Shared Workspaces
let's begin
Many teams and agencies work together on a regular basis and need an easy way to share maps, layers, and other data across both teams, while maintaining ownership of their own data. Groups with CalTopo Teams subscriptions can connect to each other by directly through Shared Workspaces.
Topics on this Page:
Workspaces
Before we can talk about how to share, we need to cover a few concepts of team structure and workspaces.
A workspace is a way to designate and manage a set of data (maps, custom layers, mapsheets, pdfs, icons, etc.) One way to think of the workspace is to go to the Mapviewer and click the Your Data button. From there you can access the data in your personal workspace as well as any team workspaces. The maps, bookmarks, PDFs, mapsheets, custom layers, custom icons are all data that is stored in a workspace.
Each team, subteam, and/or shared workspace has its own workspace.
What is a Shared Workspace?
Shared workspaces are non-expiring groups that connect users from multiple organizations or teams into one workspace for sharing maps and other data.
A shared workspace lets teams create unique groups of people from multiple teams. This might include:
- CalTopo teams from an outside organization;
- Individuals from outside CalTopo teams;
- One or more subteams from other parts of the team account;
- Individuals from the parent team.
Types of Shared Workspaces
Shared workspaces come in two versions - Shared and Flex.
- Shared workspaces do not expire. Members must be members of a CalTopo Team account.
- Flex workspaces are temporary and used for large events, like a mutual aid incident. They are only available on First-Response type team accounts.
Creating Shared Workspaces
The team or sub-team that creates the shared workspace is the owner team. Persons or teams connected to the workspace from outside the owner team are collaborators.
An admin on the owner team can create a shared workspace.
Navigate to the admin page for the owner team. Under the workspaces section of the Membership tab, click "Create Workspace".
Add a name for the shared workspace and click create.
All shared workspaces - both flex and shared - will be listed in the Workspaces section on the membership tab.
Shared Workspace Membership and Permissions
Direct Access
Members of the owner team have direct access to the shared workspace. Parents of the owner team also have access.
Sub-teams of the owner team do NOT have access and must be invited as collaborators.
Individual Collaborators
Only individuals who already belong to a CalTopo team account may join a Shared Workspace.
Add individuals by creating a collaboration code, via the same method as creating a join-code for a team or subteam.
Collaborating with Teams
Whole teams may collaborate on a shared workspace. This may include multiple sub-teams from one parent account, outside teams at the root level, or a sub-team of an outside team.
You can connect as many teams as you want to one shared workspace.
If an admin belongs to multiple teams at the level of Admin or Manager, they can directly add that team to collaborate in the shared workspace.
Maximum Permissions, Explained
When inviting another team to collaborate in a shared workspace, the owner team designates the highest permission level that any member of the outside team can have within the shared workspace.
If Team A is inviting Group B users to Workspace A via sharing, Team A might set a maximum permission level of "Update" for Team B to access the shared workspace. Whether a user in Group B is an admin or an update user there, they will both be update users in the shared workspace.
However, a user's permissions cannot be increased via this pathway. A user who has read access in the collaborating team will still only have read access to the shared workspace.
Managing Collaboration Access on Shared Workspaces
Change the permissions levels of a team or individual on the admin page for the shared workspace. Use the pencil icon for the team, or the drop down menu for an individual.
Revoke access for a team or individual using the trash can icon to remove the team or user from the shared workspace.
Joining a Shared Workspace
To join a shared workspace, the user must be a member of another team already.
To link another team account to a shared workspace, the user must have Manage or Admin access to the linked team.
Once a collaborating user or team joins a shared workspace, the workspace appears in their data list in the map viewer.