Tutorials

Part 2: Creating Users

There are two ways to create new Users in Nutshell: individually (one at a time) or in bulk (by uploading a CSV file). This tutorial covers both methods. You should complete the opening tutorial in this series: Part 1: Viewing Users first, to familiarise yourself with Nutshell’s User management tools.

Creating Users Individually

Navigate to Nutshell’s User Management screen and click the Create User button, which can be found in the bottom-right hand corner of the pane.

The Create User button can be found in the bottom right-hand corner

You’ll be taken to the Create New User form, which will ask you for basic information about your new User. Any mandatory fields will be highlighted for you in red. You will not be able to save your changes until these fields have been filled-in.

The Create User Form

Most of the information should be self-explanatory; Nutshell needs your User’s name, email address and password in order to authenticate them and provide access to any apps that have been published to them. Beyond that, there may be a few fields you don’t recognise:

• Account Type
  The type of account you’d like this User to have. There are 3 types of account available within Nutshell: Admin, Builder and User. These are described in more detail in the first page of this tutorial series: Managing Users
• Status
  Allows you to quickly toggle a User on/off. Users with an Inactive Status will be refused entry to the Nutshell container app. This can be useful for disabling a disgruntled former employee or contractor quickly, without deleting their account.
• Valid From/To
  Allows you to change your User’s Status automatically to Active/Inactive between two specific dates. This can be useful for contractors, to whom you may only want to grant access during scheduled projects.
• Groups
  Nutshell uses Groups to control which Users have access to which apps. Simply tick the Groups you’d like your new User to belong to. Any apps published to those Groups will be accessible to your new User.

Once you’ve filled in the mandatory fields, the Add User button will appear at the bottom of the screen, allowing you to save your changes. Hit the Add User button.

The Add User button will appear at the bottom of the screen

Your new User will be created, and will be added to the list on your User Management screen. Your new User will receive a sequence of emails welcoming them to Nutshell, telling them where they can download the Nutshell container app and asking them to set a few security questions.

Creating Users in Bulk

Creating Users in Nutshell individually is easy, but what happens if you have a workforce of hundreds or even thousands of employees and contractors? This is where Nutshell’s bulk-upload tool can be a real life-saver.

The Upload Users button can be found next to the Create User button

At the bottom right-hand side of the panel, next to the Create User button, you’ll find a button labelled Upload Users. This option allows you to upload several Users at once in a CSV file. Most spreadsheet-editing software (Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, Google Sheets etc) can easily export data to CSV format.

The Upload CSV dialogue box provides a link to download a template file

Hitting the Upload Users button will open a dialogue box, asking you to choose the CSV file from your hard drive. This dialogue box also provides a link to download a template file you can use to ensure your data is structured correctly.

The CSV Template file

This template file comes pre-populated with three example Users, and at least one example of each data field. Replace these values with your own, adding as many rows as you like and then hit Upload.

List of Users you’ve uploaded

Nutshell will display a list of new Users found in your CSV file. Take this opportunity to check that all of the settings are correct – the User accounts have not yet been created, so it’s not too late to change your mind.

At this stage, you can make any last-minute changes before the User accounts are created. You can make changes to several Users at once; clicking on a User selects them – you can tell they’re selected, because they turn a darker colour. Clicking on a selected User de-selects them.

Click to select the User(s) you’d like to make changes to.

Two Users have been selected in the list

At the bottom of the list, you’ll see a drop-down list of actions you can perform on the selected Users.

List of actions you can perform on selected Users

If you select the Add to Group(s) option, a dialogue box will open, asking you to choose which Group(s) you’d like to add the selected Users to.

Add User(s) to Group(s)

Simply tick the Group(s) you’d like to add them to, and hit Add to Selected Group(s). Each of your selected Users will be added to the Group(s) you selected.

If you select the Set Start Date or Set Expiry Date options, a dialogue box will open, asking you to choose the date on which you’d like the selected Users to start/expire.

Setting a User’s Start Date

Once applied, your selected User account(s) will automatically become Active from the Start Date and Inactive on the Expiry date. Note that if you do not specify a Start date, the User account will be Active immediately by default. Likewise, if you do not specify an Expiry date, the User account will never expire.

Finally, if you choose the Set Status option, a dialogue box will open, asking you to choose a Status for the selected Users.

Setting a User’s Status

There are two options available for Status – either Active or Inactive. All new Users are Active by default, unless you set them to Inactive. An Inactive user will not be able to login to the Nutshell container app.

When you’re finished, hit Confirm

Once you’re finished making your changes, hit the Confirm button at the bottom right-hand corner of the list. Accounts will be automatically created for each of your new Users, with all the settings you’ve specified applied.