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Catalog Roles and Delegated Management

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In this lesson, you will learn:

  • The catalog roles
  • What a catalog manager does
  • How to limit an editor
  • SNWR’s setup

🔁 Quick look back: Last time: Catalog Audience: User Criteria and Visibility. You learned how user criteria decide who can see and order each item.

1 “Everyone asks Riya”

Every small catalog fix goes to Riya.

  • Desktop Support wants to update a laptop model.
  • It’s a one-word change.
  • It waits in Riya’s queue for a week.

🎯 The problem: When only the admin can change the catalog, small fixes are slow.

👉 The fix: give catalog jobs to the people who own the items, with just enough access.

2 The catalog roles

Role Can do
catalog_admin Everything in the catalog, across all catalogs
catalog_manager Manage a catalog they are the manager of, and choose its editors
catalog_editor Edit items in catalogs they are an editor of

⭐ Remember: Give the smallest role that gets the job done.

3 SNWR’s setup

SNWR's catalog roles. Riya Sharma, catalog admin: builds templates and flows. Lucas Ferreira, catalog manager: manager of the SNWR IT catalog, chooses the editors. Desktop Support lead, catalog editor: edits only Hardware items. A note says the lead can't touch Software, Access or Workplace.
Figure 1. Just enough access for each person.

📝 Note: To limit an editor to one category, use Catalog Builder’s category access (on newer releases), or make them the owner of just those items. Check what your release offers, and record the choice.

4 Let’s try it: set the catalog roles

  1. Open the SNWR IT catalog. Set Manager to Lucas Ferreira.
  2. Impersonate Lucas. Add the Desktop Support lead as an editor.
  3. In Catalog Builder, look for category access and give the lead Hardware only.
  4. Impersonate the lead. Edit SNWR New laptop. Then try to edit SNWR Software request. Is it blocked?
  5. Record the setup in the design decisions log.

5 Quick recap

  • Three roles: catalog_admin, catalog_manager, catalog_editor
  • A catalog manager picks the editors
  • Give the smallest role that does the job
  • Lucas manages SNWR IT
  • The Desktop Support lead edits Hardware only

6 Check yourself

Think of your answer first. Then tap to check.

1 Who picks editors for the SNWR IT catalog? Show answer

Lucas, the catalog manager.

2 The Desktop Support lead needs to fix a laptop item. Which role? Show answer

Catalog editor, limited to Hardware.

3 Why not make everyone catalog admin? Show answer

They’d get far more access than they need.

4 Who builds templates and flows? Show answer

Riya, the admin.

Nice work! SNWR’s catalog now has clear owners. 🎉
Next up: Catalog Properties and Checkout

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