Manage administrators | LimeSurvey

Manage administrators

About administrators

Administrators are the people who log in to your survey site to build surveys, look at results or change settings. LimeSurvey calls them users. They are not participants: participants only answer surveys. What an administrator can do depends on their permissions: global permissions for the whole site, set here, and survey permissions for single surveys. Your plan includes a number of administrators, and the page shows how many you use.

Open user management

Click Manage administrators, the people icon in the sidebar (1), or Configuration > Users > User management in the top bar. Out of the box, only superadministrators see the icon.

User management with five areas numbered 1 to 5, the Manage administrators icon, Add user, Import and Export, the user counter and the menu of a user

In the picture: 1 Manage administrators in the sidebar, 2 Add user, 3 Import and Export, 4 Users, the administrators you have and the number your plan allows, 5 the ... menu of an administrator.

Add an administrator

  1. Click Add user (2).

  2. Fill in the form.

The Add user form with five areas numbered 1 to 5, Username, Email, Expiry date and time, Set password now and Add

In the picture: 1 Username, the name to log in with, 2 Email, 3 Expiry date/time, optional, 4 Set password now?, 5 Add.

  1. Choose how the new administrator gets a password:

    • No: LimeSurvey emails the new administrator their user name and a link to set a password. You can change this email under Global settings > User administration.
    • Yes: type a Password twice, or use the Random password (suggestion), and pass it on yourself. No email is sent.

  2. Click Add (5). Then give the new administrator permissions.

Set permissions

  1. Open the ... menu of the administrator (5) and click Edit permissions.

  2. Tick what the person may do in each area, and click Save. General ticks every action of an area.

The Edit permissions dialog with three areas numbered 1 to 3, the areas, the columns from General to Export and a security warning

In the picture: 1 the areas, 2 the actions General, Create, View/read, Update, Delete, Import and Export, 3 a warning on an area that affects security.

AreaWhat it allows
Central participant databaseCreate participants, and see, change and delete the participants of other administrators.
Label setsCreate, see, change, delete, import and export label sets.
Settings & pluginsSee and change global settings and plugins. Give it only to people you trust.
Survey groupsCreate survey groups, and see, change and delete the groups of other administrators.
SurveysCreate surveys, with all rights on their own surveys, and see, change, delete and export the surveys of other administrators.
ThemesCreate, see, change, delete, import and export themes. Changing or importing themes allows scripts, so give it only to people you trust.
User groupsCreate, see, change and delete user groups.
UsersCreate, see, change and delete administrators.
SuperadministratorEvery permission on the whole site.
Use internal database authenticationLog in with a LimeSurvey user name and password.

Tip: To give the same permissions to several people, create a user role once and assign it. See Reuse permissions with user roles.

To give someone access to one survey only, set no global permissions here. Add the person to the survey instead. See Survey permissions.

The menu of an administrator

  • User details shows the account.
  • Edit user changes the account details.
  • Edit permissions sets the global permissions.
  • User role assigns a user role.
  • Theme permissions decides which themes the person may use.
  • Take ownership makes you the owner of the account, shown under Created by.
  • Deactivate switches the account off without deleting it.
  • Delete user removes the account.

For your own account, only User details is available.

Add many administrators at once

The ... next to Import (3) offers Import (CSV) and Import (JSON), to add administrators from a file. The ... next to Export saves the list as CSV or JSON.

Next steps

FAQ

How many administrators can I add?

As many as your plan includes. Users at the top right (4) shows how many you have and how many you can have. For more, upgrade your plan.

A colleague should only see the results of one survey. What do I set?

Add the colleague here without global permissions. Then open the survey, add the colleague under Survey permissions and tick Responses and Statistics. See Survey permissions.

An administrator forgot their password. What can they do?

See Can't log in? Reset your password or recover your account