Allowing users to send agreements from more than one group, admins can strongly tie library templates, recipient authentication, and signature requirements to one group, letting the workflow define the nature of the group instead of the users in it.
When an agreement is created, it's the group-level settings that largely dictate the available assets (templates/workflows) and system inflicted properties of the agreement (branding, recipient roles, authentication methods, PDF security/retention, etc).
Being locked into one group means that any individual userID is locked into one set of defaults, one array of templates and workflows, and one concept of signature compliance.
Allowing users to access multiple groups opens the door for administrators to think about groups as more than a collection of users. Groups can be viewed as an environment for specific document signing requirements that you grant users access to.
For example, one group can be designed around a set of very strict compliance-related signature and distribution rules, and another can be configured for internal, low authentication workflows and templates. A user assigned to both groups can access all the resources for each group.
Group-level administrators also have the ability to manage more than one group, which improves the practical usability of the group-level administrator role.
This document is designed to highlight the changes UMG brings to the interface/functionality for users, and identify the considerations that migrating to UMG sparks for administrators.
All users under UMG rules are assigned a "primary group". The primary group is:
Objects and inheritance (Parent-Child objects)
"Object" is a term used to describe a collection of properties that represents one idea. Your Account is a type of object, as is your User.
Within an application like Acrobat Sign, objects can be used as templates to build other objects, and when one object is built from a "template" object, those two objects are said to have a Parent-Child relationship.
Because a child object is a direct copy of the parent, the settings are identical. The child object inherits the property values of the parent. If a parent value changes, that change is also inherited by the child.
One object tree in Acrobat Sign is the Account > Group > User group of properties.
Observing the Account > Group > User chain of objects, you can readily see how moving one user to a new group changes the "default" functionality of the user due to the new parameters inherited from the group.
Changing a property value of a child object is permitted, and this explicit change generally breaks the inheritance of that property value from the parent object. If the parent object changes the value for such a property, the child does not inherit the new value as the explicitly set value holds precedence.
This can best be seen when group-level admins over-ride the account-level settings for their group. And because the users in the group are child objects of the group they are in, the user experience is changed accordingly.
Users that have access to multiple groups change their inherited properties when they change the group from which they are acting. You will notice that when a user changes their group on the Send page, the page refreshes as the new group-level properties are loaded. This is most notable if you have unique logo branding per group.
Object IDs
Every object has a unique identifying number behind the scenes. This unique ID is how the application differentiates objects of a like type and relates the objects to one another.
The implications of user and groupIDs become more apparent under UMG rules, particularly around reporting. When a user creates an asset in the system (agreement, template, web form), the userID of the creator, and the groupID that the asset was created in, are encoded into the asset.
When a user runs a report for their agreements, the application returns the data that is related to their userID. The groupID is not relevant to the search (unless a filter is applied).
But when a group admin runs a report for a group, the application returns the data that relates to the groupID (regardless as to which userID created it)
When users could only exist in one group, there was generally no difference to be observed. With users creating assets in multiple groups, it's possible that one user's content can span the groups of more than one group-level admin.
Group-level admins can only access the content generated within the groupIDs they have authority in (excepting the content they personally create). If a group admin reports on the content for one userID, the dataset returned only includes the content (created by the userID) within the group(s) where they are an admin.
Agreements, Web Forms, and Send in Bulk events created before enabling UMG are only related to creating userID.
Agreements, Web Forms, and Send in Bulk events created after UMG is enabled are related to the groupID they were created in addition to the userID that created them.
In practice, this means that the assets created before enabling UMG will move with the user if you change the user's primary group. Users viewing the group (through account sharing) will lose visibility of these assets when the user is moved out of the shared group.
Assets created after UMG is enabled will remain related to the group. Users viewing the group will continue to see the assets created in the group after the creating user is moved to a new primary group.
Enabling or disabling UMG can only be done via an account-level administrator. Please refer to this article for instructions to upgrade your account.
Reverting back from UMG is possible with the below notable effects:
A user can have a membership to a maximum of 100 groups.
User-level changes are ubiquitous. All users that can log in to Acrobat Sign will observe the below changes:
What's different:
The user's profile fully exposes all groups the user is included in and specifically flags the primary group.
With UMG enabled:
What's different:
Because the user has access to multiple groups, the templates and workflows available to the user are grouped by the Group the template/workflow is related to.
If a group-level template is used, then the group is inserted on the Send page, and the option to edit the group is suppressed:
If an account-level template is used, then the group is selectable (from the groups the user is a member of):
What's different:
The Send page introduces a drop-down selector at the top of the page: Send from
This selector allows the sender to select the group (and all related group-level properties) that governs the properties and options for the transaction.
Things to consider:
Set the Send from selector first.
What's different:
Much like the Send page, the Self Sign page introduces a drop-down selector at the top of the page: Select Group
This selector allows the sender to select the group (and all related group-level properties) that governs the properties and options for the transaction.
Things to consider:
Set the Send using selector first.
What's different:
An identifying label has been added to the agreement context menu to indicate which group an agreement was sent from.
Things to consider:
Some functions are strongly tied to the group, (eg: reporting parameters and retention rules).
What's different:
A column has been added to the table of agreements that is produced on the Manage page.
What's different:
A new filter is available to filter the Manage page dataset by Group
What's different:
When creating a library template, the creator has the option to set the template access properties and share the agreement with any group they are a member of.
Things to consider:
One user with access to all groups can be used as a central document admin.
A user with the authority to create web forms can associate their form to any group they are a member of.
What's different:
A filter has been added to the Reports page to allow the report to be confined to agreements related to one or more Groups.
The .csv report continues to have the same Sender Group column, properly tracking as one sender switches between groups:
If a user is removed from a group they have previously sent agreements from, they will not be able to report on those transactions.
These interface changes are only observable by the admins of the account (as permitted by the account-level admin controls):
The role of the group-level admin is significantly improved, as one user can be the admin for multiple groups, and is not required to be the admin of all groups they are a member of.
Group-level admins in multiple groups can better manage documents and workflows for broader teams, and report on the content of multiple groups, without being given access to the full dataset for the account.
What's different:
If the user is an administrator of more than one group, then Workflows and Shared Libraries have been moved from the top level of the group admin's menu options to be sub-menus for each individual group:
When UMG is enabled, you must first select the group and open the group settings to access the group specific menu items and settings:
What's different:
When a group admin has administrative authority over more than one group, the admin first needs to select which group they want to configure:
What's different:
The group-level admin no longer has the option to force a view of the agreements for newly created users.
What's different:
To add a user to your account, you must first select a group to gain access to the Users in Group menu option
When creating individual users, the group selected defines the primary group for the user.
Group-level admins do not have the authority to edit the primary group after the user is created.
The process to create one user is the same, minus the option to force a view share to the user's agreements (see above).
Things to consider:
Creating users individually does not allow the option to include the user in multiple groups as part of the creation process.
After the user is created, the group admin can edit the user profile to include the user in more groups and edit their sending authority.
What's different:
The authority to determine if a userID can sign agreements, and the ability to install an auto delegation rule for a userID, have been removed from the group-level admin interface.
Group-level admins have the authority to allow or disallow a user's membership to each group they administer via the user's profile.
To add group membership:
Users newly placed into a group will adopt two authority values:
Check or uncheck the values per group as necessary
Group-level admins do not have the authority to edit the primary group for a userID unless they have administrative authority in both the original primary group and the new group.
To remove a user from group membership:
If a user has their group membership revoked for all groups:
Group-level admins that create webhooks can select any group they are an administrator of when setting the Group field value:
What's different:
The format for the uploaded .csv used to create/update multiple users has changed to accommodate users with multiple groups and group-specific authority. To this end three columns have been removed in the UMG experience:
One column has been added: Groups
Group-level admins do not have the authority to manipulate users with the Groups column.
When a group-level admin creates new users via bulk upload:
The below content is provided for awareness, as the upload template includes the Groups column.
The Groups column contains one or more Group Definitions. Each Group Definition contains the name of one group, followed by one or more status values contained in square braces. eg: Group Name[Status]
In the above example:
What's different:
The action to deactivate a userID has been limited for group-level admins to ensure they do not disable users in groups where they have no authority.
Group admins may only deactivate a user that has membership only within the admin's groups, and/or the Default group.
Only account-level admins have access to the below:
What's different:
When creating an individual user, the User Group field has been renamed to Primary Group
What's different:
As was noted in the group-level admin section, the format for the uploaded .csv used to create/update multiple users has changed to accommodate users with multiple groups and group-specific authority. To this end three columns have been removed in the UMG experience:
One column has been added: Groups
The Groups column contains one or more Group Definitions. Each Group Definition contains the name of one group, followed by one or more status values contained in square braces. eg: Group Name[Status]
In the above example:
What's different:
The authority granted to group-level admins (by account-level admins) has added granularity under UMG.
The previous ability to "add new users to groups" has been split into two options:
Privacy-level admin tools are not currently changed by the UMG settings.
Only v6 of the REST API will be updated to accommodate UMG.
The legacy SOAP API will not be updated to accommodate UMG.
Use of SOAP APIs or v5 REST (and older) will function without UMG awareness, and the User's primary group will be in effect.
v6 REST API endpoints that are executed in the context of a specific group have been expanded to include an optional groupId identifier that can be passed into a request as a query parameter, header, or as part of the request body.
This parameter is optional, and if omitted the code defaults to the user's primary group.
Group-specific actions are in two categories:
Change in user management is contained in the ability to manage multiple group memberships in one API call and the expansion of the security model which affects group admin's abilities, i.e. makes sure the group admin does not cause a change in a group outside of their reach.
Change in resource operations is the additional group id parameter to request/response models, providing a group context to agreements, web forms, and Send in Bulk events.
The group Id parameter is only added in the v6 REST API. Versions below v6 REST use the primary group for backwards compatibility.
A common error response code "INVALID_GROUP_ID" is triggered when:
If UMG is not enabled, all existing endpoints behave as before. The primary group of the user is used as the only valid group membership and if another group id is passed to an endpoint, the INVALID_GROUP_ID is returned.
Adding a user to multiple groups is done in one of two ways:
Editing an individual user - This is done through:
Single click the user to expose the Edit User option; Click Edit User
The overlay for group management is opened, and the admin can freely add the user to any group(s) where they have administrator authority by clickiung the plus icon.
Once the group membership is added to the user, the admin can enable/disable the user's authority within the group by checking/unchecking the boxes under the Group Admin and Can Send column headers.
Using the Create/update users in bulk feature, account-level admins can quickly update all of the userIDs in their account.
Creating and editing users in bulk is an option available to group-level admins for functions like editing the name, company, title, and like information. Group membership is not a value that group-level admins can manipulate via the uploaded csv feature.
You can click the download sample CSV file link to download an example CSV with the various properties included.
The format for the uploaded .csv used to create/update multiple users has changed to accommodate users with multiple groups and group-specific authority. To this end three columns have been removed in the UMG experience:
The new Groups column
The Groups column contains one or more Group Definitions. Each Group Definition contains the name of one group, followed by one or more status values contained in square braces. eg: Group Name[Status]
In the above example:
UMG rules are observable at the very beginning of the process to create a new agreement.
If a user is starting the process by selecting a template or workflow from the Home page > Start from library, the user must expand the group from which they are sending first, and then select the template/worklflow from the options available within the group.
Selecting the template/workflow and clicking Start opens the Send page, ready for the user to complete the configuration.
By starting the agreement from a group-level template or workflow, the group value is inserted into the Send page, and the option to edit the group is suppressed.
If an account-level workflow/template is selected, the sender has the option to select the group value.
If the user starts the process from the Send page, the Send from drop-down field defines the group the agreement is associated with.
By selecting the group, the agreement is constrained to the library templates available to the chosen group.
Changing the group changes the properties applied to the agreement. This forces the page to refresh, and any field level content that was entered is lost.
Creating and managing custom workflows is not impacted by UMG rules thus far:
In future updates, administrators will be given the interface options to associate the workflows they create with individual groups they have admin authority in, regardless of their Primary Group.
Creating a reusable library template under UMG rules has one additional step when granting group level permission to access the template:
Define the group that the library template is associated with.
The original userID that creats a template is understood as the "owner" of that template.
The template owner always has access to the template to Send or Edit. It does not matter what authority level the owning userID has, or if the owner is associated with the group the template is exposed to.
Existing library templates can have their properties edited through the Manage page.
Open the template for editing, and if the template is being shared to Any user in my group, the editor can change the group association:
Changing the group association does not impact the group affiliation for agreements already created.
Creating a web form under UMG rules has one additional step:
Define the group that the web form is associated with. This is done at the very top of the page.
The associated group may not be edited after the web form is created.
UMG rules do not impact how existing web forms are managed (as the associated group may not be edited).
Reporting against the web form requires either the creator to run the report, or an admin with authority to the report data in the group.
Sharing an individual agreement or template is not impacted by UMG rules.
Accounts using standard account sharing (only User to User sharing) are not impacted by UMG rules.
Advanced Account Sharing permits sharing between Users, between Groups, and between Users and Groups:
User to User sharing is not changed under UMG rules:
When a UserA is shared to GroupX:
When GroupA is shared to UserX:
When GroupA is sharing to GroupB
Are there no changes expected to the GDPR tool set with respect to the UMG changes.
All enterprise-level accounts can enable UMG, even when one (or more) integrations are configured.
The current Acrobat Sign integration packages do not account for UMG in any way. As a result, all users sending agreements through an integration are perceived to be in their primary group only, and sending parameters will align with the primary group settings accordingly.
Many of the REST v6 API endpoints have had an optional parameter for the groupID added to the method.
The current expectation is that any existing REST v6 API call will continue to work, regardless as to if UMG is enabled or not.
Previous API versions (both SOAP and REST) will continue to work as expected, understanding the user only as a member of their primary group.
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