Lock a User

In some cases, you may need to lock an ELMA user. For example:

if the employee is fired;
if it is necessary to restrict the employee's access to the system.

Specifics of working with locked users

1. Locked users cannot sign in to the system.

2. It is impossible to assign tasks to locked users because their names do not appear in the drop-down list of possible task executors. Moreover, periodic tasks are not assigned to locked users.

3. If there is a process task, where a locked user is specified as the executor in the swimlane settings, it will be assigned to the user responsible for the process instance.

If the user responsible for the process instance is also locked, the reassignment will depend on the settings of the Execute on behalf of the user responsible for the instance option. It is configured by the system administrator in Business Processes general settings in the Business Process Task Settings unit. You can read more about these settings in the respective Help section.

4. The locked users are shown on the advanced search form when selecting users from the drop-down list in the Locked Users group.

To lock and unlock a user in the system and manage locked users, go to Administration – Users – Users. You can do it only if you have corresponding access permissions that are assigned in Administration – Users – Access Settings – Global Access Settings – Users Administration.

Locking procedure

To lock a user, open the user profile and click Lock (fig. 1). The

icon will appear in the bottom left corner of the user photo.

Fig. 1. "Lock" button

Locking a substitute user

If you try to lock a user (by clicking the Lock) who is at the moment substituting another user, the system will display a confirmation window for cancelling substitution (fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Cancel substitution confirmation window

To confirm locking and cancelling the substitution, click Yes, to cancel these actions, click No.

If the current user has no permissions to manage substitutions, locking a user will be impossible. A respective notification (fig. 3) will be displayed.

Fig. 3. Error locking the user notification

Before a user is locked, you will see a dialogue box (fig. 4) where you need to specify whether active tasks must be reassigned. By default, it is set to No.

Fig. 4. Lock User dialogue box.

Locking a user without creating a task for reassignment

If you do not want to create a task for reassigning tasks of the user, select No and click OK. The user will be locked.

After the user is blocked, in the Actions section of their user profile you will see the Create a task for assigning substitutes link (fig. 5). You can use this link at any moment to manually create a task for reassigning active tasks of the locked user.

Fig. 5. User profile. “Create a task for assigning substitutes”.

Locking a user and creating a task for reassignment of tasks

If you want the active tasks of the user to be reassigned, then select Yes in the Lock User dialogue box (fig. 4). Additional fields will appear (fig. 6):

Fig. 6. Lock User dialogue box. Reassignment of active tasks.

Tasks distributed by * – user responsible for reassigning the tasks of the locked user. By default, this field shows the current user, but it is possible to select someone else. This field is required.

Start Date – the start date and time of the task for reassigning a locked user's active tasks. By default, this field shows the current date and time.

Due Date – the time, by which the task for reassigning a locked user’s active tasks must be completed. If the task is not completed by this time, the task will be marked as overdue in the task list.

Once you click OK (fig. 6), the user will be locked and a corresponding message will show up in the user profile (fig. 7). The

icon will appear in the bottom left corner of the user profile photo. The user's profile will also feature the Locked status together with the date the user was locked.

Fig. 7. User’s profile. Information about the user being successfully locked

Please note that the date is shown only in ELMA version 3.13.20 and higher. When upgrading from an earlier version, the date the object was last modified will be used as the date the user as locked.

Reassigning active tasks of the locked user

The user specified as responsible for distributing tasks (fig. 6) is assigned with a task to reassign the active tasks of a locked user. The page of this task (fig. 8) is similar to the page of the task for reassigning tasks of a substitute user. The only difference are the Substituted, Substitute and Substitution period fields.

Fig. 8. Page of the task for reassigning active tasks of a locked user

The Tasks area of the About Task tab shows all the active tasks that need to be reassigned, including the tasks where the locked user acts as the controller.

Unlocking a user

Note

Every unlocked user occupies a Named or a Privileged ELMA license. If a user with such a license is locked, the license becomes available. A locked user can be unlocked only if there are spare licenses in the system.

To unlock a user, open their profile page and click Unlock (displayed in place of Locked) (fig. 9). The profile page will display a notification that the user was successfully unlocked.

Fig. 9. Unlock link in the user profile

If, while the user was locked, a task to reassign active tasks was created but had not been completed prior to unlocking the user, this task's status will change to Closed and no active tasks of the user will be reassigned.