Create or edit a public user
A public user is someone who signs in to your website, not to the admin. You can create them yourself, let them register, or have your own system create them through single sign-on. This page covers the first route and everything you can do to an account afterwards.
What you need
- The Manage Users permission. See Manage administrators, roles and permissions.
- Working email if you want to send the welcome message. See Set up SMTP and email.
- Optionally, user groups already created. See Public users and user groups.
Create a user
- Open People > Users and click New user.
- Fill in First name, Last name and Email. The email must not belong to any other account, admin or public.
- Tick Send welcome email to email the user a generated password and the sign-in link.
- Under User groups, tick the groups the person belongs to. If you have not created any, the list reads "No groups yet."
- Click Create.
You land on the user's page. The account is active straight away and uses the built-in Email address and password sign-in.
Important Raytha generates a random 12-character password when you create a user. If you leave Send welcome email unticked, nobody knows it. Either use Reset password below to set one, or tell the person to use Forgot password on your sign-in page.
What the user receives
The welcome email is built from the email template with the developer name raytha_email_user_welcome (subject "An administrator has created your account") under Design > Email templates. It carries the temporary password and the login URL, so edit the template if you want different wording. Resetting a password sends raytha_email_user_passwordreset in the same way. See Modifying the built-in email templates. The email log redacts passwords and reset links it recognises.
Edit a user
Click a name in People > Users. The list shows Name, Email, Status and Last login, and the search box matches name, email and group name.
| Section | What it does |
|---|---|
| Details | Change the name, email and User groups, then click Save changes. |
| Account access | Suspend blocks sign-in and keeps the account, its groups and its history. Restore reverses it. You cannot suspend your own account. |
| Impersonate | Signs you in as the user and takes you to the public site, so you see exactly what they see. End it from the banner at the bottom of the page. The session has a time limit (60 minutes by default) and is audited under both names. |
| Reset password | Enter a New password (at least 8 characters) and Confirm password, optionally tick Email the new password, and click Reset password. Restore a suspended account first. |
| Delete user | Deletes the account permanently. Content they created stays, with the author left blank, and the audit log keeps their name. |
How else users appear
- Self-registration. While the built-in Email address and password scheme is enabled for users, anyone can register at
/account/createon your site. They become active users with no groups. Turn the scheme off for users to close registration; that also disables password reset on the site. - Single sign-on. With JWT or SAML, Raytha creates or updates the user when they first sign in, and can set their groups from the token. See Enable different authentications and single sign-on.
Gotchas
- Administrators appear in the Users list too. They are accounts with admin roles. You cannot suspend, delete or reset the password of an administrator from here; use People > Admins.
- A user cannot sign in with a method that is switched off. A suspended account sees "Your account has been deactivated." A disabled scheme shows "Authentication scheme disabled for public users."
- "Another user with this email address already exists." Email addresses are matched without regard to case. Search the list for the address, including administrators.
- Groups do nothing on their own. Putting someone in a group changes what your templates can test about them. See Set up user groups for advanced public page access.