Carson Gibbons
January 11, 2017
This week Cosmic debuted its 4th User Type: Contributor. We wrote about it in yesterday's blog and are now publishing this blog to detail all four role types within the Cosmic Dashboard: Admin | Developer | Editor | Contributor.
User types is a crucial feature set for any cloud-based CMS, and we have accrued these role types based on our "Build | Measure | Learn" approach to our iterative feedback loop when talking to users who have signed up for the platform. We originally presented the platform with three options (Admin, Developer, Editor). We heard many use case scenarios in which an Admin or Editor would want to extend a Contributor role to someone simply for drafting purposes.
Admin
You own it, you're probably paying for it, and you have the ultimate control. Add a Bucket, Delete a Bucket, Add Users, Download Buckets, you get the keys to the kingdom. This role type is generally an Agency Principal, Project Manager Lead, Lead
Developer and similar role types that would oversee a web application build.
Adding an Admin
Admin CMS View
Developer
The keys to the API kingdom are yours. Build applications, upgrade buckets and track usage. The developer has access to everything that an Admin does, with the exception of access to Settings.
Add a Developer
Developer CMS View
Editor
The Editor Role is similar to a Contributor Role in that you can add and draft content, but also have authorization to publish content, delete content and oversee the bucket's content as a whole. As a frame of reference, I am an Editor for Cosmic
JS and can easily login, draft and publish blog posts without the confusion of Admin and Developer features being present.
Add an Editor
Editor CMS View
Contributor
Feel free to contribute, but that's about it. Once you've been granted access to a bucket, you can draft content for review by an Editor, Admin or Developer on your Bucket.
Add a Contributor
Contributor CMS View
Bucket Users Overview
Editing a Bucket User's Contributor Role
Cosmic makes it easy to clarify even which portions of your bucket are applicable for Contributor access and viewing. If I am a Bucket Admin and have a freelance writer on assignment for a blog, I can extend a Contributor Role to said person for the "Posts" within my Bucket so that he or she can draft blog posts for my review.
Cosmic is an API-first cloud-based content management platform that makes it easy to manage applications and content. If you have questions about the Cosmic API, please reach out to the founders on Twitter or Slack.
Carson Gibbons is the Co-Founder & CMO of Cosmic, an API-first Cloud-based Content Management Platform that decouples content from code, allowing devs to build slick apps and websites in any programming language they want.
