Who is this article for?

Please Review Users creating external groups.

Please Review Administrators with permissions to create external groups.

The following article explains how to use external groups. Please Review Administrators should have permissions to create and manage external groups. Please see External Systems Integration for more information using third party systems.

1. Using External Groups
2. Workgroup Types
3. Creating a Locked Workgroup
4. Further Reading

Using External Groups

The Please Review System Administrator (or a Please Review Workgroup Administrator, if permitted) can add external users either one at a time or by mapping a group of external users to a Please Review workgroup.

Note: that where nested workgroups are used, workgroup mapping between Please Review and the external system does not attempt to map the tree structure of workgroups; each mapping is between an individual workgroup in the external system and an individual workgroup in Please Review.

Workgroup Types

• When mapping a group of users, the System Administrator can choose to create a ‘locked workgroup’.
• Locked workgroups are a powerful method of ensuring that the membership of a Please Review group is kept in step with its counterpart in the external system.
• This means that when users are added to, or deleted from, an external group the workgroup membership in Please Review is also updated (by default once a day). As a result, group membership need only be managed in the external system.
• Unlocked workgroups can also be created. In this case the membership of the workgroup is managed within Please Review and there is no association with the group in the external system.

Creating a Locked Workgroup

Some workgroup administration tasks can be carried out by the Workgroup Administrator. However, the System Administrator has overall control and the only user that can create new workgroups.

Creating a New Workgroup

• To create a new workgroup, click on the ‘Admin’ tab on the top menu then ‘Workgroup Management’ under ‘Admin’ on the left-hand menu.
• At the Workgroup Management screen click ‘Add New’.
• This will display a new dialogue where you can choose to create a locked or unlocked workgroup.

Creating a Locked Workgroup

Important: When creating a locked workgroup, it is not possible to select which group members are copied into Please Review from the external system.

• Choose ‘Locked workgroup’. The ‘new workgroup’ screen will be displayed:

• From the drop-down list select the third-party system you want to use as your source of groups.
• You can search for a workgroup by entering all or part of the name.
• Alternatively, leaving the workgroup name blank and clicking ‘Search’ will return all the external system's groups:

• The 'Please Review Qumas' integration will always return all the group names no matter what search criteria are entered.
• Click ‘Select’ to the right of the group and all group members will then be displayed:

• If the ‘All monitors’ checkbox is selected it means that all workgroup members are automatically assigned a monitor role.

Note: If the group has many users, the first twenty will be displayed and a message noting the total number of users in the group.

• Check the ‘Use the Tara Service to sync’ checkbox to create the group as a background task.
• Click on ‘Save’ to create the workgroup. If the workgroup name already exists, the user will be warned and cannot proceed until a different name is entered.
• After the group is created the System Administrator can take a locked workgroup and convert it one-way only into an unlocked workgroup using the Workgroup edit screen.

Further Reading

• Getting Started with the Administration System
• How to Configure External Systems Integration