HOWTO: Enable Self-Service Feeds

ProGet administrators control who can access and manage various feeds by granting or restricting permissions to users and groups. If these permissions or restrictions aren't set in advance, users must constantly contact an administrator to perform routine tasks.

Feed groups in ProGet allow administrators to enable self-service feeds so teams can act autonomously without affecting the rest of ProGet. When properly configured, a user can create and manage their own feeds without relying on an administrator.

This tutorial describes how to use ProGet's Feed Groups feature to configure which feeds a user can access and manage, which feed groups users can create new feeds in, and how to set up permissions for users to act autonomously in their assigned feeds.

You can immediately start making feed groups assuming you have have administrator control in ProGet. We recommend connecting your company’s LDAP directory or Active Directory domain, but this feature can function normally with ProGet’s built-in user directory. We also recommend setting up user groups ahead of time.

Step 1: Navigate to Settings > Manage Feed Groups

Step 2: Click “Create Feed Group”

On the Manage Feed Groups page, click [Create Feed Group] at the bottom right of the page and a pop-up will open.

Step 3: Input Feed Group Information

In the pop-up window, based on the information you enter, a feed group is created in which users can trade.

For Name: enter the name of the team you want. For this demonstration, we will use "Devs-Chicago".

For Feeds: you have the option to associate all existing feeds with your feed group. Select the appropriate feeds from the dropdown menu.

Click [Save]

Feeds on the Feed page are now divided between groups and “Ungrouped.”

Step 4: Add Feed Group Permissions

Navigate to Admin > Manage Security > Tasks / Permissions and click [Add Permissions]

In the pop-up, select the desired user or user group ("Principals"), their feed group ("Feed or group"), and the Manage Feed task.

Click [Save Privilege].

“Manage Feed” allows the users of the group to create new feeds, manage their feed settings, add/push new packages, download and view packages, and promote packages to other feeds within the feed group.

Permissions and restrictions can be very granular in ProGet, so we strongly recommend reading the full breakdown of them in our guide about permissions.

After Feed Groups have been Configured

Users can now manage their own feeds within their approved groups without having to contact a ProGet administrator.

For example, Josh from Devs Chicago will only see the Devs-Chicago feed group. Note the pencil icon (✏) on the right side of the entry indicating that Josh can manage the feed (change settings, configure a drop path, etc.)

Compare this to an administrator, who can see and manage all feeds.

When creating a new feed, users now see the "Feed Group" line, but are limited to the feed groups they allow.

For example, Josh from Devs Chicago can only create a new feed in the Devs Chicago feed group.

Compare this to an administrator who can create a feed in any feed group, or ungrouped (“none”).

Troubleshooting

Permissions

Please read the “Troubleshooting Permissions” section of our granular ProGet permissions guide.

How to Check a User’s Permissions

Users may contact an administrator and ask why they cannot perform a particular function in ProGet. Users may encounter errors that occur because they do not have permission, so they must contact an administrator to continue.

In these cases, an administrator can check what permissions or restrictions a user has via the settings page.

To check this, navigate to Settings > Users & Tasks.

Click the [Test Privileges] button in the bottom left of the page.

In the pop-up window, enter the user you want to test and select the feed you want to test it with.

The window fills with a list of this user's permissions for the selected feed.

Delete a Feed Group

Only administrators can delete a feed group. Non-administrator users (e.g. Josh) cannot access the settings page of ProGet and therefore cannot delete feed groups.

Navigate to Manage Feed Groups on the Settings page.

On the Manage Feed Groups page, you will find a list of all feed groups.

Click the ❌ of the feed group you want to delete.

The deleted group’s feeds will now be moved to “Ungrouped.”