Soonr Updates to Services, Web UI and Agents October 2013

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1 This document covers powerful new features being introduced for Soonr Workplace during October These improvements include the following new capabilities: Granular Share Permissions Updates to Soonr Windows and Mac Agent to support the new Permissions model Sub-Project Level Sharing Project Owner Re-assignment New Enterprise Reports User Backup Controls Granular Share Permissions When Projects or sub-projects are shared with other Members or Connections, their access Permissions can be specified at a more granular level than was possible before. In both the Soonr PRO and Enterprise Plans, access Permissions to Projects or Sub-Projects can be specified as Read-Only, Modify, Create & Modify, and Full Access (including delete) based on the role of the user. Table 1 below shows the use of granular Permissions. Permission Delete Files and Folders Add Files and Folders Change Files View Content (*) Full Access X X X X Create and Modify X X X Modify X X Read-Only X Table 1 Use of Granular Permissions (*) View Content has different meanings for different access methods: Web access / Mobile access user may only view the document in the web page but gets no access to a pdf or original version of the document. Desktop agent sync user may download the document. As before, share Permissions to a Project or a Sub-Project are configured on the Soonr Workplace Web UI when a share is added as shown in Figure 1 below. Copyright 2013, Soonr, Inc., All Rights Reserved Page 1

2 Figure 1 Granular Share Permissions. Updates to Soonr Workplace Windows and Mac Agent to support the new Permissions model In order to support the new share Permissions model, the Soonr Mac and PC agents are updated to enforce a Member s or Connection s Permission policies. Updated versions of the Soonr Desktop Agent (4.3) support the new Permissions model. Figure 2 below shows an example of a Member who has Read-Only access to a Project. Figure 2 Example of Member with Read-Only Access. The desktop agent is now responsible for enforcing the Read-Only policy associated with this Member when working from the desktop such that edit, delete, and create actions are blocked when they re attempted. Figure 3 shows an attempt by the Member to delete a file in the Project that he has only been given Read-Only access. Copyright 2013, Soonr, Inc., All Rights Reserved Page 2

3 Figure 3 Attempt by Member to Delete a File from a Project with Read-Only Access. When the Soonr desktop agents detects this unauthorized action from the desktop, an alert is generated with a description of the violation in the main window as well as from the agent notification area as shown in Figures 4 and 5 below. Figure 4 Permission Violation Alert on the Main Window. Copyright 2013, Soonr, Inc., All Rights Reserved Page 3

4 Figure 5 Permission Violation Alert on the Agent Notification Area. The Soonr desktop agent is also responsible for resolving Permission conflicts across desktop and service operations, as such, the violation dialogue provides an option to for the user to click on a link to resolve the conflict. Figure 6 below shows the violation listing page generated by the desktop agent with options to resolve all violations or to fix selected ones. Unresolved violations remain as active conflicts until resolved by the user. Resolving violations can involve bringing back content from the server that was locally deleted, or can involve removing content from the Project that was added without appropriate Permissions. In the latter case, the user has the option to move the files to their Personal Documents Project or discard the files. If the user edited the files without the Update Permission, combinations of actions are possible. The modified file is moved away, and the original is brought back from the service. Copyright 2013, Soonr, Inc., All Rights Reserved Page 4

5 Figure 6 Sync Permission Violation List Generated by the Desktop Agent. Sub-Project Level Sharing Owners of Projects or other users authorized to re-share Projects, can now share selected folders at the sub-project level rather than the entire Project with other Team Members of Connections. This is particularly useful if Projects are large and are being synced with many users who require access only to certain parts of the Project, or in cases where documents are being synced to devices with limited storage space (such as smartphones or tablets) where syncing the entire Project may not be desirable. Sharing at the sub-project level is accomplished in the same manner as the Project level, from the web UI, available Projects are listed under the top level Projects menu item and sub-levels are accessed by clicking on the Project and folders within the Project. Sharing at the sub-project level can be very efficient when sharing with Groups that contain the Members or Connections of a functional organization. The right side of the Share page shows the Project owner; all allowed Shares, and their Permissions along with a graphical tree representation of the Sharing level as shown in Figure 7. Also note that as you share at various levels in the Project you can, at each level, see which shares were from levels above, and which shares are at the current level. In Figure 7 the shares at the current folder are listed under the headline This Folder on the left. The navigation tree to the right gives a quick clickable tree with an overview of other shares in the Project. When setting up the sharing in a Project, it is good practice to use Groups for sharing as this allows easy management of which team Members participate in which roles Copyright 2013, Soonr, Inc., All Rights Reserved Page 5

6 in Projects. As you add or remove Members from Groups, they are automatically included or excluded in the Project shares. Also note that if you define a share to a user or Group at one level in a Project, then you can only increase the Permissions to that particular Group or user at lower levels. So at any level a share defines the minimal Permission set from that point and down to the recipient. Figure 7 Sub-Project Level Sharing View Project Owner Re-assignment A new and important feature is being introduced in Soonr Workplace related to Project ownership. In the past, Projects were owned by their creators and ownership could not be re-assigned. If it became necessary to take full control of a Project, for example when the original owner left the Team, a Team Admin would have to login as the original owner (by changing their credentials) each time in order to fully manage the Project. The Enterprise Plan does offer the role of a Super-Admin which allows full Project management capability but this is a privileged role not available to other Members. The new capability allows the Project Owner or the Super Admin to re-assign a Project to a different owner. A team Admin can re-assign a Project that belongs to another Member by logging in as the owner. If the Member is being deleted, the team Admin can re-assign Projects during the deletion action as described later. By default, the owner of a Soonr Project is the user who originally created it. The owner has control over all aspects of the Project including sharing and Permissions given to others to that Project. When users leave a team, or during routine moves/adds/changes that frequently occur in larger teams, Projects can be assigned to new owners for maintenance or disposition as needed. Assigning a Project to a new owner is accomplished by selecting the Projects actions button, then selecting Manage which presents a Project re-assignment page. Copyright 2013, Soonr, Inc., All Rights Reserved Page 6

7 Project Actions button for re-assigning Projects is shown in Figure 8. The new Project re-assignment page is shown in Figure 9. Figure 8 Project re-assignment using the Project pull-down menu. Figure 9 Member Selection page for Project re-assignment. After a Member has been selected as the new owner of a Project, a confirmation dialogue verifies if this action can be completed and requests if any Permissions should be granted to the previous owner of the Project. This dialogue is shown in Figure 10 below. Figure 10 Project re-assignment Confirmation Dialogue. Copyright 2013, Soonr, Inc., All Rights Reserved Page 7

8 Another common occurrence is Project re-assignment when deleting a Member. When Members are deleted, the Projects and the documents that are contained in those Projects are also deleted. Now when a Member is deleted by the team Admin, a new dialogue is presented to prompt the team Admin to pick a new owner, re-assign the Project to the team Admin, or to delete the Projects if they re no longer needed. This is shown in Figure 11. Figure 11 Member Delete Dialogue used to re-assign Projects. New Enterprise Reports The Soonr Workplace Enterprise Plan offers a rich collection of Reports on Team usage, User Access, and Project life cycle. Three new canned Reports are being added under a tab called Special which will also allow custom queries in future releases. The three new canned Reports are about Users, Computers, and Mobile Devices as shown in Figure 12. Copyright 2013, Soonr, Inc., All Rights Reserved Page 8

9 Figure 12 Special Report Area for Canned and Custom Reports in the Enterprise Plan. The User Report displays the Member or Connection name, address, role, sync and back-up quota, creation date and last login as shown in Figure 13. Figure 12 Enterprise Plan Canned User Report. The Computer Report displays the owner, Device name and Status, operating software version, agent installation date, and last connection date and timestamp as shown in Figure 14. Figure 14 Enterprise Plan Canned Computer Report. Copyright 2013, Soonr, Inc., All Rights Reserved Page 9

10 The Mobile Device Report displays the owner, Client type and version, number of logins from the device to the Soonr Service, and the last login date and timestamp as shown in Figure 15. Figure 15 Enterprise Plan Canned Mobile Device Report. User Backup Controls In some cases when Members are created and depending on their roles, it may be appropriate to disable the backup functions for them yet still allow them to participate in shared Projects for collaboration and syncing to their computers. Disabling backup functions for a Member takes away the ability to selectively backup their files and folders in their computers in Soonr. In many cases, files that are being backed up are also being synced if they re shared and this capability allows on organization to optimize their storage use. Backups can be enabled or disabled when a Member is being created or from the Edit Member dialogue under the Team tab from the web UI as shown in Figure 16 below. Copyright 2013, Soonr, Inc., All Rights Reserved Page 10

11 Figure 16 Enterprise Plan Canned Mobile Device Report. Copyright 2013, Soonr, Inc., All Rights Reserved Page 11