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In my last blog post, I talked about the Admin flag and why you should consider using it sparingly.  I also mentioned a couple of the built-in Roles that Sitecore offers.  This post will discuss these roles further and also talk about how to create your own roles.

The roles within Sitecore provide a way of assigning access rights to different groups of users.  By grouping users into roles, administrators can assign and revoke access rights by assigning or removing memberships to roles.  This allows us to simplify user maintenance and security.  Sitecore not only allows us the ability to assign users to multiple roles, but also to assign nested roles, or roles within roles.

A fresh installation of Sitecore includes 22 built-in roles, 17 not including roles for Analytics.  These 17 roles are then broken down into two types: content roles and client roles.  Content roles provide access to the content tree and are often members of one or more client roles.  Client roles provide access to functionality in the Sitecore user interfaces.

The first set of roles we are going to talk about are the content roles:

• SitecoreAuthor – provides basic authoring access to appropriate content items in the content tree.  This role is a member of the Sitecore Client Authoring and Sitecore Client Users roles.
• SitecoreDesigner – provides read and write access to the areas of the content tree required when changing layout details for individual items and groups of items via template standard values, as well as items required when configuring the Page Editor Design Pane.  This role is a member of the Sitecore Client Designing and Sitecore Client Users role.
• SitecoreDeveloper – provides access to developer specific content and functionality.  This role is a member of the SitecoreAuthor, SitecoreDesigner, SitecoreSitecore Client Developing, SitecoreSitecore Client Maintaining, and Sitecore Client Configuring roles.

• Sitecore Client Account Managing – provides access to applications used to maintain users, roles, and domains.
• Sitecore Client Authoring – provides access to basic item editing features and applications.  This role only influences the Content Editor commands; it does not influence the Desktop Interface’s Sitecore menu or the Control Panel commands.  Most client users should include membership in this role.
  • This role enables the following tabs, chunks, and commands:
    • The Home tab, all chunks and commands
    • The Review tab, Validate and Workflow chunks
    • The Publish tab, Restrictions chunk
    • The Versions tab, Versions chunk
• Sitecore Client Configuring – provides access to the Content Editor features that allow a user to change the configuration details associated with items, such as the icon associated with the item and whether the item is protected or hidden.  This role adds the Configure tab to the Content Editor and shows the Appearance, Masters, and Attribute chunks.
• Sitecore Client Designing – provides access to the Page Editor Design Pane features which allow a user to set layout details associated with items.
• Sitecore Client Developing – provides access to the developer specific functionality in the user interface, including access to the Developer Center and other developer applications and features in the Content Editor.
• Sitecore Client Maintaining – provides access to the Template Manager, the features related to the maintenance of the templates, and reporting tools.  This role is intended for super-users and developers.
• Sitecore Client Publishing – provides access to Sitecore’s publishing features in the Content Editor, the Sitecore menu, and other applications.  Users without the publishing role may still be able to publish, but only via automatic publishing features associated with Workflows.
• Sitecore Client Securing – provides access to features and applications used to assign access rights.
• Sitecore Client Translating – provides access to Sitecore’s translation features in the Content Editor.
• Sitecore Client Users – provides access to the Sitecore user interfaces.  All users should be assigned this role.  All the Sitecore Client roles are members of this role by default.
• Sitecore Limited Content Editor – limits the amount of functionality provided in the Content Editor by the Sitecore Client Authoring role to display a simplified ribbon interface.  This role is appropriate for users with limited Sitecore and/or computer skills.
• Sitecore Limited Page Editor – limits the amount of functionality provided in the Page Editor by the Sitecore Client Authoring role to display a simplified ribbon interface.  This role is appropriate for users with limited Sitecore and/or computer skills.
• Sitecore Local Administrators – a member of Sitecore Client Users, Sitecore Client Account Managing, and Sitecore Client Securing.  This role provides a shortcut for adding these roles to a user.
• Sitecore Minimal Page Editor – limits the amount of functionality provided in the Page Editor by the Sitecore Client Authoring role to remove the ribbon interface and only display a minimal set of buttons to allow content modification.  This role is appropriate for users with very little Sitecore and/or computer skills.