How do I impersonate a user so I can see what they see?
User impersonation allows an admin to easily log into a website as the user and perform actions as the user. You can update profile information, make purchases, renew subscriptions and troubleshoot.
This feature works for clients who use ePublishing as their login authority.
You are the user, so anything you do will be credited to the user, such as viewing articles or downloading files.
Setting up permissions
Before you can impersonate a user, the proper permissions need to be set up in Continuum. Feel free to contact your PM to assist with setup, or follow these instructions.
System settings
- Navigate to Advanced > Settings
- Search for 'impersonate' or filter for User
- Change the user.impersonation.activated setting from false to true by clicking in the Value box, and type in false in place of true. Click out again to save the setting.
If you are a Super Admin User, then you're all set. If not, or if you want an admin user without Super Admin privileges to be able to impersonate a user, follow these instructions.
User permissions
- Navigate to Users and search for an individual admin user
- Click to edit the user
- Scroll to the Privilege section, locate the Impersonate a User privilege and toggle the switch to add
- Save
Impersonation
Once the permissions are set up, the Impersonate button will appear at the top of the user page.
This button will appear for admins even if they don't have permission, but it is not clickable for those admins. The button only appears for Individual users, not Site License groups
Click the Impersonate button.
A new window or tab will open in your browser to your website and log in as the user. At that point, anything you do on the site will be attributed to the user.
It is possible for you to be logged in as the user at the same time the user is logged in.
Ending Impersonation
To stop impersonating a user, log out of the website or close the browser tab.