Almost all the functionality within the system is integrated to the permissions model so that what a user is allowed by the system to do depends upon the permissions level that the administrator or Project manager has given them for the current project.

This is determined by the permissions group they are in. Users may be in different permissions groups for different projects, but may only be in one permissions group for each project.  Users may also have the 'rights' associated with an Administrator , a delegated sub set of admin rights or Portfolio user to be allowed to undertake additional activities.

The system uses the following standard permissions groups (increasing in rights) and administrators can also create custom groups if required:

  • No Access
  • Read - usually interested parties
  • Read/Write - Usually trusted team members
  • Modify - Usually the Project Manager or project board


Setting a user's permissions group is undertaken from the Manage  Project Permissions by User or the Manage Project Permissions (manage permissions by project) form. Pick the user from the 'user' pick list at the top of the form.

Note:When a new project is created in the Manage Projects form, this will be added to every user in the system at a 'No Access' permissions group. This means that no user (even a user with an admin account unless they set the project up) will be able to see the new project until individual user accounts have been granted permissions to do so.  This is for normal operational forms, when admin permissions users open manage user or manage project forms they will be shown all the projects to help administrate them even if they don't have any specific practical rights on the project itself.

The complete permissions model is here showing the functionality availble to users with particular licence and permission mix:

http://www.projectinabox.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id=4_0:kb0000500

These permissions will by default apply to every document and file in the project.  If required the permisisons associated with a Group can be altered to give higher or lower permissions to a particular document(s) in the project.  This is done a document at a time with Document level Permissions and can also be reviewed and altered for the entire project.

Additional rights are granted by an Administrator Account and these work in conjunction with the user permissions level to determine what each user can do in the system.  Some of these Admin rights are delegated to a Modify user on the project in the 'PM as admin' mode.