VIP
For government partners and other stakeholders who should follow project activity and preview upcoming map layers, without the ability to make drastic edits.
activity.viewlayers.view_draft
SeaSketch feature proposal
Multi-Level Admin Capabilities
The problem
Many SeaSketch projects run for years. Over that time, the list of project administrators tends to grow. Today, every administrator has the same powers: they can change anything in the project, including map layers, sketching tools, reports, forums, surveys, and user management.
In practice, people are invited as admins for very different reasons:
- A small number of people are true project leads. They need full control and are responsible for how the project is set up.
- Government partners or other stakeholders are sometimes invited mainly as a symbolic recognition of their role. They should appear as administrators, but are not expected to reconfigure the project.
- Contractors and specialists often have a narrow job — for example, uploading data and designing map styles — and should not be able to change sketching tools, publish reports, or download survey results that may contain personal information.
A single admin role works well for many projects. For others, it creates a risk of unwanted changes or inappropriate access to sensitive data.
What this feature would do
Projects could opt into a more flexible admin model. Instead of a single “administrator” switch, a project would have:
Project Owners — a small set of people with full control. They can do everything an admin can do today, and they are the only ones who can decide who else gets which responsibilities.
Capabilities — specific powers that can be granted, such as editing map layers, publishing those layers, managing users, designing surveys, or exporting survey responses. Each capability unlocks a clear part of the admin dashboard.
Roles — ready-made bundles of capabilities that match common staff types (for example Data Manager or Community Manager). Owners can assign a role as a starting point, then add or remove individual capabilities when someone needs a custom mix.
More flexibility means more responsibility
A capabilities model is more powerful than a single admin switch, and also more to manage. Large cloud platforms (for example AWS IAM) use a similar approach, and keeping permissions straight can become a real job of its own. SeaSketch keeps the model intentionally smaller — a fixed set of capabilities and ready-made roles — but Project Owners will still need to choose who gets what, answer questions when someone cannot reach a part of the admin dashboard, and periodically review whether those assignments still make sense. Projects that do not need this flexibility can leave the current all-or-nothing admin model in place.
Suggested roles
These roles are starting points for common situations on SeaSketch projects. Project Owners hold every capability plus the exclusive powers listed later — they are not shown as a “role” below.
Roles are flexible. If a VIP should also help with survey invites, an Owner can add surveys.facilitate without creating a new role. The person’s access is simply that role plus the extra capability.
Data Editor
For contractors or staff who upload data, maintain metadata, and design map styles. They work in the draft layer list; someone else decides when changes go live.
layers.view_draftlayers.edit
Data Manager
For a trusted data lead: everything a Data Editor can do, plus publishing layers and managing the geographies used for clipping and analysis.
layers.view_draftlayers.editlayers.publishgeography.manage
Planning Lead
For the people who set up sketching tools, attribute forms, and the analytical reports planners see when they draw.
layers.view_draftlayers.editgeography.managesketches.editsketches.managereports.editreports.publish
Community Manager
For the people who run participation and the project's public face: invites, groups, forums, and branding (name, logo, about page, languages, map extent).
activity.viewsettings.customizationusers.managelayers.view_draftlayers.editforums.manageforums.moderate
Survey Facilitator
For field staff coordinating survey data collection. They can monitor progress and limited response collection details, but not see individual responses for all users.
surveys.facilitate
Survey Administrator
For the people who own the survey program: designing surveys, managing invites, and working with response data — including exports that may contain personal information.
surveys.facilitatesurveys.editsurveys.access_responsessurveys.manage
What each role can do
| Capability | VIP | Data Editor | Data Manager | Planning Lead | Community Manager | Survey Facilitator | Survey Administrator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
activity.view | ● | — | — | — | ● | — | — |
settings.customization | — | — | — | — | ● | — | — |
users.manage | — | — | — | — | ● | — | — |
layers.view_draft | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | — | — |
layers.edit | — | ● | ● | ● | ● | — | — |
layers.publish | — | — | ● | — | — | — | — |
geography.manage | — | — | ● | ● | — | — | — |
sketches.edit | — | — | — | ● | — | — | — |
sketches.manage | — | — | — | ● | — | — | — |
reports.edit | — | — | — | ● | — | — | — |
reports.publish | — | — | — | ● | — | — | — |
forums.manage | — | — | — | — | ● | — | — |
forums.moderate | — | — | — | — | ● | — | — |
surveys.facilitate | — | — | — | — | — | ● | ● |
surveys.edit | — | — | — | — | — | — | ● |
surveys.access_responses | — | — | — | — | — | — | ● |
surveys.manage | — | — | — | — | — | — | ● |
What only Project Owners can do
Some actions stay with Project Owners even when a project uses multi-level admin access. These are powers that change who is in charge, who can join, or that can permanently remove data.
| Reserved for Owners | Why |
|---|---|
| Assigning roles and capabilities | Only Project Owners decide who gets which roles or capabilities, and who else becomes an Owner. |
| Project access settings | Whether the project is public, invite-only, or admins-only; whether it appears in public listings; and whether major tools (forums, sketches, overlays) are hidden. |
| API and Mapbox keys | Keys that grant ongoing programmatic or mapping access outside day-to-day admin work. |
| Data retention | Settings that can permanently delete archived uploads. |
| Groups that carry admin capabilities | Membership of any group that already has capabilities assigned — so a Community Manager cannot escalate their own access by joining such a group. |
| Deleting the project | Removing the project entirely. |
Detailed list of admin functionality and matching capability assignment
Use this section when you want to check a specific part of the admin dashboard and see which capability (or Owner-only rule) covers it. Expand any area below.
Project settings
| Admin functionality | Capability |
|---|---|
| Name, description, logo, and logo link | settings.customization |
| About page | settings.customization |
| Supported languages | settings.customization |
| Map extent (the default map view) | settings.customization |
| Default map options (scale bar, legend) | settings.customization |
| Who can join / whether the project is listed publicly | settings.access (Owners only) |
| Hiding forums, sketches, or overlays from the main app | settings.access (Owners only) |
| Mapbox and project API keys | settings.keys (Owners only) |
Activity
| Admin functionality | Capability |
|---|---|
| Activity dashboard (visitors, popular layers, forum activity) | activity.view |
Users & groups
| Admin functionality | Capability |
|---|---|
| View participants and profiles | users.manage |
| Create, send, edit, and track invites | users.manage |
| Approve or deny access requests | users.manage |
| Create, rename, and delete groups; assign membership | users.manage |
| Make someone a Project Owner | Owners only |
| Ban someone from posting in forums | forums.moderate |
Data layers
| Admin functionality | Capability |
|---|---|
| View the draft (unpublished) layer list | layers.view_draft |
| Upload data and manage processing jobs | layers.edit |
| Add remote sources (ArcGIS, GeoJSON, and similar) | layers.edit |
| Organize folders and layer order in the draft list | layers.edit |
| Edit metadata and map styles | layers.edit |
| Control who can see each layer | layers.edit |
| Manage basemaps | layers.edit |
| Offline map packages (when enabled) | layers.edit |
| Publish draft layers so participants can see them | layers.publish |
| Change how long archived uploads are retained | settings.retention (Owners only) |
Geography & reports
| Admin functionality | Capability |
|---|---|
| Create, edit, and maintain geographies and clipping | geography.manage |
| Create reports and edit draft content | reports.edit |
| Publish reports for planners to use | reports.publish |
Sketch classes (sketching tools)
| Admin functionality | Capability |
|---|---|
| Create or delete a sketching tool | sketches.manage |
| Edit settings, attribute forms, and styles | sketches.edit |
| Configure geography clipping and analysis | sketches.edit |
| Assign the primary report to a sketching tool | reports.publish |
Forums
| Admin functionality | Capability |
|---|---|
| Create and organize forums; set who can read or post | forums.manage |
| Community guidelines | forums.manage |
| Hide posts, lock topics, ban posters | forums.moderate |
Surveys
| Admin functionality | Capability |
|---|---|
| Monitor survey progress and invite status (no answers) | surveys.facilitate |
| Design surveys and manage survey invites | surveys.edit |
| View, correct, and export responses | surveys.access_responses |
| Create or delete surveys; archive responses | surveys.manage |
Help refine this proposal
Add your comments or directly add new roles or capabilities to the spreadsheet below.