User Manager - Adding Users

Discus supports three ways of adding user accounts to the system:

• One at a time: Each user account is created individually through the User Manager interface. Moderators key in username, password, e-mail, and full name data.

• In bulk from a list: Many user accounts are added at once, from a list supplied by the moderator. Discus contains functionality for parsing lists imported from spreadsheets, such as Microsoft Excel.

• User self-registration: Users sign up for their own accounts, which are either made immediately available for use, or approved by a moderator. This is a feature of Discus Pro, which is documented separately in the self-registration setup tutorial and the user self-registration documentation.

Adding users one at a time

To add a single user account, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the User Manager, and select the group to which you will be adding an account.

2. Click the "Add User" tab.

3. Type in a username in the provided box. Usernames in Discus can be 1-15 alphanumeric characters (may include A-Z, 0-9, and the underscore _).

4. Type a password in the password box, and retype it in the "retype password" box. Or, to assign a random password, click the "Password: 'xxxxxxx'" button. This will fill the random password into each of the boxes and advance the cursor to the e-mail address box.

5. Optionally, type in the e-mail address and full name for the new account. (This information could be entered later by the user.)

6. In Discus Pro, check the "E-mail password to this user" box to generate an automated welcome message to the user. This is a good idea to ensure that the username and initial password are sent directly to the user by e-mail. Note that this requires a valid e-mail address to be entered in the previous step.

7. In Discus Pro, check the "Force user to change password upon first login" box to force the user to change their password immediately upon logging in. Experience has shown that users forced to change their password to something more memorable will be much more likely to remember their password in the future.

8. Click the "Add this user" button to add the user account.

Adding users in bulk

To add multiple user accounts in one step, follow these steps:

1. Recommended: Set up a spreadsheet that has usernames, passwords, e-mail addresses, and full names in columns.

2. Navigate to the User Manager, and select the group to which you will be adding an account.

3. Click the "Add User List" tab.

4. Select the range of cells from your spreadsheet, or the appropriate lines from another data source, that contains the account data to be added. Copy the data to the clipboard (typically Edit | Copy). Paste the data into the text box in the Discus interface.

5. Click the "Preview/Add Users" button.

6. Ensure that the Delimiter= selection is correct for the delimiter you have used in your data. Typically data pasted from a spreadsheet will use a tab as a delimiter. If you must select a new delimiter, click the "Change Delimiter/Headers" button immediately after doing so.

7. Ensure that the column headings are correct for username, password, e-mail address, and/or full name. If you need to change column headings, make the changes with the selection boxes, then click the "Change Delimiter/Headers" button.

8. When the delimiter and column headings are correct, click the "Continue" button.

9. The next screen shows the user list you have entered, and allows you to make manual edits to the fields as needed. It also provides the ability to perform manipulations of the list. Depending on the column headers you have previously selected, the following manipulations may be available:

   • No Manipulations: No manipulations on the user list will be performed.

   • Generate usernames from full names: If you have full names but not usernames, select this option to have Discus generate usernames automatically. Typically, Discus will pick out the last name from the supplied name, and make it the username. Choosing this option will result in a new column being added for usernames.

   • Generate passwords randomly: If you do not have passwords entered, this option will generate a random password for each account. Choosing this option will result in a new column being added for passwords.

   • Generate passwords equal to usernames: If you do not have passwords entered but you do have usernames entered, this option will set each account's password equal to their username. This option is not recommended, as a password that is the same as the username is very weak. Choosing this option will result in a new column being added for passwords.

   • Generate usernames from e-mail addresses: If you do not have usernames entered but you do have e-mail addresses entered, this option will set each account's username equal to the portion of the e-mail address before the "@" sign. For example, an address of "happycat@hotmail.com" will yield a username of "happycat." Choosing this option will result in a new column being added for usernames.

   • Add domain to e-mail addresses: @______: If you have a column for e-mail addresses but the e-mail addresses do not have the domain, you can use this option to set the domain for all e-mail addresses to be the one you specify. For example, if your e-mail addresses are all at "@yourcompany.com" but your e-mail list contains only the portion of the address before the "@" sign, you can use this option to generate fully qualified e-mail addresses. Choosing this option will result in manipulations of existing e-mail addresses (e-mail addresses that already contain the "@" sign and a domain will not be touched).

10. In Discus Pro, check the "E-mail welcome messages to these new users" box. This will e-mail a "welcome message" to each new user that contains their username, password, and other information. This is a good idea to ensure that the username and initial password are sent directly to the user by e-mail. Note that this requires a valid e-mail address to be entered within the user list.

11. In Discus Pro, check the "Force users to change password upon first login" box to force the user to change their password immediately upon logging in. Experience has shown that users forced to change their password to something more memorable will be much more likely to remember their password in the future.

12. To add the accounts, click the "Add User List" button. If there were any problems with your user list, you will be prompted to resolve the problems following on-screen instructions.