Asset Bank has two main configuration options around groups and permissions. Both have their own benefits and our Technical Consultants will guide you on which is best for your particular set of requirements.

These options are as follows:

Folders

Assets appear in folders and sub-folders within the site. Admin users set up groups and decide which groups can see which folders. So you may have something like:

• Staff User Group - can see all folders and can directly download items in any of them
• Partner User Group - can only see the Brand and Logo folders. Can download all assets directly from these folders.

The main thing to note here is that permissions are linked to folders and sub-folders. So a user may be able to upload to this folder, be able to download all items from another, may only have download after approval for yet another, etc.

The main benefit of this configuration is that it is easiest to understand as permissions are related to the main folder structure (including sub-folders). So you can visit a group in the admin area and quickly see which folders the members of this group can see, etc.

Access Levels and Categories

This is the other configuration option that we frequently use. The key difference is that permissions are based on the assets themselves - not the categories (or folders). The categories in this option (i.e. the folders and sub-folders users see when they log in) have nothing to do with permissions. It is the access level tag on the asset itself that determines whether or not a user can see it.

So, unlike the Folders option above, this could allow the following scenario:

Two separate groups of users can see the same categories - but one group sees a different set of assets within them.

Simplify your Asset Bank by converting Access Levels and Categories to Folders

Something we often come across with clients that have been using Asset Bank for a long while is that their system is set up with Access Levels and Categories but the Groups for their users do not take advantage of this flexible approach, or worse, admin users do not full understand the relationship between the Access Levels and Categories and therefore they are not using Groups at all. 

As part of a Health Check or Consultancy project, we often find ourselves suggesting and implementing a conversion to the Folder system, which is more intuitive and easier to control.