Member groups
A member group is a grouping of members - users, organizations, or other member groups - used for various business purposes. Two kinds of member groups exist: implicit and explicit. An implicit member group contains users that share common attributes and are therefore considered members of a specific member group. An implicit member group specifies criteria or attributes that users must satisfy in order to be considered members of that member group. You can also explicitly exclude certain users although they satisfy the criteria. An explicit member group contains explicitly assigned users, who may or may not share common attributes. A member group can be both implicit and explicit at the same time.
Member group data can be stored only in the HCL Commerce database. Furthermore, member groups are not part of the membership hierarchy but are owned by organizational entities. This ownership determines the set of access control policies that apply to accessing the member group.
For access control purposes, the following definitions apply:
- A user owns itself
- An organizational entity owns itself
- A member group is owned by an organizational entity
By default, HCL Commerce supports the following types of member groups: