Users - Customizing the Processes, Forms, and Profile

Older installations of LegalServer came with a set of static, built-in forms and processes to add and edit users. This page covers creating a set of dynamic processes, forms, and a profile to provide greater control over the User module.

Sites already using dynamic forms and processes may find the configuration options on this page helpful. Go to Admin > Processes, Forms, and Profiles, and change the Module to User to see if your site has dynamic forms and processes setup.

Site administrators can convert to dynamic processes, forms, and a profile following the instructions on this page. Alternatively, LegalServer staff can do this for $500.00. If that is desired, file a support request from your site (Help menu > Support Request).

Related: For an overview of user accounts, see User Account Administration. For general information on editing forms and processes, see Process Management - Editing Forms and Links.

Quick Summary

• Build a user profile page

• Build a create/edit form(s)

• Add a process, specifying the form(s) and profile

• Set the process as the default on the settings page

Create a User Profile

• Go to the Processes, Forms, and Profiles page in the Admin tab.

• Make sure "User" is selected in the dropdown next to Forms and Processes for Module.

• To create a new user profile, click on the New User Profile link in the Actions menu on the Processes, Forms, and Profiles page. (If your site is still using the legacy interface, this link will appear on the right side of the screen.)

• The Name and Description section contains fields for naming the profile and a brief description that will appear in the list of profiles.

• Generally, you will not use a Continue button on a user profile, so you can leave the Continue Button Text field blank.

• The Profile Elements section contains spaces for enabled elements and disabled elements.

  • • Please see Process Management for details about profile elements.

• The Side/Action Elements section of the setup screen gives you the ability to control the links in the Side Bar, Actions and Views menu. (If your site is still using the legacy interface, this section applies to the links under Options on righthand side of the screen.)

• When you are finished setting up your profile, click the Continue button in the lower right corner to save it and return to the list of profiles.

Create User Create/Edit Form(s)

You can use as many forms as you need in your user creation process. It is common for user create processes to use multiple forms that collect different kinds of information about new users, but you can configure your forms in any way that suits your organization's needs. 

• Go to the Processes, Forms, and Profiles page in the Admin tab.

• Make sure "User" is selected in the dropdown next to Forms and Processes for Module.

• To create a new user creation form, click on the New User Create Form link in the Actions menu on the Processes, Forms, and Profiles page. (If your site is still using the legacy interface, this link will appear on the right side of the screen.)

• The Name and Description section contains fields for naming the form, a brief description that will appear in the list of forms, and any custom text that you would like to use in place of the standard continue button.

• The Form Elements section contains spaces for enabled elements and disabled elements.

  • Enabled elements will appear on the user creation form and disabled elements will not.

  • See Process Management for details about form elements.

• You can safely ignore the Side/Action Elements section of the setup screen, since there is no need to add any.

• When you are finished setting up your form, click the Continue button in the lower right corner to save it and return to the list of forms.

• Typical Configuration

  • A typical dynamic user creation process includes at least 4 forms. The following examples illustrate how these forms are typically configured.

    • The first form establishes some basic system information about the new user.

• • • The second form collects the user's contact information.

• • • The third form determines if the user is affiliated with an organization that has already been entered into the system.

• • • Finally, the fourth form establishes the user's password.

 Create a New User Create Process

• Go to the Processes, Forms, and Profiles page in the Admin tab.

• Make sure "User" is selected in the dropdown next to Forms and Processes for Module.

• To create a new user creation process, click New User Create Process in the Actions menu at the top of the screen. (If your site is still using the legacy interface, this link will appear on the right side of the screen.)

• Give your new user creation process a name that will be easily recognizable and easy to search for in the process list.

  • TIP: The name you use will be used as the text for the link to this process, so it should indicate an action.

• Beneath that are fields to toggle whether the user creation process is complete and active. Your user creation process will not be visible to users until it is marked as active.

• The Process Description field allows you to add a description that will appear in the list of processes.

• Below the Attributes fields at the top of the page are spaces for enabled forms and disabled forms. Enabled forms will appear on the intake and disabled forms will not.

  • By default, all existing forms will appear as disabled for new processes.

• To enable a form, simply drag the form from the disabled section to the enabled section.

• The order of the forms in the enabled section is the order that they will appear during the user creation process.

• At the bottom of the page there is a dropdown for selecting which profile users are taken to upon completing the user creation process. To ensure that users created with this process are displayed with your dynamic user profile, select it from the dropdown.

  • If you do not select a dynamic user profile here, the system will use the default static user profile to display user records created with this process.

• When you are finished, click the Continue button in the lower right to save your new user creation process and return to the list of processes.

• After you've created the new process, you can re-open it to set permissions for each user role. The example shows the default settings, but you can customize them depending on your organization's needs.

Enabling the Dynamic User Creation Process

LegalServer has a default static user creation process, so you need to tell the system to use your dynamic user creation process instead.

• Go to the Process Settings page in the Admin tab.

• In the User Settings section, select the dynamic user creation process in the dropdown.

When you are finished, click Continue in the lower right to save your changes.

Allowing Users to Edit User Profiles

Once you've created a dynamic user creation process and profile, you will also want users to be able to edit the information in the user profile. Now that you know how to create a process and form, you can easily create another process for editing the user profile.

Creating a User Aux Process

• Go to the Processes, Forms, and Profiles page in the Admin tab.  Show me more.

• With the User module selected, click on New User Aux Process in the Actions menu.

• • TIP: It is common for organizations to create different auxiliary processes to edit different parts of the user profile, since this allows you to use each form from the create process in its own discrete editing process.

• Give the new process a name that indicates what it will do.

• Enable the form(s) you want to use in the process by dragging from the disabled list to the enabled list.

  • TIP: If you don't see the form you want to use in the list, you will need to open the form for editing and make sure that "User Aux" is selected in the Process Types multi-select list.

• After you've created the new process, you can re-open it to set permissions for each user role. The example shows the default settings, but you can customize them depending on your organization's needs.

Actions Menu on the User Profile

• Now that you've created your auxiliary processes, you can setup the Actions menu on the dynamic user profile. Start by opening the dynamic user profile for editing.

• Scroll down to the Side/Action Elements section of the form and click Add in the lower right corner of that section.

• By default, the new Side/Action element will be added to the Side Bar list. You can drag and drop it in the Action Menu list to make it appear under the Actions menu.

• Click the plus sign (+) next to Side/Action to edit the configuration options.

• The example below shows a typical configuration using the Custom Link Box option.

• Make sure that the auxiliary processes you created for editing the user profile are included in the list, and give them a name that users will recognize. By default, the system will populate the name field using the process's name, but you have the ability to change it depending on your organization's needs.

Important Notes

• Dynamic user processes/profiles do not apply retroactively

  • After you create the new dynamic user process and profile, any new users created using the dynamic process will be displayed using the dynamic profile. However, because records "remember" the process that created them, users created before the implementation of the dynamic process will still be displayed using the static user profile.

  • It is possible to update your existing user records so that they will display with the dynamic profile. To do so, please contact PSTI support.

• Multiple user creation processes/profiles are not recommended.

  • It is possible to have multiple dynamic user creation processes and profiles in LegalServer, for example one for staff and one for pro bono users, but we do not recommend it.

  • The "Make this contact a user" link in contact profiles can only be connected to one user creation process. You can't, therefore, make contact Jane a staff user, but contact Bob a pro bono user with this link. You would either have to use the static process to create new users from existing contacts, or you would always have to create the same kind of user (i.e., the same dynamic process would be used every time).