Giving users the ability to access your Ubidots powered App(s) is one feature that sets Ubidots apart from other platforms, giving you the competitive advantage to develop and deploy Apps to end users who can interact with them.
For example, in a brewery, the shop floor supervisor might want their operators to have access to specific dashboards for daily machine uptime, but not the building's HVAC system, as this is data corresponds to the maintenance team. With Ubidots' user management, you can organize your account's data into separate groups called "Organizations", giving end-users access based on their roles within the company or project.
Ubidots powered Apps can also be branded with your company's logo and domain.
To begin, let's discuss some Ubidots logic:
All Ubidots accounts begin with a single App that can be accessed by users through a private login portal. Each App includes and follows the below hierarchical structure.
Owner: The person who creates and manages the Ubidots account, its App(s), and its organizations. There's one owner per Ubidots Account.
App(s): An IoT solution that contains dashboards, alerts, analytics, and organizations that contain users who have access permission in the form of roles.
Organizations: Different branches of users who have access to the data provided by the App and are controlled by the owner and admins.
Roles: Different authentication groups that grant users permissions or restrictions to the tools, features, and data within an Ubidots App.
Users: Person(s) able to view an App's data and engage with Ubidots based on the particular Role that they have been given.
Different Apps allow you to brand or white label them independently and have them be accessible by different end users. All Ubidots accounts begin with a single App. You can easily deploy a new App from the "apps" tab in Ubidots.
Furthermore, by using tags you can not only better organize your Ubidots resources (dashboards, devices, reports, events, and users), but also define what your users get to see and interact with in your app. Learn more about tags here.
1. Create an organization
An organization is a sub-division of any Ubidots app into different users, dashboards, devices, events, and API tokens. An organization can be different customers, different departments of a business, or any other grouping of users, dashboards, and devices.
1.1. Creating an organization in your app
Click on "users" in the main navigation bar and then select "organizations" in the drop-down menu.
Click on the "+" button on the top right corner. Name your organization and add a description to it (optional).
Click on the green check mark at the bottom right corner. Choose the app the new organization will belong to.
1.2. Customize/edit the organization's settings
You can effortlessly assign devices, events, dashboards, organizational tokens, and users using the left-hand management panel inside the organization's settings.
2. Create roles
In Ubidots, "roles" are the different authentication groups with designated permissions or restrictions to the tools, features, and data within an app.
2.1. Creating a new role
Click on "users" in the main navigation bar and then select "roles" in the drop-down menu.
Click the "+" button located in the top right corner to create a new role.
When editing permissions, you will see the "✓" next to any enabled permission. When an "✗" is visible, the permission will not be granted to the users with to this role.
Dashboards |
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Permission to change an existing dashboard. | Permission to create a dashboard. | Permission to view a dashboard. | Permission to delete an existing dashboard. |
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Reports |
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Permission to change an existing report. | Permission to create a report. | Permission to delete an existing report. | Permission to view a report. |
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Roles |
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Permission to change an existing role. | Permission to create a role. | Permission to delete an existing role. | Permission to view a role. |
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Devices |
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Permission to change an existing device. | Permission to change an existing value. | Permission to view values of widgets. | Permission to view a device. |
Permission to to change an existing variable. | Permission to create a device. | Permission to view a variable. | Permission to delete an existing variable. |
Permission to create a value. | Permission to create a variable. | Permission to view a variable's statistics. | Permission to view a value. |
Permission to delete an existing device. | Permission to delete an existing value. |
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End-user management |
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Permission to change an existing organization. | Permission to change an existing user. | Permission to view a user. | Permission to view an organization. |
Permission to create a user. | Permission to delete organizations | Permission to create an organization. | Permission to delete an existing user. |
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Events |
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Permission to change an existing event. | Permission to create an event. | Permission to delete an existing event. | Permission to view an event. |
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Widgets |
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Permission to change an existing widget. | Permission to create a widget. | Permission to delete an existing widget. | Permission to view a widget's data. |
Permission to view a widget. |
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Groups |
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Permission to change existing device groups. | Permission to create device groups. | Permission to delete existing device groups. | Permission to view device groups. |
2.2. Ubidots default roles
Explorers: Can create, edit, view, and delete dashboards and events. They can view the devices, variables, and values, but can't edit or delete these.
Viewers: Can view dashboards, devices, variables and their values, but can't create, edit, or delete them.
Dashboard viewers: Can only see data dashboards of their organization.
Managers: Can do everything an admin can do, except creating, editing, or deleting end users.
Create your own: You can create custom end-user access permissions as you see fit.
2.3. Edit & delete roles
To edit or delete a role, simply select the button corresponding to the action you need from the chosen Role.
3. Create users and assign a role
"Users" are individuals able to view an app's data and engage with Ubidots based on the particular role that they have been given.
To create a user, go to "users" in the main navigation bar and then select "users" in the drop-down menu. Then...
Click the "+" button located in the top right corner to create a new user.
Assign a username, fill in the user's email, and assign a password.
Select the user's default organization.
Assign the user a role (permissions group).
An optional step is to use a tag on the user. This is a great tool to control what your end users see in your app by matching tags on users and other entities. Learn more about tags here.
Assign the user to one or multiple organizations.
Add the user's contact information. Even though this is an optional step, it's useful to notify users using the "events" module.
Send an invitation to the user through the selected email in the first step (optional).
3.1. Edit users
In case you need to edit an user, their role, or see their activity, click on the three dots at the far right of the user and select the desired option from this list of options:
4. Assign users to organizations
Adding users to an organization can be done during the creation or editing process of the user or from the organization, this way:
Click on "users" in the main navigation bar and then select "organizations" in the drop-down menu.
Go into the organization you want to add users to by clicking on its name.
Click on "users" on the left menu.
Click on the "+" button at the upper right corner.
Select the user(s) you want to add to the organization, assign a role to them, and, optionally, send an invitation to them.
5. Assign devices to an organization
IMPORTANT NOTE: For billing purposes, a device can be assigned to ONLY ONE organization.
1) From the organization menu:
Click on "users" in the main navigation bar and then select "organizations" in the drop-down menu.
Go into the organization you want to add users to by clicking on its name.
Click on "devices" on the left menu.
Click on the "+" button at the upper right corner.
Select the device(s) you want to add to the organization. If you select a device that already belongs to another organization, it will be assigned to the new one (it can only belong to one organization).
2) From the device list:
Click on "devices" in the main navigation bar and then select "devices" in the drop-down menu.
Select one or multiple devices by clicking on their icon (or select them all by clicking on the checkbox at the top left of the device list).
Assign the selected devices to the organization of your choice by clicking on the corresponding button (shown in the image below).
Bulk assign a device group
Click on "devices" in the main navigation bar and then select "groups" in the drop-down menu.
Assign the selected group to the organization of your choice by clicking on the three dots located at the right of every group and then clicking on the "assign" option.
6. Assign dashboards to an organization
IMPORTANT NOTE: A dashboard can now be assigned to MORE THAN ONE organization. Fore more information on this, have a look at this article.
1) From the dashboard list:
Click on "data" in the main navigation bar and then select "dashboards" in the drop-down menu.
Click on the hamburger button located at upper left corner of the screen, then click on the three dots of the dashboard you want to assign to an organization, and select the "assign organization" option.
2) From the organization menu:
Click on "users" in the main navigation bar and then select "organizations" in the drop-down menu.
Go into the organization you want to add users to by clicking on its name.
Click on "dashboards" on the left menu.
Click on the "+" button at the upper right corner.
Select the dashboard(s) you want to add to the organization.
7. Export monthly app usage reports
Knowing the usage of a particular organization, or all of them, is essential for scaling, budgeting, and billing purposes. Export the monthly usage of your Ubidots app(s) from the organization section of your app.
Click on "users" in the main navigation bar and then select "organizations" in the drop-down menu.
2. Select one or multiple organizations by clicking on their corresponding checkboxes (or select them all by clicking on the checkbox at the top left of the organization list).
3. Click on the "export usage" button, highlighted in the image below.
