Question: How do we choose the correct caArray access role for a user?

Topic: caArray Usage

Release: Up to caArray 2.X

Date entered: 12/18/2009

Answer

There are two steps involved in user account creation in caArray:

  1. A potential user starts the online request by clicking the "Register" link, completes the steps as shown on the registration form, and submits the form by clicking "Submit Registration Request".
  2. The caArray system administrator receives the request form and creates the user account in the CBIIT User Provisioning Tool (UPT) based on the information provided by the user.

Register Link on Login Screen
Screenshot showing Register Link on Login Screen

The user must select one of the five available roles listed on the form: System Administrator, Principal Investigator, Lab Administrator, Lab Scientist, Biostatistician.

Registration Form Showing the Roles
Registration Form Showing the Roles

The table compares the five roles. In caArray version 2.x and all prior versions, all five roles can own experiments. The only group that has additional privileges is the "System Administrator" group. The "System Administrator" group has the ability to change the ownership for both experiments and groups. (For more detailed information on how to change ownership, see caArray 022 - Can I change the ownership of the experiment in caArray? Can I change the ownership of the experiment in caArray?)

caArray Roles

Role

Description

Permissible 2.0 Actions

System Administrator

Person responsible for the effective operation of caArray

Manages users

Principal Investigator (PI)

Owns experiments and studies, or projects, or both

Submit data; Write experiment decisions; Submit annotation; Submit array data

Lab Administrator

Same as PI in caArray 2

Same as PI in caArray 2

Lab Scientist

Same as PI in caArray2

Same as PI in caArray 2

Biostatistician

Same as PI in caArray2

Same as PI in caArray 2

According to the table above, the different access roles in caArray have different responsibilities and permissible actions. For the four roles of Principal Investigator, Lab Administrator, Lab Scientist, and Biostatistician, the user is responsible for owning experiments and/or projects, and the permissible actions include submitting data, writing experiment decisions, and submitting annotation and array data. For the System Administrator role, the user is responsible for the effective operation of caArray, and the permissible actions include all the ones of the other four roles, plus the ability to manage users.

In subsequent versions of caArray, role-specific features will be implemented that will limit certain actions to specific users.

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