Use UW Groups

Owned by Rachel Klingler
Last updated: Jan 16, 2019
4 min read

UW groups allow you to post protected content on your page. Only people with a UW log-in on your list will be able to view the content on the page. You can choose just some organizations that are allowed to access the content, or you can manage a group of specific people who are allowed to access the content. When someone browsing navigates to the protected content, they will be prompted to log in using their UW campus credentials (similar to how it looks when you log into Zuse). If they authenticate as someone who is in the group, they will be able to view the content on the page.


UW Group Terminology 

Group Administrator: An administrator can edit the name and description of the group, and add users to a group as well as the privileges of a manager.

Group Manager: A manager can edit content protected by the group and apply the group to content. Groups are shared across all sites. Managers control who can use the group. If any site with any editor should be able to use the group, choose the Allow anyone to manage this group option. 

Implement Protected Content

Request a UW Group

Because groups require extra maintenance, and to ensure that groups are necessary in your situation and an existing group won't already meet your needs, you must first request a group before you can create it and protect content with it. You do not need to request a group if your content should be available to a single campus. 

  1. On the left side menu, navigate to Settings > Community Groups > Request Group.
  2. Complete the form. In the description, explain who will be in the group and how the group will be managed (who will keep the group up to date). How will you decide who is allowed to be in the group. In the group purpose, describe the content that will be protected with hte group and why the group is necessary (why does the content need to be protected).
  3. Choose the Send Request button to submit your request. After the Web Team reveiews your request, you will get an email alert. 

Add Users to a Group

Once your UW Group is approved, you can add users and campuses to your group. 

  1. On the left side menu, navigate to Settings > Groups > All Groups. Hover over the name of the group you want to edit and choose Edit. 
  2. There are three tabs in the group, Individual Members (where you can specify single people), Campuses (where you can specify a certain campus), and Groups (where you can specify everyone in another group). Adding groups to your group may be useful if you have two groups, high security and medium security. Everyone in high security should also see the medium security content, so you can add the high security group to the medium security group and you won't have to maintain the high security users in two places.
    1. To add an individual - On the Individual Members tab, search using first and last name. Choose the Add User link to add the user to your group. 
      When adding an individual, be aware that multiple emails may be associated with the same account. If the person you are adding has emails from multiple institutions, you might not see the email of the institution you are expecting to see. Even if the email you listed is from a different institution, the system is smart enough to know the person is the same no matter which credentials they use. 
      If you are having trouble finding the person, check to see if they have changed their name. 
    2. To add a campus - On the Campuses tab, select the checkbox next to the campuses that should be included in the group. If a user has logins for more than one campus, they will only be affiliated with the campus of the credentials they are using to log in. For example, a UWSA employee who logs in with their UW Madison credentials will not be able to see UWSA content. 
    3. To add another group - Choose the Groups tab, and select the groups that should be included in your group. 
  3. Choose the Update button to save your group.

Protect a Page with a UW Group

Only managers of the group can protect a page with the group. To choose managers for the group, use the dropdown in the Managers meta-box when you are editing the group (Settings > Groups > All Groups).

To specify a page is protected content, use the Page Security metabox. From the Dropdown, select the group that should be able to view the page. 

Once a page is marked as protected, only managers of the group can edit that page. 

Protect a whole site with a UW Group

Whole sites can be protected by UW Groups. To protect a site, navigate to Settings > Settings > General and use the Security Group drop down to specify the group that should have access to the site.

Allow Someone without Author or Editor training to maintain a group

Even people who aren't authors or editors can be administrators of groups so that they can add and remove people from the group. Before you can specify someone as an administrator, they must log into Zuse using their UW campus credentials: wisconsin.edu/wp-admin. Once they have logged in, a Zuse user will automatically be created for them and they will be available to choose in the Administrator drop down. Add them as an Administrator to the group they should maintain. When they log into Zuse again, they will be able to edit the group, but won't have access to other Zuse features like editing pages. 

Protecting documents

A document on a protected page will not be protected unless the whole site is protected. That is, uploading a document to an unprotected site and linking to it on a protected page will not protect the document. You must protect your whole site to require a log-in to view the documents. See above for instructions for protecting a whole site.