People and groups
Access control names who something is for. OpenApp models that with two concepts: people and groups.
People
Section titled “People”A person is a user of your organization. They sign in, they can be granted roles, and they can be attached to a directory listing so a visitor can reach them.
People are organization-scoped in the same way users are: one identity can participate in several organizations, and what they can do in each is decided by their roles there.
Groups
Section titled “Groups”A group is a named set of people. Groups are what you should reach for whenever more than one person shares a reason to be granted something:
| Group | Members | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| A household | The adults and children of one home | Directory listings, invitations |
| A class | Pupils and teachers | Directory listings for a school |
| A department | Staff | Door access, directory listings |
| A maintenance crew | Contractors | Door access across several sites |
A group is owned by one organization — its home organization — and can be used by others through a link. A household is managed by its residents: site administrators can’t create, add people to, remove people from, rename, or delete a resident household. They can accept a household link and decide which members their own organization admits.
Group roles
Section titled “Group roles”Within a group, a member is either a member or a manager. A household manager invites people by email or phone; the invitee must register or sign in, verify an invited contact, and accept before joining. Any member can leave.
A sole household manager can nominate an eligible current member and leave immediately. The nominee must accept before becoming manager; nobody is auto-promoted. People explicitly marked under 16 cannot accept management, while missing age data is treated as adult. If no successor accepts within seven days, the household closes.
Group photos
Section titled “Group photos”A group can have a photo, shown in pickers and in the visitor directory. Photos are stored once per organization and reused wherever the group appears.
Groups and the directory
Section titled “Groups and the directory”There are two ways to fill the visitor directory:
- In the setup wizard — the Listings step adds entries one at a time, and the People step assigns each person to a listing. This is the quickest path for a small site. See Set up access control.
- From groups — add the people, group them on People → Groups, then use Generate from groups on Virtual intercom. Each group becomes a listing. Re-run it when groups change; anything you’ve overridden by hand is left alone.
Generating from groups pays off as a site grows: keep the groups right and the directory follows. See Directory listings.
Related
Section titled “Related”- Your household — the resident view of groups
- Directory listings
- Sharing a roster