User Groups

User Groups allow administrators to organize users into hierarchical structures, such as departments, teams, or regions. This organization simplifies user management and enables targeted communication across your digital asset management platform.

By grouping users, you can efficiently manage large numbers of accounts, assign members to specific subgroups, and send broadcast emails to entire teams simultaneously.

Page Overview

• Purpose: To create and maintain a structured hierarchy of users.
• When to use it: Use this page when you need to create new teams, move users between departments, or communicate with specific segments of your user base.
• What you can do here:
  • Create top-level groups and nested subgroups.
  • Add or remove members from groups individually or in bulk.
  • Reorder groups using a drag-and-drop interface.
  • Send personalized emails to all members of a group.
  • Search and filter the group hierarchy.

Page Layout

• Top bar: Contains the page title, a brief description, and the New Group button for starting new top-level groups.
• Main area: Features a search and sort bar at the top, followed by a hierarchical list showing Group Name, Description, Member counts, and Subgroup counts.
• Action Menus: Each group row contains a Members button for quick access and a "More" (three dots) menu with View Details, Edit Group, Add Subgroup, Email Members and Delete Group.

Main Features

Hierarchical Organization

• What it's for: Creating a "tree" structure where groups can contain other groups.
• Typical use: Creating a "Marketing" group that contains "Social Media" and "Design" subgroups.
• Result: Subgroups appear nested under their parent group in the list, which can be expanded or collapsed.

Member Management

• What it's for: Controlling which users belong to which group.
• Typical use: Adding new hires to their respective department groups or removing users who have changed roles.
• Result: The member count updates in the group list, and users gain or lose group-based associations.

Group Communications

• What it's for: Sending email notifications directly to every member of a specific group.
• Typical use: Announcing new asset guidelines to the "Creative Team" group.
• Result: All users currently assigned to the group receive a personalized email.

Detailed Feature Documentation

Create or Edit Group

• Purpose: To define the name, description, and position of a group within the hierarchy.
• Where to find it: Click New Group in the top bar, or select Edit Group from a group's "More" menu.
• What you'll see: The Create User Group or Edit User Group dialog, with fields for group details and a parent group selector.

How to use it:

1. Enter a unique name in the Group Name field.
2. (Optional) Provide a summary in the Description field.
3. Select a Parent Group from the dropdown to make this a subgroup, or choose "None (Top Level)".
4. Click Create Group or Save Changes.

Manage Members

• Purpose: To add or remove users from a specific group.
• Where to find it: Click the Members button on any group row.
• What you'll see: A two-tabbed interface showing "Current Members" and "Add Members".

How to use it:

1. To remove users: In the Current Members tab, click Remove next to a user, or select multiple users and click Remove (count).
2. To add users: Switch to the Add Members tab.
3. Use the Search users… field to find specific people.
4. Click Add next to a user, or select multiple and click Add (count).

Email Group Members

• Purpose: To send a broadcast message to all users in a group.
• Where to find it: Select Email Members from the "More" menu on a group row.
• What you'll see: An email composer with support for personalization variables.

How to use it:

1. Enter a Subject for the email.
2. Type your message in the Message field.
3. Use variables like {{name}} or {{email}} to personalize the content for each recipient.
4. (Optional) Click Send Test to receive a preview in your own inbox.
5. Click Review & Send to see a final confirmation of the recipients and content.
6. Click Send Email to send the message. This cannot be undone.

Complete Workflows

Workflow: Creating a Sub-Department

• Goal: Create a new team nested under an existing department.
• Prerequisites: The parent department group must already exist.

Steps:

1. Locate the parent group in the list.
2. Click the "More" (three dots) icon and select Add Subgroup.
3. In the Group Name field, type the name of the new team.
4. Verify the Parent Group field shows the correct department.
5. Click Create Group.

• Expected result: The list refreshes, and the new group appears indented under the parent group.

Workflow: Reordering Groups

• Goal: Change the display order of groups in the list.
• Prerequisites: The sort dropdown must be set to Custom Order. The other options are Name A–Z and Newest First.

Steps:

1. Select Custom Order from the sort dropdown next to the search field.
2. Locate the Grip icon (vertical dots) on the far left of a group row.
3. Click and hold the Grip icon.
4. Drag the row to the desired position and release.

• Expected result: A success message appears, and the new order is saved.

Who can use it

This page is reserved for people with the Manage user groups permission. It covers creating, editing and deleting groups, their hierarchy and their members.

A group does not carry permissions. What a person can do comes from their role (see Role Management), and which assets they see comes from Asset Access Rules, which can target groups.

Changing who is in the Tenant Owners group also requires being a tenant admin (a member of that group) yourself, because its members manage the subscription and the whole workspace. On the Role Management page, tenant admins are also the only people who can change their own role or allow a permission they do not hold.

Personalization variables

When composing a group email you can drop these variables directly into the subject or body, and each recipient will see their own values:

• {{name}} - the recipient's full name.
• {{email}} - the recipient's email address.
• {{group_name}} - the name of the group you are writing to.

Clicking Send Test delivers a one-off copy to your own inbox with your own details substituted, so you can proof the message before it goes out.

Limits and guardrails

• Protected groups: The Tenant Owners group is locked by design. You cannot rename it, delete it, or remove its last remaining member - the system will always keep at least one administrator in place.
• Only tenant admins change the Tenant Owners group: Adding people to the Tenant Owners group or removing people from it is reserved for existing tenant admins, on this page and through the admin assistant. Anyone else with the Manage user groups permission sees its members without the add and remove controls, with the note "Only tenant administrators can add or remove members of this group.", and cannot add themselves.
• System groups cannot be deleted: Any group flagged as "System" is required for product functionality and is protected from removal.
• No deleting parents with children: A group that still contains subgroups cannot be deleted. Delete or reassign the subgroups first.
• No circular nesting: You cannot make a group a child of itself or of one of its own descendants. The system checks this whenever you pick a new parent.
• Empty groups cannot be emailed: If a group has zero members, the Email Members option is disabled.
• Rate limits on outbound email: To prevent accidents and abuse, you can launch at most 10 group emails per minute and send up to 20 test-to-self previews per minute. If you hit the limit, wait a minute and try again.

What happens behind the scenes

• Background delivery: Group emails are not sent directly from the browser. When you click Send, the job is queued and the system confirms immediately with a message like "Email is being sent to 247 member(s)." Your browser is never left waiting.
• Chunked delivery for large groups: Members are processed in batches of 100 at a time. This means you can safely email groups with thousands of members without timeouts or duplicated messages - the variables are replaced per-recipient inside each batch.
• Per-person personalization: Every message is rendered individually for each recipient using the variables above, so the "to" field is never a bulk blast - each member receives a dedicated email.
• Retries on failure: Delivery automatically retries up to three times with a backoff, and any permanent failure is logged for troubleshooting.

Tips and Best Practices

• Use Personalization: When emailing groups, use {{name}} to make the communication feel more direct and professional.
• System Groups: Some groups may be marked as "System" groups. These are protected and cannot be deleted as they are required for app functionality.
• Empty Groups: You cannot send emails to groups with 0 members; the Email Members option will be disabled.
• Deleting Groups: You cannot delete a group that still contains subgroups. You must delete or move the subgroups first.

Troubleshooting

Issue: Cannot delete a group

• Symptoms: The Delete Group option is disabled (system group), or the Delete User Group dialog explains that the group has child groups and cannot be deleted.
• Cause: The group is either a protected System group or it currently contains subgroups.
• Fix: Check if the group has nested subgroups (indicated by the "Subgroups" count). Delete or reassign those subgroups first.
• Prevention: Always check the hierarchy before attempting to remove top-level groups.

Issue: Users not appearing in "Add Members" search

• Symptoms: Searching for a user returns "No users match your search.".
• Cause: The user may already be a member of the group, or they do not exist in the system.
• Fix: Check the Current Members tab to see if the user is already listed.
• Prevention: Use the search bar in both tabs to verify a user's status before attempting to add them.