Groups and licenses
Users' group membership determines the Spotfire features that they have access to, and therefore their role in the Spotfire environment.
Spotfire comes with a set of system groups that correspond to common user roles, such as Library Administrator or Script Author.
For groups that are synchronized from an external source such as an LDAP directory, certain tasks, including adding and removing members of the synchronized group, take place in the external environment and not within the Spotfire system.
For more information, see Groups and licenses introduction.
Access to library folders can be set for both groups and individual users; for more information, see the Spotfire Analyst User's Guide. Preferences are also set at the group level; for more information, see Preferences introduction. The tools for administering preferences and library access are available in Spotfire Analyst.
- How licenses work
Licenses determine the Spotfire features and functionality that are available to users. Licenses are set at the group level, so when creating the groups that your organization requires, you should also set the licenses that apply to each group. - A group hierarchy template
This group hierarchy may serve as a starting point for designing a logical structure to meet the needs of your organization. Ease of maintenance is paramount, so design a hierarchy that can quickly accommodate personnel changes and shifting user responsibilities. - System groups
Spotfire comes with a set of system groups that correspond to common user roles, such as Library Administrator and Script Author. System groups are created at installation and cannot be removed. - License feature reference
The following topics describe the features that are contained in each Spotfire license. When enabling licenses, individual features of the license can be enabled or disabled. - Creating groups
You always create a group at the top level of the groups hierarchy, but it can later be moved to be a subgroup of an existing group. A subgroup inherits access to all the licenses of its parent group or groups. (To import and export groups, use the Administrator Manager in Spotfire Analyst.) - Setting licenses
Administrators assign licenses to groups so that members of that group, and members of that group's subgroups, have access to the features contained in the license. Each license contains features that can be individually enabled and disabled. - Adding members to a group
You can add any number of Spotfire users or groups to a group at the same time. - Assigning a primary group to a subgroup
When a group has several parent groups, different values may be set for the same license or preference item in two or more parent groups. To ensure that the child group inherits the default settings of a particular parent group, set that group as the primary group. - Assigning a deployment area to a group
For users to have access to a deployment, you must assign the deployment area that contains the deployment to the appropriate groups. If no deployment area is set for a group, the group members are assigned the default deployment area. - Renaming a group
You can rename only those groups that were added to Spotfire Server after installation. The groups that Spotfire creates automatically, such as Administrator and Script Author, cannot be renamed. Also, externally synchronized groups cannot be renamed in the server. - Removing members from a group
Removing members from a group removes the members' access to the licenses of that group and its parent groups. Users and groups are removed from a group in the same way. - Deleting groups from the system
Deleting a group does not delete any of its members from Spotfire; only the group itself is deleted. All users and groups that are members of the deleted group remain in the system. Subgroups that lose their parent group are automatically placed at the top level of the group hierarchy. - Trusting custom content in the Spotfire environment
Many Spotfire users want to extend the Spotfire environment in different ways. It has for a long time been possible to add scripts based on IronPython or JavaScript to analyses, to be executed through buttons in text areas or via actions based on clicks in certain visualizations. Further enhancements can be made using many different types of data functions that can either be created directly in an analysis file or saved as a separate entity in the Spotfire library. With Spotfire 11.0, it also became much easier to add custom visualizations, with the new concept of visualization mods, and in Spotfire 12.0, it became possible to configure actions that interact with external systems. Any custom item created by a malevolent person could potentially perform unexpected or undesired actions. Therefore, Spotfire uses different trust mechanisms to help you to keep your system safe.
- How licenses work
Licenses determine the Spotfire features and functionality that are available to users. Licenses are set at the group level, so when creating the groups that your organization requires, you should also set the licenses that apply to each group. - A group hierarchy template
This group hierarchy may serve as a starting point for designing a logical structure to meet the needs of your organization. Ease of maintenance is paramount, so design a hierarchy that can quickly accommodate personnel changes and shifting user responsibilities. - System groups
Spotfire comes with a set of system groups that correspond to common user roles, such as Library Administrator and Script Author. System groups are created at installation and cannot be removed. - License feature reference
The following topics describe the features that are contained in each Spotfire license. When enabling licenses, individual features of the license can be enabled or disabled. - Creating groups
You always create a group at the top level of the groups hierarchy, but it can later be moved to be a subgroup of an existing group. A subgroup inherits access to all the licenses of its parent group or groups. (To import and export groups, use the Administrator Manager in Spotfire Analyst.) - Setting licenses
Administrators assign licenses to groups so that members of that group, and members of that group's subgroups, have access to the features contained in the license. Each license contains features that can be individually enabled and disabled. - Adding members to a group
You can add any number of Spotfire users or groups to a group at the same time. - Assigning a primary group to a subgroup
When a group has several parent groups, different values may be set for the same license or preference item in two or more parent groups. To ensure that the child group inherits the default settings of a particular parent group, set that group as the primary group. - Assigning a deployment area to a group
For users to have access to a deployment, you must assign the deployment area that contains the deployment to the appropriate groups. If no deployment area is set for a group, the group members are assigned the default deployment area. - Renaming a group
You can rename only those groups that were added to Spotfire Server after installation. The groups that Spotfire creates automatically, such as Administrator and Script Author, cannot be renamed. Also, externally synchronized groups cannot be renamed in the server. - Removing members from a group
Removing members from a group removes the members' access to the licenses of that group and its parent groups. Users and groups are removed from a group in the same way. - Deleting groups from the system
Deleting a group does not delete any of its members from Spotfire; only the group itself is deleted. All users and groups that are members of the deleted group remain in the system. Subgroups that lose their parent group are automatically placed at the top level of the group hierarchy. - Trusting custom content in the Spotfire environment
Many Spotfire users want to extend the Spotfire environment in different ways. It has for a long time been possible to add scripts based on IronPython or JavaScript to analyses, to be executed through buttons in text areas or via actions based on clicks in certain visualizations. Further enhancements can be made using many different types of data functions that can either be created directly in an analysis file or saved as a separate entity in the Spotfire library. With Spotfire 11.0, it also became much easier to add custom visualizations, with the new concept of visualization mods, and in Spotfire 12.0, it became possible to configure actions that interact with external systems. Any custom item created by a malevolent person could potentially perform unexpected or undesired actions. Therefore, Spotfire uses different trust mechanisms to help you to keep your system safe.