---
title: "How users and groups work in MangoMap"
description: Put people in a group, share maps and data with the group, and everyone in it can get in — up to whatever their role allows.
sidebar:
label: "How users and groups work"
---
A **user** is one person with a login. A **group** is a named set of users. Most access decisions follow one rule:
> **Put people in a group. Share maps and data with that group. Everyone in the group can
> use what the group can access.**
Share with groups, not people one at a time. To give a teammate access, add them to the right group. This page is about sharing privately with your team; publishing a map to the public web is a separate thing.
Three things set what a person can do:
**Which groups you're in**
Being in a group is what brings a map or dataset within reach. If none of your
groups has it, it doesn't show up in your account at all.
**How it was shared**
Each map or dataset is shared with a group to **view** or to **edit**.
**Your role**
A limit on what you can do. A Viewer can look but never change — even in a
group that can edit.
In short: **your groups grant access, and your role sets the limit.**
## The four roles
Each person has one account role. It limits what they can do, even when their groups grant more access. Most people are Editors or Viewers.
| Role | What they're for |
| ------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Owner | **Runs the account.** Sees and can change everything without being in any group, creates the groups, and invites people. One per account. |
| Admin | **Builds things.** Creates maps and datasets, controls whatever they make, and can share it with groups — so the Owner does not need to handle every new item. |
| Editor | **Maintains data.** Edits the attributes and geometry of any dataset a group of theirs can edit. Changes the data, not a map's design — restyling a map is an Admin job — and doesn't create maps or datasets of their own. |
| Viewer | **Reads maps.** Pan, zoom, click features, filter, query — but changes nothing, even where a group has edit access. |
## Follow one setup, start to finish
Tom is the Chief Data Wrangler at Mapping Inc., and the account **Owner** — so he's the one who makes groups and invites people. (Admins can share maps and data too, but only the Owner manages people and groups.)
1. **Make a group**
Tom creates a group called **Wranglers** for his two assistant wranglers, Sally and
Rick.
2. **Add the people**
Sally and Rick are **Editors**. On its own that gives them nothing — it means only
they're _allowed_ to edit data wherever a group of theirs can.
3. **Share maps and data with the group**
Tom shares the **Customers** dataset with Wranglers to **edit**, and the two maps
built from it to **view**. Choose `View` or `Edit` when you share an item.
**Group: Wranglers**
| Member | Job title | Role |
| ------ | ----------------------- | ------ |
| Sally | Assistant Data Wrangler | Editor |
| Rick | Assistant Data Wrangler | Editor |
| Tom | Chief Data Wrangler | Owner |
Shared with this group:
- **Customers** dataset — shared **to edit**
- **Customers** map — shared to view
- **Sales Territories** map — shared to view
Both maps are built from the Customers dataset, so the edit granted on the dataset is what lets the group change features inside either map.
One dataset can sit behind any number of maps. The Customers and Sales Territories maps are two views of the same Customers data, which is why all three are shared with the group. Because the **edit** is on the dataset, Sally and Rick do their editing right inside either map — click a feature, change its attributes, move its geometry — and since both maps read the same data, the change shows up in both. Had Tom shared the dataset _to view_ instead, they'd open both maps and change nothing.
:::note
A person can be in as many groups as you like, and they get everything those groups get, combined. Add Sally to Management as well and Strategic Sales shows up in her account next to the Wranglers maps. Her role doesn't change, so what she can _do_ with each item is still whatever an Editor is allowed.
:::
## A second group, a different kind of member
Tom also puts his boss Emily and the other executives in a group called **Management**. They read internal maps to make strategic decisions, but they shouldn't change those maps or the data behind them — so they're **Viewers**.
**Group: Management**
| Member | Job title | Role |
| ------ | ----------------------- | ------ |
| Emily | Chief Executive Officer | Viewer |
| Alan | Chief Technical Officer | Viewer |
| Tom | Chief Data Wrangler | Owner |
Shared with this group:
- **Strategic Sales** map — shared **to view**
Strategic Sales is eyes-only. Sally and Rick aren't in Management, so it never appears in their accounts — **maps you haven't been given are hidden, not locked.**
## So who sees what?
Here are both groups in one picture: who is in each one, and what each group can reach.
{/* diagram:users-groups-example */}
{/* /diagram:users-groups-example */}
That is the whole system. In practice:
- **Sally and Rick** (Wranglers, Editors) open the Customers and Sales Territories maps
and edit the Customers data behind them. Strategic Sales isn't shared with any group
they're in, so it does not appear.
- **Emily and Alan** (Management, Viewers) open Strategic Sales to read it. The Wranglers
maps and the Customers data aren't in their accounts at all.
- **Tom** (Owner) sees and can change everything — in every group, or none.
Each person gets what their groups were given, limited by their role.
## Maps and the data behind them are separate
Sally can _edit_ the Customers data but only _view_ the maps built on it, because a map and its dataset are two separate things, shared one at a time. It's the edit on the Customers dataset — not her role alone — that lets her actually change features.
It works the other way too: share Strategic Sales with Management _to edit_ tomorrow, and Emily still changes nothing, because Viewer caps her at looking. A generous share can't lift someone above their role, and a high role can't reach something nobody shared with them.
:::tip
Source data is private by default. Putting a dataset on a map shows only what the map is styled to show, not the raw table — so you can share a map widely and still keep the data with the people who maintain it. Access to a map is never access to the data behind it.
:::
Need help? Email [support@mangomap.com](mailto:support@mangomap.com) or open the support messenger from inside your account.