User Group Permissions Request for GET & PUT

[rgibbons]

Hello,

We have a need since we manage many practices on separate databases with the same user groups across all of them, where if a decision is made to change the permission of a particular group, someone has to go to each one and do a manual change, or via a SQL query on each database (which is tedious, time consuming, and not safe).

We are requesting that a GET and PUT command be available for the Permissions of the User Groups to return all the current permissions of a group (via group number from UserGroups GET) and then the option to PUT and update the User Group Permissions so that we can update databases on bulk.

Please let me know if there are any questions.

Thank you

[justine]

Hello,

We have a need since we manage many practices on separate databases with the same user groups across all of them, where if a decision is made to change the permission of a particular group, someone has to go to each one and do a manual change, or via a SQL query on each database (which is tedious, time consuming, and not safe).

We are requesting that a GET and PUT command be available for the Permissions of the User Groups to return all the current permissions of a group (via group number from UserGroups GET) and then the option to PUT and update the User Group Permissions so that we can update databases on bulk.

Please let me know if there are any questions.

Thank you

Hello rgibbons,

Creating a user and assigning them to a user group is one thing, but managing permissions for those groups is a separate layer of complexity. At this point, we haven’t committed to exposing group permission management via the API, and it’s not clear yet if that’s something we’ll pursue.

However, you can view the current permissions for a user group by querying the grouppermission table using the /shortquery endpoint.

Out of curiosity, how often are you needing to update group permissions across multiple databases?

Thanks!

[rgibbons]

Hi Justine,

We are needing to do it for a first round to standardize everything across our locations, but then on acquisition and about once a year or so we do an audit on any new permissions (from updates) and anything that might have changed operationally.

Thanks,
rgibbons

[justine]

Hi Justine,

We are needing to do it for a first round to standardize everything across our locations, but then on acquisition and about once a year or so we do an audit on any new permissions (from updates) and anything that might have changed operationally.

Thanks,
rgibbons

Hello rgibbons,

We can look into the feasibility of grouppermissions via the API. In the meantime, I did want to mention that CEMT Security may be worth looking into, as I believe it is designed for the centralized permission management you're describing.

Thanks!

[rgibbons]

Hi Justine,

CEMT is ok, but it's not quite what is needed. API use would be much better as it is a better future for the software, especially as there is more push towards it. We still want to manage the permissions at the office and CEMT separates the permissions between having CEMT logins and On-Prem logins that isn't what we're trying to implement/complicate.

Thanks,
rgibbons

[justine]

Hi Justine,

CEMT is ok, but it's not quite what is needed. API use would be much better as it is a better future for the software, especially as there is more push towards it. We still want to manage the permissions at the office and CEMT separates the permissions between having CEMT logins and On-Prem logins that isn't what we're trying to implement/complicate.

Thanks,
rgibbons

Hello rgibbons,

We understand the use case for DSOs and multi-location organizations wanting to standardize permissions across databases. However, user group permissions are security-critical configuration, not ordinary setup data. Allowing API writes to those permissions would let third-party integrations alter what users can access or change within Open Dental, so this requires more caution than a typical GET/PUT endpoint.

Thanks!