Connect User Roles

Going through upgrading Workflow and Connect (as always, required multiple attempts and eventually a complete wipe of the current Connect install), I was surprised by the new “User Roles”. I believe this is going to cause some issues in my client environment.

First, I’ll mention that this sentence in the Release Notes is quite alarming:

“As part of our ongoing effort to transition to the cloud…”

I doubt my client, the State of Oregon, would continue to be a PlanetPress Connect user if it became cloud-based! Too many security concerns, data security, etc. I do hope that there will continue to be a true local client version of Connect for the conceivable future.

On to the main questions:

The “olc-user” is a user, where? AD? Local System? Is this a Connect-only “user” vs. a Windows user?

Next, “Credentials will likewise need to be set manually in Connect Workflow.” What does that even mean?

What are the various “roles”?

And lastly, how can I avoid or circumvent all of this, and have Connect and Workflow work, as-is, after the upgrade, without requiring new users, new roles, or losing functionality?

Hi Tom,

Don’t worry: we will keep developing our current on-premise applications. However, in parallel, we are also working on making the same application available through the cloud for customers who are transitioning all their operations to the cloud. Since we want to retain, as much as possible, a common code base for both platforms, you will see many changes in future versions that are beneficial both to the on-premise and the cloud version.

The user accounts in the Connect Server are Connect-based, so they are not linked to AD, Azure, or even to the local users on the machine. We will however offer those options in future versions.
For more information, here’s the online help page that describes each user role: PReS Connect 2020.2 User Guide

If you set specific credentials in Connect, you have to make sure you set the same credentials in Workflow so it can access the Connect server. This is exactly the same as it was before, except that now you may now assign a specific user name/role to Workflow instead of having it use the blanket Admin account from previous versions.

And finally, when you update an existing version of Connect, the current Admin account is retained by default (new installations will use a different account name, but even there you can override this at installation time or after).

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