Swap user type/roles for administrators

[JeffreySchmidt3000]

In software such as D2L, (frequently used in education) there is an option for teachers to view the website as a student.  This can be very useful for a teacher to emulate what the student can see.  The same holds true for administrators in AGOL and Portal.  It would be a great benefit to be able to swap between roles/user types to see what the experience is like for different users.  I would use it to assist staff that do not have the same permissions as I do.  

[RobertBorchert]

create a non administrator account to use to look at their work. 

[Anonymous User]

I agree that administrators should not have to create a dummy account just to see how other roles experience AGOL/Portal. Having the ability to change how you're viewing the site would allow us to troubleshoot user issues better.

[RobertBorchert]

Who are you agreeing with? 

Well then have another administrator change your user level when  you need to review work. I think that would be more of a hassle.  Each of the 5 GIS people at my company have Administrative roles and access to a non administrative role that we can adjust to the desired level at will to do exactly what you are looking for.  I do this quite often.  

I will have the non administrator open in one browser and the administrator open in another so I can make adjustments quickly and refresh the other browser. 

[Anonymous User]

@RobertBorchert I was agreeing with the original poster to voice my support for Esri adding this functionality to AGOL/Portal. 

While what you're suggesting is a great workaround with how the system currently works, I don't think it is an optimal experience for administrators or organizations as a whole to have to maintain an account for this purpose.

This is especially true for my organization, where we only have two administrators, 100+ users, many customized roles to manage permissions, and not enough licenses to hold one up as a dummy account. 

[JeffreySchmidt3000]

We have 10+ different roles and a user base of over 2500.  It would simplify the process of quality control and as Lucas states, I agree with him that we should not need to create dummy/non admin accounts simply to review content, groups, galleries, sites, etc through the lens of a particular role.  I am glad your workflow works for your company Robert, but this is an idea that would fit my company's needs.  

[RobertBorchert]

It is probably different for us. We are Enterprise GIS and hosting our own Portals.  We only have 3 user types and 6 roles. One of which we created to single out non employees who we have given access to our GIS.  But for those of you with only 2 administrators you would only need one extra account. 

I am not disagreeing with the idea, just the excuses people have.  I always test out the applications as the user role and type that it is intended for.  However, I mis-wrote how we do it. We have one Administrator for each Portal and I have my own log in.  We only have 850 employees and only 493 of them are registered with the GIS. We only have one customized role. 

Is it a dummy account if it is smart to have one.?

[LarryMasters]

This would be nice. We are getting close to limiting  out on our creator user type so I can't afford to waste one just for this. It is frustrating when you get something finished and tell everyone they are good to go, just to find out you have missed a permissions setting. Only negative to admin role,,,,,,everything works.

[KBERG_EGLE]

This is a great idea. I currently have two accounts set up for myself as admin and as a user, but I am using up a seat for this and that is definitely not ideal.

[ChelseaRozek]

Would definitely use this a lot. Currently have duplicate accounts for testing, but with the move to named user licensing, it would indeed be a "dummy" account if we're paying for two accounts and potentially two Pro licenses for the same Administrator. The testing I need to do is just having a subset of my full permissions for a while, so it's not asking for anything more than the Administrator account would already have. Having another administrator temporarily downgrade us is a hassle. I imagine you'd have to reassign all your items to another user if you went all the way down to Viewer too.