Using the Access Manager

The Access Manager is a tool that Mallard uses to keep track of which developers have write access to specific resources; a developer can modify (edit) or overwrite a resource only if she has access to it. This prevents one developer from accidentally modifying or deleting another's work.

Each course director has automatic access to all resources and hence needs to be especially careful when overwriting or deleting a resource.

Mallard resources include questions, images, and course material. Each resource type has its own Access Manager, with its own database of resources and access privileges. Hence, there are three separate access managers: Question Access Manager, Course M aterial Access Manager, and Image Access Manager.

Resource Access Information

Each resource in the Access Manager database has the following information:
Resource
This is the resource name, the Mallard name of the question, image, or course material. Each name is restricted to a limited range of characters (e.g., letters, numbers, and '_').
Owner
This is the (login) name of the owner of the resource. The owner is the person who originally created or uploaded the resource.
Access
The owner and course director will always have access to the resource. This specifies which other developers (if any) have write access to the specified resource:
Access List
This lists developers who have write access to the specified resource. This is used only if "Access" is set to "list".
Delete
If a resource has a checkbox in the delete column, then you have access to that resource and the ability to delete it. Clicking the checkbox will select that resource for deletion.

Display Order

The Access Manager interface allows a developer to select which resources to display and their order. The following tool bar appears at the top of the Access Manager page:

Sort by:
Match:
Show Resources:

This tool bar works as follows:

Sort by:
Resources are sorted alphabetically by resource name or by owner login name.
Match:
Display resources according to ID or owner name that start with the given string.
If "Sort by" is set to Resource, then only resources whose IDs start with the given string are displayed.
If "Sort by" is set to owner, then only resources whose owner login names start with the given string are displayed.
Show Resources:
You may display all resources, just the resources you can access, or just those resources you own.

Reset Access/Change Access

At the bottom of the page there are Reset Access and Change Access buttons. Click on Reset Access to reset (erase the changes on) the current page. Clicking on Change Access will actually make the changes. No changes are made if you move to another page without clicking on Change Access.

Rebuild from Files

The button at the top of the page labeled "Rebuild from files" can be used to synchronize the access control list with the resources that are actually present in the Mallard system. This is useful if a developer has uploaded resources via some means other than the Mallard interface, such as ftp. If new resources are found that are not part of the access control list, they will be added with ownership set to the current user. Any resources listed in the access control list but not exising in Mallard will be removed from the list.

Comments? Questions? General harassment? Mail it to maiko@wocket.csl.uiuc.edu