BF Workbench is a restricted scientific system. Records are available only to registered, authorised accounts.

Inviting a new user

Sending an invitation, what the invitee does, and how long the link lasts.

How-toScreenshots

There is no sign-up page on the platform. Every account starts with an invitation that an administrator sends to an email address, and the link in that email is the only way to create an account. This page covers sending the invitation, what the invitee does with it, what the new account looks like once it exists, and the problems that come up most often.

How invitations work

An invitation is a one-time link tied to one email address. When you send it, the workbench records the address and emails the link; when the invitee opens it, the registration page accepts only that address. The link is valid for 12 hours. After that it stops working and a fresh invitation is needed.

Nothing happens between the invitee creating the account and being able to use it: there is no approval step, and the account is active the moment it is created. The invitation itself leaves no trace once it is used or has expired, so there is no list of outstanding invitations to check, resend or withdraw. If you need to invite the same person again, simply send another invitation.

Send an invitation

  1. Open Users under Platform Management.
  2. Choose Add User.
  3. Enter the person's email address and confirm.

A notice confirms that the invitation was sent. Check the address carefully before confirming; an invitation to the wrong address cannot be recalled (see Common problems below).

What the invitee receives and does

The invitee gets an email with the subject "Registration Invitation to BOLD Forensics Workbench". It contains the link, says how long it lasts and is signed by the platform's support team. Following the link, they:

  1. Open the registration page. Their email address is already filled in and cannot be changed.
  2. Choose a username and a password. Both must be unique on the platform; a username that is already taken is refused with a message.
  3. Agree to the terms and choose Create Account.
  4. Scan the QR code that appears with an authenticator app that generates time-based codes. This sets up the six-digit code they will type at every sign-in. The code is shown once only; if they leave the page without scanning it, they cannot sign in and will need help from the platform team.
  5. Go to the login page and sign in with the username, the password and the current code from the app.

The invitee's side of this is written up in Your account, which you can point them to.

The new account

The account joins the users group, the ordinary user group, and shows as Active in the users list straight away. Its name is the email address until the user edits their profile or you edit it for them; the users list therefore shows the address twice, once as the name and once as the email, until someone fills the name in. Address, institution and job title are empty.

A new user is not a member of any project or dataset. Project managers add them through the sharing dialog (see Sharing and access levels), or you can add them from the Projects and Datasets pages in Platform Management.

If the person will swear statements, they also need their deponent details. They can fill those in themselves from their profile, or you can do it in the people registry; see The people registry and deponents.

Common problems

Problem What is happening What to do
"Link expired" or the registration page refuses the link More than 12 hours have passed since you sent it Send a new invitation to the same address
You sent the invitation to the wrong address The link is tied to that address and cannot be withdrawn Send a new invitation to the right address. The wrong one simply expires after 12 hours; nobody can register with a different address than the one it was sent to
The email never arrives The address was mistyped, or the message was filtered Confirm the address with the person, ask them to check their junk folder, then send again
"Account with username already exists" Someone already has that username The invitee chooses another username on the same page
The invitee closed the page before scanning the QR code The authenticator was never set up, so sign-in cannot complete Contact the platform team; there is no self-service reset
The person already has an account Invitations always create a new account Do not send one. Set a new password or edit their details instead; see Managing accounts

Good to know

Good to know: Sending an invitation does not create anything in the users list. The account appears only once the invitee completes registration, so an invitee who has not registered yet is invisible to you.

Limit: The invitation email is plain text and cannot be customised.