Specifying a role’s hierarchy

A role hierarchy defines roles that contain or are contained by other roles, with the permissions and restrictions associated with the contained or containing roles.

Roles can have overlapping responsibilities and privileges. Users with different roles might need to perform common operations, since many organizations have functions performed by all employees. In such cases, it is more efficient and simpler to organize roles into hierarchies, thereby containing roles with the needed privileges rather than defining roles with the same set of privileges for different users.

Specifying a hierarchy for a role

Select the role icon, then choose File | Properties.
Select the Hierarchy tab.
Click Assign.
In the Add A Role Assignment dialog box, select the role that you want to contain in the role you are editing.
Click OK. The contained role is listed in the Hierarchy tab. If any roles are contained by the role you just added, they are displayed in a hierarchical list.

You can assign a role only to the root role in the Hierarchy tab. You cannot assign roles to roles contained by the root role. To assign roles to contained roles, open the contained role’s property sheet. See “Example of creating a role hierarchy” for an illustration of opening a contained role’s property sheets.