03. System Access - Visibility Groups

Control which events, venues, and other data users can see without changing their permissions.

Visibility groups control what data users can see in the admin area, independent of their permissions. A user might have full editing permissions for events, but if they belong to a visibility group, they will only see the events assigned to that same group.

This separation is important: roles and permissions determine what a user can do (edit events, process refunds, manage users), while visibility groups determine which records they can do it on.

Visibility groups create a filter between users and data:

1. Users are assigned to one or more visibility groups

2. Entities (events, venues, event listings) are assigned to one or more visibility groups

3. A user can only see entities that share at least one visibility group with them

If a user belongs to groups A and B, they see all entities assigned to group A, group B, or both. The result is the union of all their groups' data.

Users with no visibility groups assigned see all data - there are no restrictions. Visibility groups only take effect once at least one group is assigned to a user.

The following entity types can be assigned to visibility groups:

An organisation with teams in different cities can create a visibility group for each region (e.g. "London", "Manchester", "Birmingham"). Each team's users are assigned to their region's group, and events are assigned to the region where they take place. London staff only see London events, even though they may have the same role and permissions as staff in other cities.

External promoters who create events on the platform can be placed in a visibility group that only contains their events. The promoter has full event management permissions but can only see and edit events assigned to their group, keeping other organisers' events hidden.

Operations staff who work at a specific venue can be assigned to a visibility group containing just that venue and its events. They see everything related to their venue while other venues and their events remain hidden.

To create a new visibility group:

1. Navigate to Users and select the Visibility Groups tab

2. Click Add new visibility group

3. Enter a Name for the group

4. Click Submit

The group is created empty - you then assign users and entities to it.

Visibility groups are assigned to users during user creation or editing:

1. Navigate to the user's detail page and click Edit

2. In the Visibility groups section, select the groups the user should belong to

3. Click Submit

A user can belong to multiple visibility groups. Their visible data is the combined set of all assigned groups.

You cannot edit your own visibility groups. Another user with appropriate permissions must make changes to your assignments. The message Editing visibility groups of own user is not permitted is shown if you attempt this.

Events, venues, and event listings can be assigned to visibility groups from their respective edit pages. For example, to assign an event to a visibility group:

1. Open the event dashboard

2. Find the Visibility groups section

3. Select the groups this event should be visible to

4. Save the changes

Entities can belong to multiple visibility groups. Any user who shares at least one group with the entity can see it.

When you create a new entity (such as an event) and you belong to visibility groups, the entity is automatically assigned to your visibility groups. This ensures you can always see entities you create.

Beyond visibility group membership, specific events can be assigned directly to individual users. This is useful when a user needs access to a particular event that falls outside their visibility groups - for example, a staff member temporarily helping with an event in another region.

Event assignment is managed from the user's detail page. The user gains access to the assigned events in addition to everything their visibility groups already provide.

Event assignment requires the user to belong to at least one visibility group. Users without visibility groups already have access to all data, so direct assignment would have no effect.

The visibility groups list shows each group with summary counts:

These counts help you understand the scope of each group and identify groups that may be unused or overly broad.

Visibility groups can be deleted when they are no longer needed, but two safeguards prevent accidental data access issues:

Before deleting a visibility group, reassign its users to other groups or remove users from the group entirely.

When a visibility group is deleted, its associations with entities (events, venues, etc.) are also removed. Entities that were only in the deleted group become visible to all users without visibility group restrictions.

Assign visibility groups when creating or editing users

Control what users can do, separate from what they can see