Understanding users | Zoho Creator Help

Understanding users

Notes

This help page is for users in Creator 6. If you are in the older version (Creator 5), click here. Know your Creator version.


In a nutshell

Users are the individuals added to your Creator organization to access the applications. There are three types of users in Creator.

  1. Super admin - The account owner who will have access to all modules and organization administrations such as subscription management and organization level settings in Creator.
  2. Admins - The user who will have full access to all modules.
  3. Solution-specific users - Users who have access only to specific applications or solutions they are added to. Depending upon the solution, they can be added in different roles.
    1. Application: When a user is added to an application, they can be added as one of the below types
      1. Live Users - Users who can access only the live mode of the application.
      2. Developers - Users who can access both the live and edit mode of the application. They can also be given permissions to test and publish the app in the environments.
    2. BI & Analytics: When a user is added to a BI & Analytics solution, they can be added as one of the below types
      1. Users
      2. Workspace admin 
Availability
  1. The Users page can be accessed in the all plans of Creator.                                                                      
  2. Only the super admin and admins can access the Users page.

1. Overview

Users are authorized people who are allowed to deal and interact with the applications that are used by an organization. They can be assigned roles and given specific permissions that allow them to access the application's data.

Zoho Creator is a unified platform that helps create different solutions like Applications, BI & Analytics, and Integration Flows. A user is an individual who has access to the Creator platform.
Info
Important : Employees who are part of your organization and need access to Creator should ideally be added as users. 


There are three types of users:
  1. Super Admin
  2. Admins
  3. Solution-specific Users - Users who are not an admin or super admin and can be added to an Application or to BI & Analytics can be called solution-specific users.
In an Application, a solution-specific user can be:
  1. Live Users - Users who are added to the live mode of an application can be called live users.
  2. Developers
In BI & Analytics, solution-specific user can be:
  1. Users
  2. Workspace Admins


1.1. Types of users in Creator

Users can be of three types, super admin, admins, and as users who can be added to a specific solution.
User Type
Who Can Add?
Access
Description
Super Admin
(Account level)

-
  1. All data
  2. Application : Edit mode and Live mode
  3. BI & Analytics : Full edit access
  4. Integration Flows : Full edit access
  1. The super admin is the individual master administrator who created the account in Zoho Creator.
  2. They have access to all the features that are present in their Creator subscription.
  3. Communication regarding billing will be sent only to the super admin.
  4. A Creator account can have only one super admin.
Administrator
(Account level)
Super admin
  1. All data
  2. Application : Edit mode and Live mode
  3. BI & Analytics : Full edit access
  4. Integration Flows : Full edit access

  1. Admins can be added directly or be promoted from being a solution-specific user.
  2. They can build and edit the schema of the application, have access to all application data, manage operations, create integration flows, and so on.
  3. They cannot be assigned with roles and permissions.
  4. Admins can access the left pane of Creator that includes Solutions, Microservices, Environments, Users, Governance, Organization, and much more. There can be as many admins as needed as long as the limit of users for an organization is not exceeded.
Solution-specific User
Super admin / Admin

  1. These solution-specific users can be added or given access to specific Applications, BI & Analytics, and Integration Flows.
  2. There can be as many solution-specific users as needed as long as the limit of users for an organization is not exceeded. Check the user limit provided for your plan in the Billing page.

Solution-specific users classification
When added to an Application or BI & Analytics, solution-specific users take on different types of positions which are discussed in detail below. The access of Integration Flows can be enabled for each user if required.



Solution
User Type
Access
Description
Live Users
Live mode (data) according to user's permissions
  1. Live users are the solution-specific users who can access an application in the live mode according to their assigned:
    1. Permissions - Decides the actions that the user can perform.
    2. Roles - Decides who can access whose records when multiple roles are involved and hierarchy is enabled.
  2. Live users can neither create a new application, nor edit an existing application.
Developers
  1. Environments disabled - Edit mode and Live mode
  2. Environments enabled - Edit mode, specified environment's live mode (without data access)
  1. Developers are solution-specific users who have been permitted to edit the application schema, by the super admin or admins.
  2. Apart from editing applications, the developer can also be given access to test and publish the application when environments is enabled.
Users
Edit access according to permissions in BI & Analytics
  1. A user in BI & Analytics is a person who can access the organization and view reports shared with them by one of the workspace admins or users.
  2. In BI & Analytics, the users can be given access to specific data tables, reports, or dashboards present in the workspace, by a workspace admin. Based on the position assigned to them in the organization, the user will be given permissions in BI & Analytics that allows them to perform only specific tasks in the workspace.
Workspace Admins
Full edit access
  1. An admin in BI & Analytics is the person who is the admin of one or more specific workspaces in an organization.
  2. They can share data tables, reports, or dashboards to other users and assign them with specific access permissions in BI & Analytics.
  3. They can perform all the operations in a workspace, except deleting or renaming the workspace, and backing up the workspace.


  1. Admin/super admin : Create and edit flow, authority to activate/deactivate flow
  2. Solution-specific user : Access and edit flow with no authority to activate/deactivate flow
The super admin or admin of an account can create and activate or deactivate Integration Flows. The live user can configure the automated flows after there are given access by the admin or super admin.


Users vs Portal users
Users
Portal Users
Users are employees of the organization (internal) who hold Zoho accounts.
Portal users necessarily do not belong to the organization.
Internal users
External users
Directly sign in through their Zoho account credentials.
Sign in to a specific portal using their own set of credentials and need not have a Zoho account.
They can be a super admin, admin or solution-specific user and have application access according to their type.
They can then access applications that are shared with them according to their assigned portal user permission sets.
Eg. Employees.
Eg. Customers, suppliers, third-party users, vendors, etc.


1.2. See how it works




1.3. Use case

Let's assume an organization named Zylker uses Zoho Creator to create an application called Zylker Sales Management to manage its sales.
  1. In this organization, the account of the Sales Management Director (SM Director) was used to develop the Zoho Creator application. By default, the account holder, say the SM Director, becomes the super admin.
  2. The users added as admins can perform operations, such as restricting application access to users holding a specific verified domain, using blueprint analytics to and get insights into different blueprints, and so on.
  3. Employees of different teams who take care of the sales of different product categories can be added as live users who can manage data in the live mode of the application according to their permissions.
  4. The IT team of Zylker can now be added as developers, which will help them to test and enhance the Sales Management application with time and usage.

1.4. Navigation guide

You can find Users under the MANAGE section on the left-side pane once you sign in to your Creator account. It lists, and allows you, the super admin/admin, to add and manage all the users that need to be added to your Creator application.



1.5. Actions in the users page


The following actions can be performed from the Users page:
Action
Location
Description
 1. Filter users as per type
Choose to view the list of users as per their type:
  1. All Users (solution-specific users, admins, and super admin)
  2. Administrator
  3. Super Admin
By default, the list of All Users is shown on the page.
 2. Add User (or) Add Administrator
Notes
Note : This action can only be performed by the super admin.
 3. Search bar
Search for specific users using their Name or Email Address.
Notes
Note : When a filter is used, the search shows users only from the filtered results.
 4. Filter



The Filter option lets you to filter all your users based on Application or/and User Status. User Status is of four types:
  1. Active

  2. Inactive

  3. Pending

  4. Confirmed
 5. Import Users (or) Export Users
  1. Import Users - Bulk import users into your application by uploading files of the format .xls, .xlsx, .csv, or .vcf.
  2. Export Users - Export All users, or only Active / Inactive users at Application Level or Account Level in the file formats .xls, .csv, .tsv, .xlsx. The file will contain the name, email address, and the status (active/inactive) of the users.

 6. Individual actions for each user

  1. Add to Application - Add a solution-specific user to a specific application. You can choose if you want to add them as a:
    1. Live user
    2. Developer
  1. Add to BI & Analytics - Add a user to workspace in BI & Analytics. You can choose if you want to add them as a:
    1. User
    2. Workspace Admin
  2. Make as Admin - Turn a solution-specific user into an admin.
Notes
Note : 
  1. When you want to turn an admin into a user the Make as User option appears instead.
  2. Make as Admin / Make as User can only be performed by the super admin.
  1. Deactivate - Deactivate the user restricting their permissions and privileges. They will not have access to the applications they might have been given access to before, according to their user type.
Notes
Note : An Activate option appears for deactivated users.
  1. Edit Name: Edit the name of a user in the Creator account level.
  2. Delete - Delete a user from your Zoho Creator application.

If you want to perform some of the above actions on multiple solution-specific users together, you can also select them by ticking the relevant checkboxes. Use the options that are displayed above the list to perform the actions as seen below.

After selection, you can also Activate or Deactivate a flow from the horizontal ellipsis, thereby giving or restricting the users, access to integration flows.


2. Points to note

General
  1. The number of users who can be added varies based on your Creator plan. Check our pricing page.
  1. Users who are added to an account, should be of the same data center as the account holder.
  1. C5 account holders can also be added as admins, live users, or developers in C6 accounts, and vice versa.
  1. An admin can choose not to allow other super admin, admins, or solution-specific users to access records they created using filters. In this case, when the admin is deactivated, the super admin can view the data added by them.
Zoho Directory
  1. All users added across different Zoho services, including Creator, are listed in Zoho Directory. You can assign users from other Zoho services to Creator from the Zoho Directory Admin Panel if required. They will automatically get appended in the Users module of Creator.
User Permissions
  1. The super admin and admins cannot be assigned with roles and permission sets. They can view all the data of an application.
  2. A live user should compulsorily be assigned with a role and a permission set while being added to an application.
  3. Developers cannot be assigned with permission sets or roles since they have access to both the edit and live mode of the application. In the live mode, they can add and manage records in a report.
Environments
  1. Enabling environments does not impact the admins or super admins.
  2. When Environment is enabled, any changes made to a live user will reflect on them in the live mode, only when the application is pushed to the Production environment. These changes include deactivating/activating them, editing their permission sets, and so on.
  3. Impact of environments on developers who have been added to an application when it is:
    1. When environments is disabled - They have access to all the data of the application.
    2. When environments is enabled - The option to let them access and publish to Development and Stage can be chosen while adding them. They will not have access to the Production environment and therefore to the data of the application.
  4. While enabling environments for an application, the solution-specific users who were added as developers to the application will be removed. They can be added to Development and Stage after environment is enabled.
Data Access
Super Admin :
  1. Super admin has access to all data of all the solutions. They will not have access to application data added by an admin only when the admin chooses to hide their records using the filter option.
Admins :
  1. Admins have access to all data of all solutions. They will not have access to application data added by another admin only when the other admin chooses to hide their records using the filter option.
Live Users :
  1. Live users have access to records according to their permissions by default.
  2. When multiple live users are grouped together in a role, the Share with Peers option can be enabled for that role. In this case, all live users will have access to the records added by other live users in the same role according to the assigned permissions.
  3. When role hierarchy is enabled, live users who sit higher in the role hierarchy will be able to see the records added by the live users situated lower in the hierarchy according to the assigned permissions.
  4. Live users/roles will be able to access records added by other live users/roles when an appropriate data sharing rule is established.
Developers :
  1. Developers can access and add data in the live mode when environments is disabled. When environments is enabled, developers cannot add or manage records in the live mode of the application.


  1. Add Users
  2. Add Administrator
  3. Understand Solutions
  4. Add User to Application
  5. Add Developer
  6. Add User/Workspace Admin to BI & Analytics
  7. Access Flows
  8. Understanding user permissions
  9. Assign profile to app user

What's next
Previous
What's next
Learn how to add users in your Zoho Creator account.
Previous
Before adding users, learn about the types of solutions you can create in Creator.