Version 2.4 (May 13th, 2025) - Access Rights

Release notes and guide on the new Access Rights feature

🎉 New Feature Release: Granular Access Rights for Enhanced Control & Security 🎉

We're excited to announce a major enhancement to Sitedrive: Granular Access Rights! This powerful new feature introduces a more sophisticated permission system, giving you precise control over who can see and modify information within your projects.

Why the Change?

Previously, permissions were managed primarily at the Site level. While simple, this didn't always reflect the complexities of real-world projects where different teams and individuals need varying levels of access across different schedules (formerly known as Project Phases). This could lead to challenges in protecting sensitive schedule data or preventing accidental changes.

Our new Access Rights system addresses this directly by allowing permissions to be set per schedule, ensuring users have exactly the access they need – no more, no less. This leads to:

• Enhanced Security: Hide schedules, users and deadlines from those that don't need to see them.
• Improved Data Integrity: Reduce the risk of accidental changes affecting the schedule.
• Clearer Responsibilities: Assign specific permissions based on roles and tasks.
• Streamlined Collaboration: Grant appropriate viewing or editing rights to subcontractors and team members, fostering better communication and trust.

Important Terminology Update

To improve clarity across the platform, we've updated some key terms alongside this release:

• Project Phase is now called Schedule.
• Responsible Person is now called Owner.
• We've introduced the term Assignee, typically used for naming individual workers assigned to specific tasks within a Work Package.

Understanding How Roles and Assignments Work Together

It's helpful to think of the new system having two key parts that work together: Your assigned Access Role (like Report or Refine) defines the maximum capabilities you have within a schedule – what kinds of actions you are allowed to perform in general.

Then, specific assignments on individual Work Packages – whether you are listed as the Owner, part of the Team, or an Assignee – determine where you can actually exercise those permissions on specific items within the schedule.

Introducing the New Access Roles

We've replaced the previous permission levels with a more nuanced set of roles. Most roles are assigned on a per-schedule basis, giving you fine-grained control.

Here’s a breakdown of the new roles and their capabilities:

1. Report (Schedule-Specific)

   • Ideal For: Site personnel (workers, team members) who need to report progress and issues.
   • Can Do:
     • View assigned schedules (on web and mobile).
     • Report status/percentage complete for Work Packages where they are an Owner or part of the Team.
     • Report normal Task completion (not Quality Tasks).
     • Create, modify, and delete their own Roadblocks and Additional Tasks.
   • Limitations: Cannot edit schedule timing, structure, or tasks. Cannot set Quality Tasks as completed. Cannot see Settings views (Space Model, Location Breakdown, etc.). Limited visibility of other users. Can only see Sites/Schedules they have access to.

2. Accept (Schedule-Specific)

   • Ideal For: Team members or supervisors responsible for quality checks and final acceptance.
   • Can Do: Everything included in the Report role, PLUS:
     • Mark Quality Tasks as complete.
     • Mark Work Packages as 'Accepted' (where they are Owner or part of the Team).
     • Invite new users and grant them Report or Accept rights within the schedules they have Accept rights for.
   • Limitations: Same as Report regarding schedule edits and Settings views. Limited visibility of other users.

3. Refine (ltd) (Schedule-Specific, Owner-Based Editing)

   • Ideal For: Subcontractor foremen or team leads who need to manage the details of their own work, with limited visibility into the broader project context.
   • Can Do: Everything included in the Accept role, PLUS web UI access with specific editing rights:
     • If Owner of a Work Package:
       • Edit all visible data fields within that Work Package (except deadlines).
       • Create new sub Work Packages (inheriting Ownership).
       • View all attributes of their owned Work Packages (except deadlines), including Custom Fields.
     • If part of the Team (but not Owner):
       • Edit the status of the Work Package.
   • Data Visibility Limitations:
     • Cannot see any deadlines (internal or external). Deadline tools are hidden.
     • On Work Packages they don't own, can only see: Area, Owner, Color, Start/End Dates, Duration (hours/days), Team, Status.
     • Cannot see Settings views.
     • User visibility highly restricted (essentially see only themselves, cannot browse other users).

4. Refine (Schedule-Specific, Owner-Based Editing)

   • Ideal For: Internal team leads or planners who manage specific work sections and need broader project visibility than Refine (ltd).
   • Can Do: Same editing capabilities as Refine (ltd) (editing Work Packages they Own).
   • Broader Data Visibility:
     • Can see all Work Package attributes on all Work Packages within the schedule.
     • Can see and edit deadlines (editable on Work Packages they Own).
     • Can see and open all Teams within the schedule.
     • Can invite new users (presumably up to Refine level within their accessible schedules).
   • Limitations: Cannot see Settings views (Space Model, Location Breakdown, etc.).

5. Schedule (Schedule-Specific)

   • Ideal For: Project Managers or Lead Planners responsible for one or more specific schedules within a site.
   • Can Do: Everything included in previous roles, PLUS:
     • Full editing rights over all aspects of the schedule(s) they have this right for (timing, structure, tasks, assignments, Work Packages, deadlines, etc.).
     • Access and edit all Settings views (Space Model, Location Breakdown, Work Time, etc.) for that schedule.
     • Invite new users and manage permissions (up to Schedule level) for their specific schedules.

1. • • Archive schedules they have Schedule rights for.

2. Site (Site-Wide)

   • Ideal For: Site Administrators or Company Super Users overseeing all projects within a specific Sitedrive Site.
   • Can Do: Unrestricted access and editing capabilities across all schedules within the Site.
     • Manage all schedules (create, edit, archive).
     • Manage all users and their access rights across all schedules within the site.
     • Edit all Site-level settings.

Understanding 'Owner' and Inheritance

The Refine (ltd) and Refine roles rely heavily on the concept of Work Package Ownership.

• When you assign a user as the Owner of a Work Package (including summary packages/levels in the Gantt hierarchy), that user gains the specific editing permissions associated with their Refine (ltd) or Refine role for that package and all packages nested underneath it.
• This ownership is inherited down the hierarchy. The system clearly displays the inherited Owner on sub-packages.
• A sub-package can have additional Owners assigned directly, adding to those inherited from above.

Managing Access Rights: The New 'Users' Page

We've updated the user management interface within the Site context to handle these new permissions:

• Location: Access user management within your Site.
• User List: Displays all users associated with the Site. New columns show "Permitted Schedules" and their corresponding access level(s).
• Permission Summary:
  • Single Schedule Access: Shows the schedule name and the user's role for it.
  • Multiple Schedule Access: Shows the number of schedules the user can access (e.g., "3 Schedules") and potentially "Various rights".
  • All Schedule Access (via Site role): Shows "All Schedules" and the Site role.
  • No Access: Shows "None".
• Editing Permissions (Single User): Click on a user's "Schedules" or Access Rights entry to open the Access Rights Dialog.
• Access Rights Dialog:
  • Lists all schedules within the Site.
  • Allows you to assign a role (Report, Accept, Refine (ltd), Refine, Schedule) for each schedule individually.
  • Important: You can only see and edit permissions based on your own access rights.
    • Site Admins can see and edit everything for all users.
    • Schedule Managers can see and edit permissions only for the schedules they manage. Other schedule rows will be disabled or hidden.
    • Users with Refine or lower roles generally cannot edit others' permissions.
• Editing Permissions (Multiple Users): Select multiple users and click a selected user to open the dialog in multi-edit mode.
  • You can apply role changes across multiple schedules for all selected users simultaneously.
  • The dialog intelligently shows the current state (e.g., if users have different rights for the same schedule until you make a change).
  • Changes are only applied to the roles/schedules you explicitly modify in the dialog. Unchanged settings remain as they were for each individual user.
  • The same editing restrictions based on your permissions apply.

Get Started!

We believe this new Access Rights system provides a significant leap forward in flexibility, security, and collaborative potential for Sitedrive. We encourage you to explore the new 'Users' section within your Sites to familiarise yourself with assigning and managing these powerful new roles. As always, please reach out to our support team if you have any questions!

Other Updates in This Release

Alongside the significant Access Rights enhancements, this release also includes several other valuable features and important bug fixes:

New Features:

1. Enhanced REST API for User Management: The User Management endpoints in our REST API have been updated to support the new granular Access Rights system. 

2. Work Package Owner in API: The Work Package API now includes the "Owner" of a work package, accessible via the field name responsible_manager. 

3. Introducing the "Relative Progress Line" (Default): The default progress line mode has been updated to what was previously known as "relative progress line" during preview testing. This intelligent progress line now dynamically displays the accrued lateness or earliness of the project in relation to the current time or the individual work package's planned start and end dates. It intelligently factors in overlapping work packages and the planned work amounts within them, providing a more accurate and insightful view of project progress.

4. New Assignee Field for Detailed Resource Planning: Work Package instances now feature a dedicated "Assignee" field. This allows you to directly assign specific users to individual work packages, functioning similarly to assigning users through team membership. Furthermore, you can now pivot your schedule views based on the "Assignee," enabling detailed planning and tracking of work at the individual person level – making it easier to see who is responsible for what and to create granular execution plans.

5. Extended Print Window: The print dialog now offers the flexibility to extend the print window by +/- 3 months beyond the earliest start and latest end dates of the work packages in your selected view. This provides valuable "white space" in your printed schedules, offering better context and room for notes or visual clarity before and after the main project timeline.

6. Hide Deadline Names: When deadline visibility is turned off in the schedule view, the deadline names are now hidden. To see the name of a specific deadline, simply hover your mouse over the small deadline indicator that remains visible on the timeline. This provides a cleaner visual when deadline details are not immediately required.

7. Tier Subscription Model Support: The user interface now reflects and supports our tiered subscription model, including the display of site quota limits. This provides greater transparency regarding your subscription and usage when tier-based subscription is active.

Bug Fixes:

1. Orphaned Task Data Cleanup: We have cleaned up orphaned task data within the system. This data was not visible in the user interface but could be returned through the API in some instances.

2. General System Improvements and Fixes: This release includes multiple other behind-the-scenes fixes and improvements aimed at enhancing the overall stability, performance, and reliability of the Sitedrive platform.