What is the relationship between Assign, Subscribe, Share?

Understanding the Relationship Between Assign, Subscribe, and Share

Assignment, subscription, and sharing are vital association properties that define the interactions between users and objects within your system.

Share

Sharing provides ad-hoc read access to specific users, allowing you to grant access selectively. You can choose individual users to share with. Those with edit rights but lacking read access will gain the ability to edit after you've shared the object with them. Individuals who receive shared access are termed "participants."

The primary distinction between sharing and providing read access through permission rules lies in their application. Sharing is case-specific and on-demand, while permission rules are predefined and universally applicable based on their conditions. Nonetheless, both mechanisms offer similar levels of authority. For example, you can allocate edit privileges to subcontractors without providing read access through permission rules. Later, you can share the object with them to grant reading and editing permissions.

Subscribe

Subscribing triggers notifications. If you have read access, you can subscribe yourself to receive updates. For users with sharing permissions, subscribing to other users ensures they are informed. Individuals who subscribe are referred to as "subscribers."

Upon subscribing, a user becomes a participant, enabling them to consistently access whatever content they subscribe to. You can choose to subscribe to individual objects manually or set up subscription rules that automatically apply to future objects.

Assign

Assignment signifies responsibility. It allows you to allocate objects to a team or its users, indicating the current custodian of the object. Those who are assigned are known as "assignees."

When assigning an object to a team, all members of the team become participants, affording them access to the object. You can configure subscription rules to automatically subscribe specific team members whenever objects are assigned to the team.

Assigning an object to a user results in that user becoming a subscriber, receiving notifications about the object's status.

In practice, your main focus revolves around assigning objects and occasionally subscribing to them. Manual sharing is rarely required.

By comprehending these mechanisms, you can facilitate effective collaboration, communication, and responsibility management within your system.