Roles and scopes

Each user has an assigned role. A role determines which actions the user can take. Scopes are the mechanism that grants users access to perform role-specific actions. Learn more about scopes here

At a high level, a scope has two properties:

• Type — which action the user can take with the scope (e.g. record.create, record.read, user.create).

• Options — the limitations under which the action can be performed (e.g. a user can only search birth events that took place in their administrativeArea: { type: 'record.search', options: { event: ['birth'], placeOfEvent: 'administrativeArea' } }).

A user is always assigned to a location. The location's position in the administrative hierarchy determines the jurisdiction the scope grants. Learn how to configure place of event. Example 1: Jurisdiction based on administrative area { placeOfEvent: 'administrativeArea' }

The dotted lines illustrate jurisdiction. An administrativeArea scope covers the administrative area itself, all locations within it, and all descending areas.

Example 2: Jurisdiction based on location — { placeOfEvent: 'location' }

A location scope limits the user to a single location. For example, users in District Hospital A with scope { type: 'record.read', placeOfEvent: 'location' } will only see events from District Hospital A. Events from District Hospital B and C would only be visible with the { placeOfEvent: 'administrativeArea' } option.

Example 3: Different roles directly under country

In cases such as an embassy, it is safer to create a separate role with more limited scopes. If the same roles are reused, locations outside the country will inherit the same jurisdiction as HQ Office by default.