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Introduction
IBM Sametime Advanced Server provides persistent chat room functionality. Any logged in user can create chat rooms and organize those using folders. There are two types of folders - user folder and global folder. “Chat Rooms” is the root folder name in the hierarchy of user folder and global folder individually. Any authenticated user can create chat rooms or folders under this root folder. There is no restriction on the number of folders and chat rooms that an authenticated user can create. This causes a heavy maintenance for the Sametime Advanced and Admin may end up doing cleanup at some point in time to achieve better performance too.
This article demonstrates how a Sametime Advanced Administrator can take advantage of restricting the folders that are getting created under the “Chat Rooms” global folder.
Default Global Folder Management
Users and Roles defined in Sametime Advanced for Folders
Details of the roles defined in Sametime advanced for folders can be found at
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/stwiki.nsf/xpDocViewer.xsp?lookupName=Administering+Sametime+9.0+documentation#action=openDocument&res_title=Folder_and_chat_room_roles_st9j&content=pdcontent
Apart from these there are two general user virtual groups that can access
· All authenticated users – This virtual group represents all the logged in users.
· Anonymous users – This virtual group represents all the non-logged in users.
A super user or an Administrator of Sametime Advanced is created during installation of Advanced. This can be either the WebSphere administrator or the user details provided during installation.
Folder creation procedure
“Chat Rooms” global folder is created default in Advanced. This cannot be edited and deleted. Other Global folders, under Chat Rooms folder can be created using Advanced web client, in the “All Chat Rooms” tab. To create a folder, user can click on the New Chat Room Folder button.
When a user creates a global folder, user is provided with the below interface.
User can provide the folder details in the “Details” tab. To assign managers to a folder, “managers” tab can be clicked and assigned accordingly.
Selecting “Any logged in user has manager access to this folder”, will allow all authenticated users to be managers of the folder. Otherwise, “Users specified below have manager access to this folder” can be selected to assign specific users as managers of the folder.
Similarly, Authors and Readers can be assigned using the appropriate tabs.
Folder Access Details
By default the behavior of Sametime Advanced is that there is no restriction on the creation of folders and chat rooms for an authenticated user. At the root global folder named “Chat Rooms”, there is no manager / author / reader access. Super user and all authenticated users have the same access with respect to creation of folder and they are allowed to create any number of folders.
At the second level of folders, i.e. folders created under Chat Rooms folder, Super User, Manager of the folder, and Author of the folder can create folders.
The restriction of folder creation starts only at the second level of folders.
Need for restriction of folders
When a user is logged in, All Chat Rooms tab is displayed with New Chat Room Folder button always to create new folder under “Chat Rooms” folder. Following are the reasons why a restriction might be needed
· Administrator wanted to control the folders that are being created in Advanced as per the policy of the organization.
· If all authenticated users are allowed to create folders, maintenance is costly.
· If all authenticated users are allowed to create folders, the folders can get piled-up and clean up might be needed at some point in time, which is a huge Administrative task.
Restricting Folders
As you saw in the default behavior, restriction of folders can be achieved by default only from the second level of folders and not on the root folder. It may be important for few requirements of the organization that this restriction start at the root folder itself. This section details how this restriction can be enabled and explains the behavior, if enabled.
Enabling Folder Restriction
Sametime Administrator can enable the restriction for folder access using the Advanced Admin Portlets. Enabling the “Restrict global folder access” option in the below view of Admin portlets would enable the restriction.
Enabling this will hide the folder creation functionality from any authenticated user at the chat rooms folder level. Only a super user / administrator can create folders at the chat rooms folder level. And for all folders under chat rooms folder level, the permissions granted, would be applicable.
Root Folder Behavior
With the restriction being enabled, root global folder “Chat Rooms” default behavior will have a change. All authenticated users will be restricted to create folders. Chat Rooms folder has no manager / author / reader assigned and that will remain as it is. Only Advanced admin can create folders and define access.
Creating chat rooms and viewing them feature remains as it is. Below picture explains the root folder behavior, with the restriction being applied.
Second level (and beyond) Folder Behavior
When the restriction is applied, for the second level and beyond, folder behavior remains same except that folder author will not be able to create folders.
Creating chat rooms and viewing them feature remains as it is. Below picture explains the root folder behavior, with the restriction being applied.
Behavioral Comparison
As a comparison of behavior, with and without the restriction, the below chart displays the changes in red color, when the restriction is applied.
Conclusion
This article shows how the folder creation can be restricted by the Administrator. This features can be enabled or disabled as per the requirement anytime in Sametime Advanced.
About the Author
Josephine E Justin is a Advisory Software Engineer working currently in Sametime Advanced with IBM Collaboration Services, India.