User Management

Implemented

Last Updated: 2026-06-13

# Overview

Users are individuals with BATbern accounts. Each user has one or more roles that determine their permissions and platform capabilities. Multi-role users get a single session with grouped navigation (section dividers per role) — no separate logins per role.

Users sign in with email + password or “Continue with Google” (see Continue with Google (SSO) below).

# User Roles

BATbern supports 5 roles:

# 🔵 Organizer

ORGANIZER

Event planning and coordination - Manage all aspects of conference organization.

Permissions:

• ✅ Create and manage events
• ✅ CRUD all entities (companies, users, events, partners, speakers)
• ✅ Manage event workflow (9 event states, per-speaker workflow, tasks)
• ✅ Coordinate speaker outreach
• ✅ Manage partner relationships
• ✅ View analytics and reports
• ✅ Full system access

Typical Users: BATbern event coordinators, conference planners

You are an Organizer - this documentation is written for your role.

# 🟡 Speaker

SPEAKER

Speaker profile management - Manage personal speaker profile and session assignments.

Permissions:

• ✅ View and edit own speaker profile
• ✅ Submit session content (≤1000 characters)
• ✅ View assigned sessions
• ✅ Update availability
• ❌ Cannot access entity management
• ❌ Cannot access workflow

Typical Users: Architecture professionals invited to speak at BATbern events

# 🟢 Attendee

ATTENDEE

Event registration and attendance - Register for events and access materials.

Permissions:

• ✅ Register for events
• ✅ View event schedules
• ✅ View public partner directory
• ✅ Access session materials
• ❌ Cannot create or edit entities
• ❌ Cannot access organizer tools

Typical Users: Architects attending BATbern conferences

# 🟣 Partner

PARTNER

Partner portal access - View sponsorship analytics, participate in topic selection, and receive meeting coordination.

Permissions:

• ✅ View attendance analytics for own company (event participation, cost-per-attendee)
• ✅ Export attendance data to XLSX
• ✅ Suggest topics for future events
• ✅ Vote on proposed topics (one vote per topic)
• ✅ Receive meeting calendar invites (.ics) for Spring/Autumn partner meetings
• ❌ Cannot view other partners’ data
• ❌ Cannot access entity management or organizer tools
• ❌ Cannot access event workflow

Typical Users: Sponsoring companies and collaborating organizations (Diamond through Bronze tier)

# ⚫ Admin

ADMIN

Platform administration - Full system access, including administrative configuration not exposed to regular organizers.

Permissions:

• ✅ All Organizer permissions
• ✅ Platform configuration and administrative tooling
• ✅ Manage other users’ roles

Typical Users: BATbern platform administrators

# Continue with Google (SSO)

Implemented — Epic 12

BATbern supports federated login via “Continue with Google” at auth.batbern.ch. SSO is live in production.

# How it works

• Account linking — when a user signs in with Google using an email that already exists as a BATbern account, the federated identity is transparently linked to the existing profile (no duplicate account is created).
• JIT (just-in-time) provisioning — a brand-new Google sign-in creates a profile on first login with the default ATTENDEE role; organizers can promote later.
• Terms-of-Service consent gate — first-time federated users complete a consent step before reaching the app.
• Federated onboarding completion — first login collects consent, company, and newsletter preference.
• Google avatar import — the user’s Google profile photo is imported as their avatar.
• Runtime kill-switch — SSO can be disabled at runtime via the FEATURES_SSO_ENABLED flag without a redeploy.

# Creating a User

# Role Management

# Promoting Users

Implemented

Increase a user’s role level:

Allowed Promotions (by Organizers):

• ✅ Attendee → Speaker
• ✅ Attendee → Organizer
• ✅ Attendee → Partner
• ✅ Speaker → Organizer
• ✅ Partner → Organizer

Promote User?
────────────────────────────────────
Promote "Hans Müller" from SPEAKER to ORGANIZER?

This will grant additional permissions:
- Create and manage events
- Manage event workflow system
- Manage all entities

[Cancel]           [Promote]

# Demoting Users

Decrease a user’s role level:

Allowed Demotions (by Organizers):

• ✅ Organizer → Speaker
• ✅ Organizer → Attendee
• ✅ Organizer → Partner
• ✅ Speaker → Attendee
• ✅ Partner → Attendee

Process is the same as promotion, with appropriate confirmation dialog.

# Role Restrictions

# User Sync from Cognito

Implemented

BATbern uses AWS Cognito for authentication but stores user profiles in PostgreSQL for application data.

# How Sync Works

Automatic Sync (production):

1. User logs in via Cognito (email/password or “Continue with Google”)
2. JWT token contains user attributes
3. API Gateway extracts user info from token
4. Backend creates/updates the user record in PostgreSQL (JIT provisioning for first-time federated logins — default role ATTENDEE)
5. User can now interact with the application

Manual Sync (local development — mirrors staging users into the local DB):

# Sync all users from staging Cognito to local PostgreSQL
./scripts/dev/sync-users-from-cognito.sh

# Output:
# Syncing users from Cognito...
# ✅ Created: organizer@batbern.ch (ORGANIZER)
# ✅ Updated: speaker@batbern.ch (SPEAKER)
# ✅ Synced 42 users

# Sync Behavior

• New Users: Created in PostgreSQL with Cognito ID
• Existing Users: Profile updated with latest Cognito data
• Role Assignment: Default role is ATTENDEE (can be promoted)
• Deleted Cognito Users: Flagged but not auto-deleted (data retention)

# Additional Email Addresses

Implemented — Story 10-32

Any user (primarily organizers) can register additional email addresses on their profile, on the Account sub-tab of the user-settings page. These are authorised aliases that work in two directions:

• Receive-at: mail BATbern would have sent to the user’s primary email also reaches every additional address — e.g. the ok@batbern.ch organizer fan-out, the partner@batbern.ch partner fan-out, batbern{N}@… registrant fan-out, and event-registration confirmations.
• Send-as: mail the user sends to BATbern from any registered additional address is treated as coming from an authorised sender. For organizers this means the email-forwarder no longer silently drops a message sent from a legacy/shared/personal mailbox (e.g. a Hostpoint shared inbox) instead of the primary address.

Key details:

• The primary email stays the login identifier — adding aliases does NOT change the Cognito-linked primary address.
• Each address can carry an optional free-text label (e.g. “Hostpoint shared”) as a reminder.
• Up to 5 additional addresses per user.
• Addresses must be globally unique across all users’ primary and additional emails; a collision is rejected.

# GDPR Compliance

Implemented

BATbern complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for user privacy.

# User Rights

# Right to Access

Users can view all personal data held by the platform:

[📄 Download My Data]

Downloads JSON file containing:

• Profile information
• Event registrations
• Session assignments (for speakers)
• Activity logs (anonymized IDs for other users)

# Right to Rectification

Users can update incorrect or incomplete data:

• ✅ Edit profile at any time
• ✅ Correct email, name, phone, bio
• ✅ Update company affiliation
• ✅ Changes reflected immediately

# Right to Erasure (“Right to be Forgotten”)

Users can request account deletion:

# Data Retention

# Consent Management

Planned

Future releases will include:

• Cookie Consent: Banner with accept/reject options
• Marketing Communications: Opt-in for newsletters
• Data Processing: Granular consent for different data uses

# Data Processing

Legal Basis:

• Contract Performance: Processing necessary for conference registration and participation
• Legitimate Interest: Event planning and coordination
• Consent: Marketing communications (when implemented)

Data Processors:

• AWS (hosting, storage)
• AWS SES (email delivery)
• AWS Cognito (authentication)

# Searching Users

Implemented

# Quick Search

🔍 [Hans Müller]

Searches across:

• First name
• Last name
• Email address
• Company name

# Advanced Filters

Filter by Role:

role:ORGANIZER

Filter by Company:

company:Müller Architekten AG

Multiple Filters:

role:SPEAKER
company:Müller Architekten AG
verified:true

# Editing a User

# Deleting a User

Delete User?
────────────────────────────────────
Delete "Hans Müller" (organizer@batbern.ch)?

This will:
- Deactivate the account immediately
- Delete Cognito login access
- Erase personal data after 30 days
- Anonymize event participation history

[Cancel]           [Delete]

# User Statistics

Planned

User list view shows statistics:

Total Users: 237
├─ Organizers: 8
├─ Speakers: 45
├─ Attendees: 172
└─ Partners: 12

User detail view shows activity:

• Events Organized: 5 (for Organizers)
• Sessions Presented: 12 (for Speakers)
• Events Attended: 8 (for Attendees)
• Last Login: 2025-03-15 14:23 UTC

# Password Management

# Reset Password (by Organizer)

Implemented

Organizers can trigger password reset for users:

See Login & Authentication for user-facing password reset flow.

# Export & Import

Planned

# Export Users

Export user directory to CSV:

[📥 Export]
   ├─ Export All Users (237)
   ├─ Export by Role (SPEAKER: 45)
   └─ Export Selected (5 users)

CSV columns: email, first_name, last_name, role, company, phone

# Import Users

Bulk import from CSV:

[📤 Import Users]

Upload CSV with columns:
- email, first_name, last_name, role, company

Behavior:
- Existing users updated
- New users created in Cognito + PostgreSQL
- Welcome emails sent
- Validation errors reported

# Common Issues

# “Email already exists”

Problem: Email address already registered.

Solution:

• Each email can only be used once
• Check if user exists (search by email)
• User may need to use a different email

# “Role change not allowed”

Problem: System prevents certain role changes.

Solution:

• Verify you have Organizer permissions
• Some role changes may have business logic restrictions
• Check user’s current assignments (e.g., active speaker cannot be demoted during event)

# “User sync failed”

Problem: User exists in Cognito but not in PostgreSQL.

Solution:

• Run manual sync: ./scripts/dev/sync-users-from-cognito.sh
• Check database connectivity
• Verify Cognito credentials

# Related Topics

• Login & Authentication → - How users access the platform
• Company Management → - Link users to companies
• Speaker Management → - Speaker-specific features

# API Reference

# Endpoints

POST   /api/users                  Create user
GET    /api/users                  List users (paginated)
GET    /api/users/{id}             Get user by ID
PUT    /api/users/{id}             Update user
DELETE /api/users/{id}             Delete user (soft delete)
POST   /api/users/{id}/promote     Promote user role
POST   /api/users/{id}/demote      Demote user role
GET    /api/users/{id}/data-export Export user's personal data (GDPR)
GET    /api/users/me               Current user (includes additionalEmails)
POST   /api/users/me/additional-emails        Add an additional email alias
DELETE /api/users/me/additional-emails/{email} Remove an additional email alias

See API Documentation for complete specifications.