Chapter 21. Impersonation
It is useful for a portal administrator to have the option of temporarily logging onto the portal as another user, without knowing their password. For example, the admin user
root wants to verify that user mary does not have permission to see page X or portlet Y on page Z. The Impersonate User feature of JBoss Portal allows portal administrators to interact with the portal in this way.
21.1. Using Impersonation
In
OrganizationManagementPortlet, there is an action available in the user's list called Impersonate User.
By clicking Impersonate User, the admin user initiating this feature is temporarily assigned the permissions of the selected user (for example, user mary). The impersonated user session starts, and the JBoss Portal UI will reflect the impersonated user's name and permission scheme.
There are two visual cues that Impersonate User mode is active:
- In the top right corner, the name of the impersonated user is followed by the username of the admin user in braces. For example: Mary Kelly (root)
- In the top left drop-down menu of the page
(UIStarToolbarPortlet)a menu itemis shown instead of the default menu item. Click to terminate the impersonation session, and return the permission scheme back to the admin user. All portlets, and the JBoss Portal UI state is restored to the state before impersonation.
Because changes made to the portal will appear as though the impersonated user made the changes, only members of the
manager:/platform/administrators group have permission to activate this feature. Who can access this feature is configurable through the UserACL component.