The unit structure in F2

The content of this website is last updated to F2 version 11. cBrain are working hard on supplying you with the newest documentation of F2.

It is important that the user possesses a general knowledge of F2 in order to understand the administrative tasks. For this, refer to the F2 Basics documentation.

Below follows a short explanation of how F2 organises authorities and units in a tree structure. In F2 all users are organised into units. A user is always attached to a unit.

To create a user, at least one unit must be defined in the organisation. The reason is that a user’s read and write access to cases, records, and documents depend on the unit structure. F2’s unit structure roughly corresponds to the structure of the organisation, although typically not in all facets.

The unit structure in F2:

  • Top unit/Organisation: This unit is the parent unit in F2. It is created when installing F2. There can only be one top unit for each F2 installation. This can e.g. be a ministry or a company. The name of this top unit is customised to the individual organisation during installation.

  • Authority: This unit represents a legal unit in F2. Full separation exists between the different authorities in an F2 installation. There is no limit to the number of authorities that can be created in F2. An authority can e.g. consist of a department and a number of government agencies or a company with several subsidiaries.

  • Units: An unlimited number of units and subunits can be created within an authority. These can mirror the overall organisation within the authority. Each record can be access restricted to a unit. This influences who can view and work on the records and documents.

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Figure 1. An example of F2’s tree structure
The top unit/organisation is only visible on the “Other Authorities” tab and not on the “My authority” tab”.

Create an authority

An authority’s internal structure is comprised by the units created in the “Units and users” dialogue. You can create additional authorities under the top entity/organisation.

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Figure 2. The “Unit and users” menu item

Click on Units and users in the “Administrator” ribbon of F2’s main window to create a new authority.

In the "Units and users" dialogue click on the Other authorities tab.

In the dialogue, the top unit/organisation called "Doc Organisation" is established. This organisation includes authorities called "Digital Authority" and "Quality".

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Figure 3. Create a new authority

Click on Create in the “Units and users” dialogue to open the “Create unit” dialogue.

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Figure 4. The “Create unit” dialogue

Enter the relevant information about the new authority in the dialogue.

  • The unit type is set to “Authority”.

  • The system provides the location after the unit is created.

  • Additional fields can be filled in if needed.

Set up the authority’s email on the “Email settings” tab.

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Figure 5. The “Email settings” tab in the “Create unit” dialogue

Read more about setting up email accounts.

When you have filled in the necessary fields in the dialogue, click on OK. F2 asks for confirmation, as authorities cannot be deleted once they are created.

Click on No to return to the “Create unit” dialogue.

Click on Yes to proceed. The “Environmental Department” authority is then created, and units and users can now be created within it. You can then create units and users in the newly created authority.

Create units within an authority

In F2, the organisational structure is mirrored by a number of units. Units are created and maintained by administrators or user administrators.

A chief purpose of units is to specify to F2 where to place users when matching roles and units are synchronised using synchronisation keys during full AD integration. During standard AD integration the administrator creates the users in the units themselves.

The users’ affiliation with a unit is important as it influences their read and write access to records for which the access is restricted to the specific unit.

An administrator can access units from the ribbon of the “Administrator” tab by clicking on the Units and users menu item.

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Figure 6. The “Units and users” menu item

In the “Units and users” dialogue, a user with the “Unit administrator” privilege can create, edit, move, and remove and deactivate units.

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Figure 7. The "Units and users" dialogue

The "Unit" tab shows which units the relevant authority contains. They are defined in a tree structure.

When the authority node is expanded, you can see which units are created in the tree structure. These units can also be expanded to view any subunits.

Create a new unit by selecting a “parent unit” in the directory and clicking on Create.

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Figure 8. Create units within an authority

The “Create unit” dialogue opens.

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Figure 9. The “Create unit” dialogue

Fill in the relevant information in the dialogue.

  • Name of the unit.

  • In the “Unit type” field, select a representative type for the unit. See below for more information on the management of unit types.

  • Units are created in the same dialogue that is used for creating authorities.

The organisational structure within an authority can contain many units.

Read more about setting up email accounts.

Edit unit

You can edit a unit, for example if you need to update the unit’s name. Select the desired unit in the "Units and users" dialogue and click on Properties.

unit properties
Figure 10. Edit unit

In the dialogue "Properties for the unit [Unit Name]" you can edit the relevant information. Click on OK to save your changes. Click on Cancel to discard your changes.

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Figure 11. ”Properties for the unit [Name of unit]”

Move unit

You can move a unit from its location in the organisational structure. This may be relevant if a subunit needs to be moved to another unit.

You can only move a unit to another location within the same authority.

Select the desired unit in the "Units and users" dialogue, and click on Move.

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Figure 12. Move unit

In the "Select new parent unit" dialogue, select the parent unit to which you wish to move the unit, and click on OK.

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Figure 13. The "Select new parent unit" dialogue

Remove unit

You can remove or deactivate a unit if it is no longer needed.

If a unit has been in use, meaning it has been associated with a record or a case as a participant, the unit cannot be removed, but only deactivated.

Select the desired unit in the "Units and users" dialogue and click on Remove.

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Figure 14. Remove unit

Depending on the unit’s status, you have the following options:

Unit status Option

The unit contains no active subunits or users, and the unit has never been used.

The unit can be removed.

In the "Remove unit" dialogue you can click Yes to remove the unit. Click No to keep the unit.

The unit contains active subunits and/or users, and the unit has never been used.

The unit cannot be removed as it contains active participants.

The "The unit cannot be deleted" dialogue opens. Click OK to close it. You can choose to move the active subunits or users to another unit, and then you can remove the unit.

The unit has been used.

The unit cannot be removed, but only deactivated.

The "Participants deactivated" dialogue opens. Click OK to deactivate the unit. The unit can be reactivated subsequently.

Create unit types for specific units

F2 divides units into types. F2 contains definitions of certain fixed unit types that are created during installation.

Some unit types cannot be deleted as they are used by F2. The names of these units may vary as they depend on the organisation. New unit types can be added later, and unit types that are not in use can be deleted again.

Click on the Unit types menu item in the ribbon on the administrator tab in F2’s main window.

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Figure 15. The “Unit types” menu item

The dialogue below opens. From here it is possible to manage unit types.

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Figure 16. Management of unit types

These are examples of the unit types available:

  • Authority

  • Organisation

  • Department

  • Office

  • Area

  • Secretariat.

Unit types such as teams and security groups are used to divide users into teams and security groups across the authority.

When a unit type has been created, it can be used when creating units (the organisational division).

Decentral units

The “Decentral unit” type mostly functions as any other F2 unit, but unlike other units it is not synchronised with Active Directory (AD).

A decentral unit can be used for project cooperation across units, and extra email addresses can be attached.

Decentral units are created by a user with the “Decentral unit and user administrator” privilege.

In order to affiliate a user with a decentral unit, the user must have one of the three roles:

  • Decentral role: This is a job role that lets the user log in and work in a decentral unit.

  • Decentral read access: This is a job role that lets the user search for records whose access is normally restricted to users in a decentral unit. The role is equivalent to the “Read access to another unit” role.

  • Decentral read/write access: This is a job role that lets the user search for records whose responsibility lie with a decentral unit and whose access restriction is either “Unit” or “All”. The role is equivalent to the “Write and read access to another unit” role.

The following is an example of when decentral units are useful:

An organisation has a number of units that work independently of the central administration. These units would like to maintain a unit structure across of standard F2 units. The F2 administrator gives one or more users in the organisation the “Decentral unit and user administrator” privilege, which lets them maintain the decentral units.