Team Folders

Team Folders are a form of access control for your dashboards. They enable you to deliver dashboards and delegate control to different teams within your organization (or to different clients if you are a service provider). You can customize which users see which dashboards, and choose to delegate authoring permissions to different users.

Where do I find a Team Folder?

A Team Folder appears in the navigation like a regular folder. Only users who have view permissions on the folder will see the folder and the dashboards in it.

When would I use a Team Folder?

By using Team Folders, you can customize which users can view or edit which dashboards.

Viewing:
Limiting access to dashboards with Team Folders can be useful for security or operational reasons, and to simplify the Dashboard Server experience for your different teams.

Editing:
Giving users the author or owner role for a Team Folder enables them to create and edit the dashboards in the Team Folder. This means that normal users who are not Dashboard Server administrators can be dashboard authors.

Note: Only Dashboard Server Admins can create and edit perspectives. This applies also to pinned perspectives in Team Folders. While a normal dashboard in a Team Folder can be edited by users when they have the author or owner role for the Team Folder, a pinned perspective in a Team Folder can't be edited by users, even if they have the author or owner role, since editing a perspective affects all resources of the same type.

Permissions

Team folders use roles to assign permissions to Active Directory groups or users to control what level of access they have to the Team Folder and content within it.

Permissions can be edited on the Team Folder settings page, including a default role that applies to any user not specified in the role list.

What permissions do Dashboard Server Administrators have?

Dashboard ServerAdministrators automatically have the owner role for all Team Folders. In addition to that, they are the only ones who can create Team Folders and can convert existing normal folders into Team Folders.

Who can be an author or an owner?

Owner and author roles can be given to any user.

What permissions are needed to move content between Team Folders?

Administrators can always move content between Team Folders since they automatically have the owner role for all Team Folders. Dashboard Server users need to have the owner or author role for both Team Folders to move content between those Team Folders.

Can Team Folders be nested?

Team Folders are designed to delegate permissions for groups of dashboards to different teams, it is not designed as a per-dashboard access control mechanism like you'd find on a file system. For this reason, Team Folders cannot be nested; a Team Folder cannot contain another Team Folder, and permissions are not ‘inherited’, like you would find in folders on a file system.

Creating a new Team Folder

Note: Only Dashboard Server Admins can create Team Folders.

1. In Dashboard Server click on the right-hand menu ☰ > system > team folders

2. Click the create button under the list of Team Folders. This will create a new Team Folder at the root of the navigation bar.

   

3. Give the folder a name.
4. By default everyone is given the role no access. For the users you wish to be able to see this folder, add individual users or an Azure Active Directory group to the list and give them the view role.
5. If you wish you can also add individual users or a group of users and give them the author or owner roles.
6. You, other Administrators or any authors or owners can now add dashboards, or sub-folders to this Team Folder.

Converting a folder into a Team Folder

An existing normal folder can be converted into a Team Folder. All content in the folder will be retained in the Team Folder and by default it will be given view, allowing anyone to see it. A folder can only be converted into a Team Folder by admins, and once a folder has been converted to a Team Folder it cannot be turned back into a normal folder.

1. In Dashboard Server navigate to the folder you wish to make into a Team Folder.

2. Click on the view folder settings button at the top right of the page.

   

3. Click the permissions button

   

4. Click the convert button.

   

   The folder is converted into a Team Folder and the permissions box is visible so that straight away you can adjust permissions to control who can view and edit the contents of the folder. By default, everyone is given view access to the Team Folder and the dashboards within it:

   

5. You will probably want to change the everyone group to a role of no access.
6. For the users you wish to be able to see this folder, add individual users or an Azure Active Directory group of users to the list and give them the view role.
7. If you wish you can also add individual users or an Azure Active Directory group of users and give them the author or owner roles.

Setting the permissions of a Team Folder

1. In Dashboard Server, navigate to the Team Folder you want to edit.

2. Click on the view folder settings button at the top right of the page.

   

3. Click on the edit this folder button.

   

4. To set the permissions for this Team Folder, add a new user and give them a role or edit the role of an existing user.

   

5. Click save changes.

Deleting a Team Folder

Only Administrators have the ability to delete Team Folders. Deleting a Team Folder causes all of the content within the Team Folder to also be deleted, including any unpublished drafts in the Team Folder.

Moving a Team Folder

Administrators can move a Team Folder from the right-hand menu ☰ > system > edit navigation by editing the top level navigation bar. See How to edit the Navigation Bar .

A Team Folder cannot be moved into another Team Folder.

Moving a dashboard in or out of a Team Folder

Who can move dashboards and pinned perspectives?

From the navigation bar into a Team Folder: Only Dashboard Server Admins, as only Admins have permissions to edit a globally viewable dashboard.

From a Team Folder to the navigation bar: Only Dashboard Server Admins, as only Admins have permissions to add a globally viewable dashboard.

From one Team Folder into another Team Folder: You need to have an owner or author role for both Team Folders (Dashboard Server Admins automatically have the owner role for both).

How to move a dashboard or pinned perspective

1. Go to the dashboard or pinned perspective you want to move.

   Note: You need to go to the individual dashboard or pinned perspective because they can only be moved from there. You can't move dashboards in and out of Team Folders via the Team Folder settings or the edit navigation settings, but you can go to the dashboard or pinned perspective you want to move from there by clicking on the view dashboard button.

   

2. Click the edit this dashboard button:

   

3. Click the move button:

   

4. You'll see the navigation bar as a tree structure. The team folder dropdown list at the top shows all the Team Folders you have the author or owner role for. Dashboard Server Administrators will see the everyone option in addition to all Team Folders in this dropdown list as only they can add or remove dashboards to or from the navigation bar.

5. Select the Team Folder you want to move the dashboard in to.

6. If there are other dashboards in the Team Folder, drag your dashboard into position in the navigation structure.

7. Click the move button to complete the move.

   

Sorting the dashboards within a Team Folder

Each folder has its own settings page which shows the contents of the folder. Administrators and users with author or owner permissions to a Team Folder can go into the folder settings page to sort published dashboards within the folder or add subfolders.

1. In Dashboard Server navigate to the Team Folder.

2. Click on the view folder settings button at the top right of the page.

   

3. Click on the edit this folder button.

   

4. Click on the dashboard 'handle' to drag it to a new position.

   

Enabling a dashboard in a Team Folder for Open Access

If you share a dashboard within a Team Folder as Sharing Dashboards with anyone - Open Accessby generating an Open Access URL, this dashboard will potentially be viewable by anyone, and viewing will not be controlled by the Team Folder permissions.

See How to edit the Navigation Bar