Dev Hound has been designed to allow your clients to:
To accomplish these features a little bit of setup is required as well as some thought into how much information you want your clients to view. There are two ways to setup a client in Dev Hound: The easy way and the flexible way.
The easiest way is give clients access is to simply add their details into the clients area and assign a username and password. The client may then login to Dev Hound using this username and password.
The most flexible way to give clients access is to add them as a Dev Hound user. Click on the "Admin" tab, choose "Users" and click "New". Assign a username, password and email address and choose the "External" security group. Please note that you can assign a different security group or create a completely separate group for external clients. You should also edit the groups options by clicking on the "Security Groups" option in the Admin tab and selecting the group making sure the following options are checked (ticked):
- Log into Dev Hound
- Add their own support calls and issues
- View only their own issues or calls
- View knowledge base articles
- View only projects they are associated with
- Send and receive messages from other users
To accomplish these features a little bit of setup is required as well as some thought into how much information you want your clients to view. There are two ways to setup a client in Dev Hound: The easy way and the flexible way.
Easy Client Access
The easiest way is give clients access is to simply add their details into the clients area and assign a username and password. The client may then login to Dev Hound using this username and password.
- Security : Clients are assigned the security group of "External" when they login. To find out more about this group click on the "Admin" tab and choose "Security Groups" and click the "External" group (The security group with the option "Default group for clients" is the one that will be used when clients log in)
- Note: Make sure the external group has the option "Allow Editing (Global)" turned on otherwise they will not be able to add support calls etc.
- Advantages : This is a fast way to allow clients access into Dev Hound and create support calls and browse the knowledge base. You also have control over the "client access" security group so you can limit access to Dev Hound
- Disadvantages : This method doesn't allow email notifications on issues or membership across multiple projects. You also cannot tailor the security access on a per client basis.
Flexible Client Access
The most flexible way to give clients access is to add them as a Dev Hound user. Click on the "Admin" tab, choose "Users" and click "New". Assign a username, password and email address and choose the "External" security group. Please note that you can assign a different security group or create a completely separate group for external clients. You should also edit the groups options by clicking on the "Security Groups" option in the Admin tab and selecting the group making sure the following options are checked (ticked):
- "Display only projects user is a member of" : This prevents the user from seeing projects they are not a member of. This will also mean that you will need to assign this user to the projects they should have access to
- "Display only users in project" : This prevents the user from seeing other users in projects they are not members of
- "Display Only Users Items" : This will limit the users view of issues and calls to those they have entered. Other items will not be displayed. This feature is optional but recommended
- Advantages : When a client logs in as a Dev Hound user they can modify their profile to request email notifications or to modify what filters they see. You can also tightly configure the users access to multiple projects and even assign them a unique security group if required
- Disadvantages : You have to setup a separate dev hound user for each client and ensure security is appropriately set. This extra intellectual overhead is the price you pay for flexibility