Enabling Custom Data Field Editing for Non-Admin Users

You may enable non-Admin users with limited privileges to edit custom field data within device groups, jobs, interfaces, network components, or change events for which they have responsibility.

This feature is useful, for example, when a non-Admin NetMRI user needs to add notes on a regular basis to device records in the groups that they administrate, or descriptive notes on interfaces they manage.

For purposes of this section, we assume the previous definition of a non-Admin user account with the necessary Roles and device group assignments needed for the user. For information, see Understanding Users and Roles.

To add custom field editing privileges to a non-Admin account, the admin user does the following:

1. (For Admin users) Ensure you have the needed non-admin account in your user database.

   Note

   Check assigned Roles for the user in the Settings icon > User Admin > Users page.

2. To open the role for the non-admin user account, go to the Settings icon > User Admin > Roles page.

3. To begin editing the role, click its Action icon and then choose Edit from the menu. For example, a user 'jsmith' manages the Routing and Switching device groups and possesses the ConfigAdmin and Switch Port Administrator roles. For custom data editing, add the Custom Data: Input Data privilege to one or more roles for the non-admin user.

4. Click the Privileges tab in the Edit Role dialog box and then click Add.

5. Select the Custom Data: Input Data privilege and click OK.

6. Click Save & Close. NetMRI saves the new custom data privilege into the Role. The new Privilege automatically applies to any user accounts to which the Role is bound. (You will note that custom Roles can be defined in the Roles page.)

As an example, consider a case where an interface on a high-end distribution switch is dedicated to a particular department circuit, and you want the non-Admin user to add notes to its records. Do the following:

1. Have the non-Admin user log in to the NetMRI instance.
2. Go to Network Explorer > Inventory > Interfaces > Interface Config and then click an interface identifier. The Interface Viewer appears for the chosen port.
3. Go to the Interface > Custom Data page.
4. At the bottom of the page, click New. This indicates that the non-Admin user can work with this data set. The Add Custom Field dialog box appears.
5. In the Name field, choose the custom field to be added to the port information display.
6. In the Value field, enter notes or other information for the custom field.
7. Click Save & Close.
   The custom field is applied on a granular per-interface level. In the Device Viewer, you apply custom fields from the Device/Network Explorer>Custom Data page.

If a non-Admin user does not find an active New button at the bottom of a feature set's Custom Data page (for example, in the Interface Viewer, in the Device Viewer, or for a Job), two possible issues may apply:

1. • The Custom Data: Input Data privilege has not been added to the user's role;
   • Custom field definitions have not been defined by the holder of the admin account. As noted above, five types of custom fields may be defined: Changes, Devices, Components, Interfaces, and Jobs. For more information, see Defining and Using Custom Fields and its subsections for details of all five custom field types available in the system.

The Device Viewer's Device/Network Explorer > Custom Data page is not enabled for non-Admin users unless the admin creates a Custom Field for the type Devices; and adds the Custom Data: Input Data privilege to the user's Role.

For Jobs and Changes types, custom fields could be used to record data such as trouble ticket numbers. Admin users may define new Custom Fields in the Settings icon > General Settings > Custom Fields page.