Group management

“Guide.”

ORGANISATION OF DEVICES, USERS, AND GROUP SETUP

All devices are organized into groups. One device may belong to one group only. The purpose of groups is to:

  1. Organize all devices in a tree-like structure primarily based on ownership.
  2. Define all features once on the group level and apply them to all devices in the group.
  3. Manage users that have specific access to a selected group granted by the owner or manager of the group

Groups – Menu

Groups are accessible right from the top menu where you see the name of the current group. There are 2 sub-menu items under the current group name:

  • Group management – management of groups/sub-groups, users and accesses, and devices allocation.
  • Change the group – change the current group. Here you will see your own group (if you have one) and all groups you have access to, e.g. groups you were invited to.
  • Favourite groups – you can also have favorite groups if you mark any.

 Step 1

Since Group management is the “Key” to understand how Groups are working, let’s start with it by clicking “Group management” in the menu. This example demonstrates the admin account with many users and devices.

Your own group is displayed in the column on the left side (Groups owned by someone else are also displayed here if you were invited into them). By clicking the “name” of the group you get inside where further options available.

Step 2 – Introduction

Now we are inside the group “David Ženčák”. In the column on the left side, you can still see its structure: the main group and one sub-group “Test”. The column on the right side contains some tabs. It is important to say, that these tabs are always relevant only for the currently targeted group.

Note: The audit log is available only for the owner of the group.

Step 3 – Manage groups

The groups help you with the organization of devices in a hierarchical structure followed by simple rules:

  • One device may belong to one group only.
  • Every group has its own user access, tags, notification rules, geoplaces, forwarding rules, etc.

Create sub-groups if you need a new group with a new set of users and other available features. In order to do so, click the “Plus/+” button and name the new sub-group.

Step 3.1 – Manage groups

Once click the button “Plus/+“, enter the name (Cottage) of the sub-group and confirm your entry. The sub-group will automatically appear below the main group. You can create as many sub-groups as you like. Sub-groups can also have their sub-sub-groups.

Please, consider this example as your pool of property- main group, and sub-groups as each and every building with multiple different devices

Step 3.2 – Manage groups

A subgroup “Test” with user has been created and offers the same options as “User Access“, “Devices” and others as the main group.

Now you can further modify this sub-group by:

  • rename the group/remove
  • granting access to new users
  • modify existed users
  • moving users
  • assigning devices

NOTE: Please, keep in mind that the sub-group cannot be removed if contains a device or user access. You can remove only empty sub-groups. Also, audit log is available only for the owner of the group, other users will not see it.

Step 4 – User access

User Access – manages user rights and grants/removes access to users. The overview of all users assigned to this group is displayed in the table below.

Click the button “Grant Access” to invite a new user into your group.

  • Enter the email address (if you want to add multiple users with the same user rights, enter multiple email addresses)
  • Choose a predefined template of user rights or create custom rights by manually targeting the user levels of different features.
  • You can also restrict access to certain devices by switching off “
  • Once all the above is done, click “Add users

Step 4.1 – User access

New user access has been successfully created. Since our new user does not have an IO Frog account, an invitation has been sent into his mailbox. Once he registers, the status in the table overview will change and he will have access to your group and features based on assigned user rights.

  • For further modifications of existed users, please select user/s in the table overview and click the button “Update access” (and follow the same Step 2.1) or “Remove access” if you wish to remove.
  • If you wish to move the user to a different group in your structure (such as Cottage), please select the user, open the drop-down menu and select the “Cottage“, then click “Move user

Step 4.2 – User access

The user we have recently added accepted the invitation and registered in IO Frog. Now the option to move the user becomes available.

Select the user Marek Saska, find the sub-group “Cottage“, and click “Move user“. Once confirmed, the user Marek Saska will have access only to the sub-group Cottage.

Step 5 – Devices

Devices – manage devices across your group structure. Use the filter to search devices, move/remove devices, or more actions for further options.

Step 5.1 – Devices

To demonstrate how to move the device across your structure, let’s move four of our devices into the sub-group Cottage.

Select devices you want to move, target the sub-group “Cottage“, and click the button “Move“. A confirmation pop-up window appears, click “confirm” and devices were moved.

Notes:

  1. There is a kind of device theft protection mechanism implemented, so you cannot move devices between the groups that you do not have a common parent you have an access to. You can freely move devices between sub-groups under the group you have access to because you have an access to the parent group but if you have no access to the group above, you cannot move it. If this protection would not be there, the employee having full access to your group would be able to steal your devices by moving them to its own private group.

Step 5.2 – Devices

Devices were moved and now they are located under the sub-group Kitchen. From now on, these devices will be only visible when you change the group to Kitchen and to users having access to this group.

Step 5.3 – Devices

More action – this button offers further options for your devices. The main benefit is that allows the action for multiple devices, simply check devices you like and choose one of the actions below:

  • Set downlink
  • Set processing parameters – for more information follow the guide
  • Extend subscription – for more information follow the guide
  • Export messages – choose devices and time range to export messages in excel file (check “Export all data” or uncheck and choose from a selection)
  • Delete devices – the name speaks for itself 🙂

Step 6 – Epirations

In the expiration tab devices with expiring connectivity and devices with expiring platform are displayed using a graph.

How to use:

You can filter up which of expirations to be shown in the graph or whether the both at once to be shown by clicking on the “Devices with expiring connectivity” or “Devices with expiring platform“.

Step 7 – Battery status

In this tab there you can see devices divided by battery level.

There are 5 battery levels to be selected:

  • Full battery level
  • Normal battery level (three quaters)
  • Low battery level (one quater)
  • Critical battery level (slashed)
  • Uknown battery level (empty)

You can select either one, or more battery levels to be shown. (you can select no battery level in that case all devices will be displayed)

Step 8 – Unresponsive devices

In this tab, the date of the last message from the device is displayed in the graph and in the list.

Above the graph there are several display options by date.

You can choose from eight periods of time:

  • 60 minutes
  • 2 hours
  • 6 hours
  • 12 hours
  • 24 hours
  • 2 days
  • 3 days
  • 1 week

Step 9 – LQI

Link Quality Indicator represents the signal strength.

Above the list, there are 5 LQI buttons which filtering up that list.

LQIs to choose from are:

  • Excelent LQI (full signal)
  • Good LQI (3 lines out of 4)
  • Average LQI (2 lines out of 4)
  • Limited LQI (1 line out of 4)
  • Unknown LQI (no signal)

You can select either one or more LQIs. (You can also select no LQI. In that case all devices will be displayed)

Step 10 – User experience

To keep things simple and user-friendly as much as possible, we added simple IO Frogs hacks to make Group management even easier.

Use the “Pin” at the top right corner to add your group to favorites. Simply hit that button and from now on your favorite group will be pin to the Group manager. No more searching for a favorite group in a hierarchical structure.

Step 10.1 – User experience

Another useful IO Frog hack is located right next to the “Pin”. It is called “Change the current group“. Simply hit this button and the group you are currently in will immediately change to the one you operate in.

Example: In the previous step, we were located in group David Ženčák. After clicking the button “Change the current group”, the group changed to Cottage as it was the one we were operating in.