Managing built-in and custom roles
This page explains the role management features available to Pro accounts. See also general information on adding team members.
Default roles
Free accounts provide only a project owner role (with full permissions) and a guest Translator role.
Pro accounts provide the built-in Translator role and start you off with three collaborator roles: Administrator, Manager and Developer. You can add more roles, or simply change the defaults. Although the built-in Translator role can't be modified, you can add custom translator roles as you see fit with any extended permissions they require, e.g. API access.
Each role applies a set of permissions as shown in the table below.
Custom roles
Roles you define are attached your account, so they're available when adding team members to any of your projects.
Adding a new role
From the main project management view, the "Team" panel on the right-hand side provides the option to "Manage project roles". Clicking this will bring up a window containing the current list of roles to manage.
Clicking "Add role" brings up a form for you to enter the details of a new role:
- Enter a name and optional description;
- Specify one or more translation permissions, or choose "all languages";
- Optionally select additional privileges for management and developer access;
- Click "Create role".
To assign this role to a new team member you can click the :add icon: from the role list, or select "Add a team member" from the "Team" panel.
Editing a role
The interface for editing a role is the same as for adding one. Click the :cog icon: from the roles list to change its settings.
Editing a role will reassign permissions to anyone with that role. Be aware that project roles are shared across your account so altering them may affect access to more than one project.
Deleting a role
You can delete any role except the built-in translator role. Click the :trash icon: from the roles list to confirm deletion.
Deleting a role does not lock any team members out of their projects. Anyone assigned a role that no longer exists will keep all their permissions until you assign them a new role or remove them from the project.
Translator permissions
In addition to the global permission to translate all languages, you may assign specific languages to a role in advance of adding them to your projects. This is more powerful than adding guest translators in free accounts, because adding guests can only be done on a per-project basis.
This feature allows you to set up custom translator roles.
For example: you could define a role called "French translator" and specify that team members with this role are able to translate into French ("fr") whenever it exists in any of their projects.
You should always choose the least specific locale possible when defining translator roles. This ensures that more specific project locales are always matched.
For example: choosing "zh" would grant permission to translate "zh", "zh-CN" and "zh-Hans". But choosing "zh-CN" would not match "zh" or "zh-Hans" as the "CN" region makes it too specific.
Extended permissions
The following shows the individual project permissions that exist in Loco. The roles across the top are the built-in default roles.
| ~ | Administrator | Manager | Developer | Translator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Translate any language | • | • | • | • |
| Modify project settings | • | • | ||
| Add project members | • | • | ||
| Change member roles | • | • | ||
| Remove project members | • | • | ||
| Add project locales | • | • | • | |
| Edit project locales | • | • | ||
| Delete project locales | • | • | ||
| Add new assets | • | • | • | |
| Edit asset properties | • | • | ||
| Delete assets | • | • | ||
| Add new tags / flags | • | • | • | |
| Rename tags / flags | • | • | ||
| Delete tags / flags | • | • | ||
| Download spreadsheets | • | • | • | |
| Developer tools / API | • | • | ||
| Add developer attributes | • | • | ||
| Edit developer attributes | • | • |
You can always edit or delete items that you've added. These extra edit and delete permissions refer to editing and deleting of items added by other users. Hence they apply to more privileged roles.
Managers
The default "Manager" role provides restricted admin functionality. Managers can add new items (such as assets, locales and tags) but they can only modify and delete the items they've created. The respective edit and delete permissions are required to modify and delete items created by others.
Conversely, Managers have full permission to add, remove and reassign all project members including those added by others. Note that this allows Managers to assign permissions higher than their own, although they are unable to upgrade their own privileges.
Restrictions apply to changing the roles of Project Owners. Even with full project permissions, Managers and Administrators cannot demote or remove the owner from their own project. Only the Project Owner or an Account Administrator has permission to do this.
Developers
The default "Developer" role is highly privileged because it includes the ability to modify and delete items created by anyone. If you wish to define your own (perhaps less privileged) developer role, be sure to keep the following permissions enabled:
Access developer tools / API
Required for obtaining API keys and exporting translations to file. Without this permission the "Developer tools" window will not visible and API keys will not be generated.Add / edit developer attributes
Required for managing asset IDs and contexts which may be critical for your code integrity. Other attributes considered sensitive are shown on the developer tab of the asset properties window.