In the Users menu of the site administration you can:
Site administrators can search for any user on the entire site. You can search for their
Note
The display name is not shown in the user list. That will be a feature of Mahara 1.5.
User search
You can combine any search and filter options. However, if you use too many, you may not yield any results.
On the Account settings page of a user in the administration area, you can perform a number of actions to manage the user’s account. However, you cannot change personal information about this user, e.g. name, email, from this page. This can only be done in the Content area of the user’s account.
Overview of the user account settings page
As administrator you have the power to log in as any user that you manage ans masquerade as them. If you are a site administrator, you can log in as any user while institution administrators can only perform this action for any user who is in their user management.
It is a great function for troubleshooting a user account because you see everything as the user would without having to know his password.
Warning
This function can easily be misused by an administrator because he can make changes to the user’s portfolio and artefacts as well as participate in groups while logged in as that user. Users should be aware of this function and that an administrator can enter their account.
Sites should have clear policies around the use of this function so that the privacy of users and their portfolios and collaborative work is protected. Therefore, there should also not be many users within an institution who have administrator rights.
Login as another user
Stop masquerading as another user
When you want to return to your own account again, click the Become [your user name] again link at the top of the browser window.
You can view and change a number of settings for a user’s account.
Note
Depending on the authentication method that is associated with this user, you may not be able to edit all settings.
Site account settings of a user
Warning
When the email address is disabled, users cannot reset their passwords themselves as no email can be sent.
You can view and change settings regarding a user’s membership in institutions. Depending on the site settings for institutions, a user may be added to more than one institution.
Institution settings for a user
Suspend a user if he does not follow the terms and conditions of the site and behaves inappropriately. Suspended users cannot log in, but all their content is still available.
Suspend a user
When a user has been suspended, the following suspension message appears on his account settings stating the reason for the suspension and giving the administrators the possibility to unsuspend the user by clicking on the Unsuspend User button.
Suspension notice on the account settings page
When the user tries to log in, he will see the suspension message and the reason. He can then contact an administrator via the “Contact Us” form for further action.
Suspended user tries to log in and gets suspension message
A user can delete his own account from Mahara on his account settings if he is allowed to by his institution. Site administrators can also delete user accounts at any time.
Delete a user account
Click the Delete User button to delete this user account permanently. This action cannot be undone. As this is a permanent action, you see a confirmation pop-up window that you will have to acknowledge.
Warning
When you delete a user account, all personal data is wiped from the system. This applies to everything that is in a user’s Content and Portfolio area. This action cannot be undone. His contributions in groups, e.g. forum messages, uploaded files and pages created in a group, are still available, but are made anonymous by changing the name the “Deleted user” as author where an author is shown.
Note
If an account was deleted by accident - either by a user or by an administrator - swift action may result in recovery of (most of) the data from a backup file. This requires access to the server’s backups and the backend of Mahara. More information is available on the wiki.
A list of all suspended users is available in the sub-menu Suspended users. Here you can unsuspend or delete them.
List of all suspended users
On this page you can choose which users receive site staff rights. Potential staff members - any user on the site - are listed on the left while existing site staff members are listed on the right.
Give site staff rights
Site administrators have powerful rights on Mahara. They can make far-reaching changes and also log in as other users. Be careful whom you give these rights. One site administrator is needed for each site. The total number of site administrators should be kept small.
Give site admin rights
The Admin Notifications page lists all users with institution and site admin access on your site. It shows their selected notification preferences for all admin notifications. There should be at least one administrator receiving each type of message generated. Admin notifications are:
Overview of the admin notification types
You can add users to your site by creation accounts for them manually one by one.
Add a user manually
Note
You can change the settings under Basic Details on the account settings page.
You can use this function to upload new users in bulk via a csv file (comma-separated file). The first row of your csv file should specify the format of your data. For example, it should look like this:
username,password,email,firstname,lastname,studentid
This row must include:
It must also include fields that are mandatory for all users to fill out and any fields locked for the institution you are uploading the users for.
All other fields are optional. This is the full list of fields that you can add in addition to your csv file upload
When you have created your csv file, you are ready to upload it.
Add users by csv file
Note
Depending on your server settings and / or the size of your installation, you may not be able to upload all user accounts at once. You may wish to upload them in bunches of 100 instead.