External User record

About this page

This page is used in the external user registration process to review an external user request, consider potential matches to existing records, and either approve or reject it. It also provides request details as a reference.

A person requesting external access will complete their details in the publicly-available Register page. When they save their details and confirm their email address, the details will be populated in this External User page. The Status of their request will then be Pending Approval.

To prevent duplication, potential matches to existing Personnel records are listed based on the entered email address, ORCID iD and/or names. You can use this information to investigate further to determine: a) if the person should use their existing record, b) if you want to map the request to an existing record, c) if you want to approve the request to create new records, or d) if you want to decline the request.

Once a request is approved, the fields in this page become read only. User and Personnel records are used to manage the person's details. Rejected requests remain editable.

For full details about the process including a video, see: External users overview.

Menu path: RME > Users > External Users Search > External Users

Review an external user request

1. In the RME menu, go to Users > External Users.

2. In Advanced Search, search for all entries with the Pending Approval status.

3. Open a record and review the user's details, using the External User: Field table below as a guide.

4. To avoid creating duplicate records for the same person, the system identifies potential matches to existing User, Personnel or Student records based on email address, ORCID iD, and/or names (in that order). The results display in the Not Available for Mapping and Available for Mapping sections, outlined below:

Match Type

Description

Not Available for Mapping

Possible matches to existing records based on a combination of email address, ORCID iD, and/or names

Matching also considers the details of any Student or User records linked to a Personnel record.

You cannot map the external request to any of these records. The reason given will help you investigate further on a case-by-case basis to provide access to the user. Generally, instead of processing the new external user request, the person should use the account they already have.

• Consider if there is a reason the person is requesting access as an external user.

• Depending on the reason given, consider amending an existing records, using the table below as a guide. For example, if the user has forgotten the password for their existing account, you can initiate a password reset in RME, or reset their password in the relevant authentication system, such as WSC, LDAP or SSO with SAML.

• If there is more than one match, it could be a good idea to investigate all of them to resolve any duplicates.

Reason	Suggested Action
Existing Active User	Contact the person to suggest they use their existing account, or find out why they are requesting access as an external user
Existing Inactive User	In the linked User record, go to the Account Inactive? flag. Change this to No and save it.
Existing Locked User	In the linked User record, go to the Account Locked? flag. Change this to No and save it.
Existing Internal Current Person	An active internal person cannot be an external user simultaneously. Contact the person to suggest they use their existing account, or find out why they are requesting access as an external user Or, if the internal record is no longer relevant, change it to non-current and save it. The record should appear in the Available for Mapping list.
Existing Current Student	An active internal student cannot be an external user simultaneously. Contact the person to suggest they use their existing Student account, or find out why they are requesting access as an external user Or, if the internal record is no longer relevant, change it to non-current and save it. The record should appear in the Available for Mapping list.

Available for Mapping

Possible matches to one or more existing Personnel records with the Person Type of External, to which you can map the external user request, instead of creating a new record (fairly rare). Mapping will create a new User record which will be linked to the existing Personnel record. You will be given a choice to overwrite the record details with the new details in the External User page, or to ignore these.

The logic considers records with Person Type values that are not External as "internal". Only records with an External person type are listed as available for mapping. Matching also considers the details of any Student or User records linked to a Personnel record.

To map the External User request to an existing record in the list, select the checkbox for the record. Go to step 5.

5. In the Status field, record your decision: Approved or Rejected.
If you want to map the request to an existing record, select the record from the list and click Approved.
If you want new records to be created for the user, click Approved.
If an existing account should be used instead, click Rejected.
If you want to decline the request for another reason, click Rejected.

6. Complete the following actions depending on the scenario:

Scenario	Description
Approved: Map the request to an existing record	• Complete the Comments field with any relevant information about your decision. • When you save, a prompt displays to determine which details you want to use. Options are: • Update, including any name changes, and set new details as Primary • Update but retain existing details, including name and Primary settings • Cancel to return to the External User page if you change your mind about mapping the request
Approved: Create new records for the user	• Ensure that the Person Type and Role fields are completed. • Optionally, you may want to complete the AOU field as well if it is blank. • Complete the Comments field with any relevant information about your decision.
Rejected	Complete the Comments field to explain why you rejected the request. If you always want to include this information in the External User Request Rejected email template, add the Comments field in the email body.

7. In the toolbar, click Save.

What happens next?

Approved

The user is sent an automated External User Request Approved email to advise them that their request has been approved. They can log into RME using their email as the username and the password they defined in the Register page.

If your institution provides a separate link for external users in your website or portal, the external user Login page will display directly. When they log in after the first time using the same browser, the external user Login page will display, unless they have cleared the browser cache. To add the link to the browser cache again, they will need to click the URL in your website or portal. For details, refer to the RME Installation and Upgrade Guide.

In RME, when approved and not mapped to an existing record, the details are used to automatically create a new Personnel record, as well as a new User record, which will be linked to it.

When mapped to an existing Personnel record, a new User record is created and linked to the existing Personnel record.

• If the option Update, including any name changes, and set new details as Primary was selected in step 6, details from the request that are different to the existing details in the record are changed, including names, as outlined in the External User: Field table below. New related items are added with the new request details, and these are set as Primary. The previous Primary setting is removed.

• If the option Update but retain existing details, including name and Primary settings was selected in step 6, no names are changed. Any different details are added as new related items which will be marked as Primary unless there is an existing Primary item, which will not be changed. See: External User: Field table below.

• If the approved user is a supervisor, the Supervisor? flag will be set to Yes.

The External User record will become read only and cannot be edited. You can maintain details for approved external users in the Personnel and/or User records.

Rejected

The user is sent an automated External User Request Rejected email to advise them that their request has been rejected. They cannot log in to RME.

The fields in this page remain editable, to allow changes to the Status field to later approve the request, if needed.

External User: Fields

You can only edit some fields, such as Status, Person Type, Role, AOU and Comments. Personal details, address and contact information entered by the user in the Register page cannot be edited.

Once a request is approved, all fields become read only.

Default Field Label	Description	Field Population If Approved
Additional Notes	Any extra information entered in support of the request for external user access	n/a
Address Line 1, 2 and 3	Address details	Personnel/Student > Address Details related item
AOU	Default AOU applied based on selected user type (all except Applicant) but can be changed or added to If no default is applied, a Lookup allows you to search for and select an administrative org. unit.	Personnel/Student > Org. Units Note: The AOU is not automatically populated in the User record as this defines data security access. External users would be able to access all records for that org. unit, which may not be desirable.
Comments	Additional information about approval, or reason why the request was rejected You may want to customise the Rejection email template to include this field value in the body of the email, to explain why a request was rejected.	Personnel/Student > Comments
Country	Country of the address, from a defined list Source	Personnel/Student > Address Details related item
Email	Read only Email address provided as the person's username	Personnel/Student > Contact Details related item: • Category: Email Types • Type: Email • Primary? Yes • Current? Yes • Contact Value: Email address • Context: Category group of the Person Type User > Username
First Name	Mandatory Person's given name	Personnel/Student > First Name, Preferred First Name
Full Name	Automatically defaults to values in the Title, First Name, Middle Name and Last Name fields but can be changed Person's entire name	Personnel/Student > Full Name, Preferred Full Name
Last Name	Person's surname	Personnel/Student > Last Name, Preferred Last Name
Middle Name	Person's middle name	Personnel/Student > Middle Name, Preferred Middle Name
Mobile Phone	Person's mobile phone number	Personnel/Student > Contact Details related item
ORCID iD	Person's ORCID identifier If you don't capture ORCID details in RME, you can customise the Page Views to hide this field.	Personnel > Researcher Identifiers: • ID Type: ORCID Identifier • ID: user’s iD
Organisation	Organisation for the person, either selected from a lookup of existing organisations, or if not already listed in RME, the name of a new organisation as free text in the Register page	Personnel/Student > Details: Ext. Org. Code Personnel/Student > Details: Organisation Note: If the person accidentally selects an organisation via the lookup and enters a different organisation name in the Organisation Name field in the Register page, the value in the Organisation field selected from the lookup takes precedence.
Person Type *	Mandatory if Status is Approved Type of person which should be set as External Source	Personnel/Student > Person Type Person Type related item
Postcode	Postal or zip code of the address	Personnel/Student > Address Details related item
Purpose	Type of external user, selected by the user in the Register page, from a defined list options: • Researcher • Supervisor • Applicant • Examiner • Other Source	If Supervisor: Personnel > Details: Supervisor? = Yes
Role *	Mandatory if Status is Approved Default role based on the selected Purpose in the Register page, but editable via a lookup	User > User Role Allocation
State	State, region or province of the address	Personnel/Student > Address Details related item
Status *	Mandatory Status of the registration request, from these options:	n/a
	Pending Email Confirmation Requestor has completed details and submitted; needs to confirm their email address Email sent: External User Email Confirmation You can also re-send an 'Email Confirmation' email.
	Pending Approval Email has been verified; request is pending review
	Approved User can access RME for pages defined for the assigned role New Personnel and User records are created. The External User record becomes read-only. Email sent: External User Request Approved
	Rejected User cannot access RME Email sent: External User Request Rejected
Suburb	Suburb or town within a country of the address	Personnel/Student > Address Details related item
Title	Person's title, such as Mr, Ms, or Dr, from a defined list Source	Personnel/Student > Title, Preferred Title Personnel/Student > Full Name
Work Phone	Person's work phone number	Personnel/Student > Contact Details related item

Re-send an 'Email Confirmation' email

When the requestor submits the Register page, an automated email is sent to them to confirm their entered email address. They click the link in this email to display a webpage with a Confirm Email button. The token for this button only remains active for a limited time, as defined in External User Preferences. If they don’t confirm while the token is active, it expires. When they click the link, a message will guide them to resend the email with an active link.

Administrators can also re-send the 'Email Confirmation' email to a requestor if the External User record status is Pending Email Confirmation and the original confirmation link (token) has expired, a Re-send Confirmation Email button displays in the toolbar. This may be useful if the requestor loses or deletes the original email.

Manage External User records

You manage core records from the module search page. Click Delete or Export in the toolbar on the External User search page.