Creating External Users

External user accounts are created through self-registration—that is, each external user creates the account himself or herself. However, to carry out tasks within the system for a particular site, the user will need to be authorized for that site, which can happen in a number of ways as described below.

Self-Registration

To create a new external user account, a user needs to perform the following steps:

• Click the Create an Account link on the nVIRO Home page. (Alternatively, click the Create New Account link on the Login page.)

• Fill out the form fields on the Create an Account page. Fields marked with a red dot are required.

  The email address supplied must be unique and cannot already exist in the system. If an email address is entered that already exists in the system, the user will be prompted to optionally sign in or reset their password.

  In a default installation, each user's password is required to have at least one upper case letter, one lowercase letter, one number, one special character, and have 8 minimum characters; however, these requirements are configurable by installation and may vary by agency. By default, passwords are set to expire after 90 days; this too, is configurable.

  Note also that the user has the option to download the Certifier Agreement form, which can be submitted once the account is created and allows users to submit forms requiring electronic certification. 

• Click the Create Account button. A verification email is sent to the email address provided.

• Navigate to your email program and locate the verification email. The email should arrive within a few minutes; if it is not found in the inbox, check the spam/junk mail folder. If it's not there, check with your IT department to see whether emails are being blocked at the network firewall.

• Read the email and click the verification link. This lets the system know that the user who registered is in fact the owner of the provided email address.

• The account is activated and the user is prompted to sign in.

Associating External Users with Sites

External users need to be authorized for (or "associated with") a site in order to view and submit forms and reports for that site. This is accomplished through one of the following methods:

Method 1: Invitation From Internal (Agency Staff) User

If the site doesn't have any external users associated with it, an internal user (with appropriate permissions) can send an invitation to an external user as follows:

1. As an internal user, use Site Search to navigate to the site for which the external user needs to be authorized.

2. Click Authorized Users in the left-hand menu (in the Site context).

3. Click the Invite User to Join button.

4. Enter the name and email of the user to invite. Be sure to use the same email address that the user used to register with the nVIRO system. (If the user has not yet registered an account in the system, they will be prompted to create an account after receiving the invitation.)

5. Select the role to be granted to the user. There are three possible roles, each providing a different level of access to the site:

   1. External User Roles:

      1. Viewer - Can view site information but not make changes.

      2. Editor - Can fill out forms and reports. May require certifier permissions to submit, depending on the form.

      3. Administrator - Can edit site information, invite other users to join the site, inactivate users, and request certifier permissions for users (see below).

6. Select the Approve Certifier Status checkbox to allow the user to submit forms and reports requiring certifier rights.

   1. Note: Certain nVIRO implementations may not display this checkbox. Furthermore, some implementations are configured to set the invited user's Certifier Access status to Pending, while some implementations automatically set the Certifier Access status to Approved.

7. Click the Send Invitation button.

The user is sent an email containing an invitation link. When the link is clicked and the user logs in to nVIRO, they will be added as an authorized user for the site and will be able to work with the site according to the role assigned.

Method 2: Invitation From External Admin User

Once an external user with the Administrator role has been added to a site, that user can then invite other users to the site and can assign them the appropriate permissions:

1. As an external user (assigned the Administrator role for the site), log in to the system, select the site from the Site dropdown list (only necessary if your user is associated with multiple sites), and then click Authorized Users.

2. Follow steps 2-7 under "Invitation From Internal (Agency Staff) User" above to send an invitation to the intended user.

Method 3: External User Submits a Site Claim Request

This method allows an external user to request access to a site through nSITE Explorer. For more details, see Submitting and Processing an External User Request to Join a Site. Users can "Claim a Site" as follows:

1. Create an nVIRO account; see Self Registration.

2. From the welcome screen, choose Add a Site → It is currently registered with Agency Name → Facility Search.

3. Choose the site from the map, then select Claim this Site:

   

4. A form containing the fields Name, Phone, and Email is displayed, showing current user information. Click Submit.

Method 4: Invitation Letter Containing a Verification Code

Authorized agency users can generate letters that can be mailed to individuals or companies. The letter can contain a Verification Code that can be redeemed by external users from the User Profile screen after logging in. A verification code is valid for a single site and can only be redeemed once per site.