and manage the roles your users have.

Related documents:

What are roles?
Roles and their relationship to Groups
Managing user roles
Check which roles are contained within your groups
Add or remove a user's 'role'
Roles and user permissions [chart]

Article ID: xapimedA_20200304_2