User Creation and Administration

This document will walk through the process of creating new users and managing their information within Data Refinery.

Table of contents

Prerequisites

Only users with USER_ADMIN or USER_CREATOR permissions can create new users (see Permissions and Roles for more information). A “system_admin” user is created by default that can be used to create new initial users.

If Single Sign-On (SSO) is configured, a user will be automatically created upon first login through the SSO provider. See the Single Sign-On page for more information on SSO.

Creating a User

To create a new user, there are three required parameters and one optional parameter. The required parameters are username, email, and password. The only optional parameter is to assign permissions, which can vary based on the objective of the user. To understand permissions in Data Refinery, see the Permissions and Roles page.

User Creation via DR Designer

To create a new user in Data Refinery,

  1. Begin by selecting the User tab in the top navigation.

    Navigation Bar

  2. Next, select the Create User button to the right of the page. A form will appear.

    Create User Button

  3. In the form, fill out the following details:
    • Username
      • Must start with a letter (a-z) or underscore (_).
      • Subsequent characters can be letters (a-z), numbers (0-9), underscores (_), or dollar signs ($).
      • Cannot exceed 127 characters.
      • Cannot use the word “public” or any of the reserved words found here.
    • Email
      • Employer or Organization email address is highly recommended, especially for password recovery.
    • Password
      • Must be at least 8 characters, but no more than 46 characters.
      • Must contain a capital letter (A-Z).
      • Must contain a number (0-9).
      • Cannot contain any of the following characters: single quotation mark (‘), double quotation mark (“), backslash (\), forward slash (/), or an at sign (@).

      Create User Form

    Note. Only a USER_ADMIN can assign permissions to a user. See Permissions and Roles to learn more.

  4. Select the Create button once the fields are complete.

The new user should populate on the Users list and the new user can sign in with the credentials the creator made.

User Creation via DR Designer API

To create a new user via the DR Designer API, provide the aforementioned parameters in a POST request. The following POST request can be used to create a new user.

curl -X 'POST' \
  'https://example.kingland-data-refinery.com/api/users' \
  -H 'accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer your_token_here' \
  -d '{
    "username": "exampleUser",
    "email": "exampleUser@example.com",
    "password": "A1b2c3d4",
    "permissions": [
      "USER_ADMIN"
    ]
  }'

The response from this request will look like the following:

{
  "ID": "some-uuid",
  "createdAt": "2024-01-18T15:27:31.030308Z",
  "updatedAt": "2024-01-18T15:27:31.030308Z",
  "deletedAt": null,
  "userName": "exampleUser",
  "email": "exampleUser@example.com",
  "lastUpdatedDBPassword": "2024-01-18T15:27:32.381024286Z",
  "userProjectRoles": [],
  "permissions": [
    {
      "ID": 2000,
      "permissionName": 1
    }
  ]
}

Changing User Password

After creation, the new user should update their password. This new password should be private to the user. Updating the password can be accomplished by resetting the password in the DR Designer or DR Designer API. Additionally, a new user can use the “Forgot Password” flow to change their password.

Reset Password

A password reset can be conducted using DR Designer or the DR Designer API. Only the user themselves can update their password.

Password Reset Via DR Designer

To change a user’s DR Designer password, read the following procedure.

  1. Once logged in, select your username in the top right corner.

    Navigation Bar

  2. Select Reset Password.

    Username Dropdown

  3. Fill out the necessary fields in the “Reset Password” form. Reset Password Form

  4. Click Submit when the form is completed.

Password Reset Via DR Designer API

Using the DR Designer API, the following request can be used to reset a user’s password.

curl -X 'PUT' \
  'https://example.kingland-data-refinery.com/api/users/{your-user-id}/password' \
  -H 'accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer your_token_here' \
  -d '{
    "oldPassword": "A1b2c3d4",
    "newPassword": "NewSecurePassword1"
  }'

The user’s new password may now be used during login.

Forgot Password Flow

The user will initiate the process with a simple API request where they will then receive an email with a reset token. This token may then be used to change the users password with a second API request. Examples of both are shown below.

Forgot Password

curl -X 'POST' \
  'https://example.kingland-data-refinery.com/forgotpassword' \
  -H 'accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "email": "exampleUser@example.com"
  }'

Reset Password

curl -X 'POST' \
  'https://example.kingland-data-refinery.com/resetpassword?token=token-received-in-email' \
  -H 'accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "newPassword": "NewSecurePassword1"
  }'

A user can also reset their password following the Forgot Password flow on the login page of DR Designer. See the Getting Started page for more details.

Reset Redshift Password

If a user creates a profile by logging in to DR Designer via Single Sign-On (SSO), the user must change their Amazon Redshift password in order to query data using a database connection. To change the password via DR Designer, follow the steps below.

  1. Log in to DR Designer.

  2. Select the username in the top right corner. A box will appear below the user name.

  3. Select Reset Redshift Password.

    Reset Redshift

  4. A form will appear for a user to change the Redshift password. Type the new password in the “New Password” field following the password constraints. See Step 3 in User Creation via DR Designer to learn more about password rules.

  5. Next, type in the same new password again in the “Confirm Password” field.

  6. Click Submit when the fields are complete.

    Redshift Password Form

    The Redshift password has now been changed!

Updating a User via DR Designer

To update a user in DR Designer, users must have USER_ADMIN permission.

  1. After logging in to DR Designer, select the Users tab in the navigational bar at the top of the page.

    Navigation Bar

    Once selected, the Users page should render a list of all users in DR Designer.

  2. The search bar is available to find a specific user. Type the username, followed by the Enter key. A refined list should render to find the correct user(s).

    Otherwise, a user can scroll through the list of available users to find the correct user.

    Note. The search bar requires an “exact match” to find a user. Partial names or spelling errors will yield no results.

  3. When the desired user is found, their information (username, email, date of last modification, and permissions) should be listed. To the right of that information is the Action column. To edit the user, select the Update button in the Action column that matches the row containing the user.

    User Update Button

  4. A form will appear, providing options to change the user email address and permissions in the DR Designer.

    Type a new email address or select new permissions to update the user. Select the Update button to complete the action.

    Update User Form

    If no changes are made, a user can select the Cancel button to return to the Users list.

Deleting a User via DR Designer

To delete a user in DR Designer, users must have the USER_ADMIN permission.

  1. After logging in to DR Designer, select the Users tab in the navigational bar at the top of the page.

    Navigation Bar

    Once selected, the Users page should render a list of all users in DR Designer.

  2. The search bar is available to find a specific user. Type the username, followed by the Enter key. A refined list should render to find the correct user(s).

    Otherwise, a user can scroll through the list of available users to find the correct user.

    Note. The search bar requires an “exact match” to find a user. Partial names or spelling errors will yield no results.

  3. When the desired user is found, their information (username, email, date of last modification, and permissions) should be listed. To the right of that information is the Action column. To delete the user, select the Delete button in the Action column that matches the row containing the user.

    User Delete Button

  4. A dialog box will appear to warn the USER_ADMIN that the selected user will be permanently removed from Data Refinery, including all their project associations. To acknowledge the warning and confirm deletion, the USER_ADMIN must select the Delete button.

    Deletion Dialog Box

    After the selection, the user can no longer be found in the DR Designer.

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