Users

What is a user?

In Tadabase terminology, a user is anyone who logs into your live app. A user can be your customer, employee, warehouse worker, or anyone you provide access to login to your app. 

You can provide someone with access to login in to your app by adding that person as a user within the Users data table. 

The Users data table is a default data table that is built-in to your app. You can access the Users data table by either clicking on the Users tab on your app's navigation menu:

Or within the Data Builder by clicking on the default Users data table from your app's list of data tables (the pin icon reflects the Users data table's default status): 

 

Benefits of adding users

While technically you can add your employees, team members, clients, etc., or any group of people, within a regular data table and not within the Users data table, any people added within a regular, non-Users data table will not be able to login to your app. The Users data table is specifically designed to provide login and custom permission access to those added to this data table.

Adding users within the Users data table and enabling user access is the best way to secure your application and has many benefits. By enabling user access you can allow multiple groups of people to access different sets of data all from one centralized, secure database. You can also track, log, and interact with your users as well with their records and values. 

The following are just some of the benefits of enabling user access:

• Group your users based on their role at the company
• Create custom portals for customers, employees, or any role type within the company
• Restrict access to pages, rows, and records based on each user's role. Learn more about Roles here.
• Track how and when users log into your app
• Track all record changes and deletes based on user activity
• Only show records based on who created them
• Only show records based on values from the logged-in user

Adding users

You can add users within the default Users data table. The Users data table comes with five built-in fields that can not be deleted but can be renamed:

1. Name

2. Email

3. Password

4. Status

5. Role

Each of these five fields serve a specific purpose in providing user access. Let's discuss each field's purpose below. 

The Name field is used to identify your users within the Users data table. This is a basic text field and has the same rules as all text fields. 

The Password field is used to set the password for each user logging into your app. You can create password policies as to what the password must contain. Password policies are not applied from within the Builder but rather from the live app when users use the signup component to signup for you app. 

The Email field is used as the primary method for users to login to your app. This value must be unique for each user.

The Status field is used in conjunction with the Login Component. This field give you the flexibility to determine which users are allowed to login and which are not allowed to login. You can set these restrictions on the component level.

The Role field is how you assign which role/group each user belongs to. Roles enable you to restrict access based on the role of each user within your business.

These are the five fields that are built-in to each Users data table and are necessary for enabling user access. These fields can not be deleted but can be renamed. You may add additional fields to your Users data table if you wish, including an image field to display a headshot or profile image for each user, a date field to display the start date for each employee, a radio option field to display the position for each employee, etc. Fields that you add to your Users data table can be used as key values when tracking, logging, calculating, reporting, and automating workflows among all users.

 

Adding roles

To assign a user to a role, simply click on the role field and select the appropriate role from the drop-down list of roles.

When adding users for the first time, the role field drop-down list will be empty as you have not yet added any roles. To add roles, simply click on the Roles tab either to the left or top of the Users data table and click the Enable User Roles button.

You can then begin adding user roles, entering the name of each role, such as employees, HR, leads, etc. You may also add an optional description of each role to keep track of your roles. Role descriptions are for organizational purposes only and will not be displayed outside of the Builder.

Click here to learn more about Roles. 

 

Adding users via

Users can be added via three different methods, depending on your use case:

1. Via the Builder

2. Via a Signup component

3. Via a Form component

Let's explore each method of adding users as well when you would use each method.

Adding users via the Builder

To add a user from within the Builder, select the Users data table and click Add New Record. This works similarly to how you would add a record in any other table.

Adding users via signup component

Within the Page Builder, you can add a signup component to any page or layout which would provide users with the ability to signup and become a user. 

The signup component comes with built-in fields including Name, Password, and Email, however you may add additional fields to your sign up components if you wish. Once users sign up via a signup component, their values will be automatically added to the Users data table. 

Adding users via forms

Since users are technically a record like any other, you can add users via a regular form component. This would work similarly to the signup component, but the signup component has additional features used for auto-logging users after they signup.

 

Editing users

User values can be edited in three different ways, depending on your use case:

1. Via the Builder

2. Via a Form component

3. Via a Profile Component

Editing users via the Builder

To edit a user from within the Builder, click on the Users data table and select the pencil icon to the left of the user record you wish to edit. 

Editing users via forms

Since users are technically a record like any other, you can add users via a regular form component. 

Editing users via profile component

You can enable users to edit their own user records by adding a profile component to any page or layout. You can choose which user fields to show/hide within the profile component, which will enable users to update specific fields of their user accounts and not others.

Click here to learn more about the profile component. 

Login Logs

Within the Users section of the Builder you can also track the login activity for each of your users using login logs. 

By default, login logs are disabled. To enable login logs, select the Settings tab either to the left or top of the Users data table, and under the User Settings section you will find the Log All User Logins setting.

To enable login logs, toggle the Log All User Logins setting to Enable. Once login logs are enabled, three additional login logs settings will pop up, including Log Host Information, Log IP Address, and Log User Location.

By default, these three additional login log settings are disabled as well. Enabling any/all of these three settings will add them as fields to your login logs table.

Log Host Information- Enabling this setting adds five fields to your login logs table that are each related to how the user is accessing your app. These fields are Browser, Platform, Screen Width, Screen Height, and URL.

Log IP Address- Enabling this setting adds one field to your login logs table that represents the IP address from which the user is accessing your app.

Log User Location- Enabling this setting adds full address information to your logs. The fields included are Address, Address 2, City, State, Country, Zip/Postal Code, Latitude, and Longitude.

Setting the Log User Location setting to Enable will enable your app to capture the user's location if the user's browser allows for your app to access the location.

Setting the Log User Location setting to Required will require that the user's browser must be set to allow location access for your app to log in. If the user chooses to block your app, the user will not be able to log in.