You control what's visible and what isn't

As an administrator, you have fine-grained control over your custom pedigree database at three levels:

• Report level (Settings → Reports): gate any of our reports behind a login and a specific ability. Anything from "let anyone view the pedigree report but require login for linebreeding" to "require login for everything."
• Field level (Settings → Fields): hide individual fields from non-admins, so private notes or sensitive values never appear on the public side.
• Role level (Users → Manage Roles): build custom roles that bundle exactly the abilities you want, and assign those roles to the users you've approved.

Layered together, these give you anything from a fully open public database to a fully private members-only registry, plus every hybrid in between.

Who can view your records?

A new custom database starts out publicly browsable: anyone with the URL can view animal records and reports. You have three tools to change that.

Report-level gating

On the Settings → Reports tab, every report has a checkbox that reads something like "Users must be logged in and have the 'View Pedigree' ability to view the pedigree report." Covered reports include:

• Animal Search
• Pedigree (with a separate control for basic pedigrees of 5 generations or fewer vs. advanced pedigrees that use filters or go deeper)
• Offspring, Siblings, Linebreeding, Female Family, Tail Family
• Common Ancestors, Common Descendants, Equivalents
• Hypomating (with a separate control for non-saved vs. saved hypothetical matings)
• Photos, Certificate, Directory, Changelog

Check a report's box and that report becomes visible only to logged-in users who have the matching ability. Leave it unchecked and the report is open to everyone, including guests.

Field-level hiding

On the Settings → Fields tab, expand any field and check Only Administrators can view this field (internal use only). The field is then hidden from non-admin users everywhere it would otherwise appear (animal pages, the directory, reports, exports, and so on), while remaining fully visible and editable to administrators. This is the right tool for private notes, owner contact details, or any other value you want to keep internal without locking down a whole report.

Role-level access

Report-level abilities are handed out through roles. On the Users → Manage Roles page you can edit our built-in roles or create your own, and assign any mix of view abilities to each one. A custom role called "Verified Member" might get View Pedigree, View Offspring, and View Siblings but not View Hypomating or View Changelog. Users you assign that role can view those three reports but none of the other reports you've gated.

Putting it together: a fully private database

1. On Settings → Reports, check every login-required box for every report you offer.
2. On Users → Manage Roles, either update an existing role (like Registered User) or create a new one, and grant it only the view abilities you want members to have.
3. Back on Settings → Privacy, turn Open database registration off if you want to vet every member by hand, or leave it on if you want members to self-register and then be promoted.
4. Add users yourself (or let them register) and assign the role you created.

Anyone who isn't logged in, or who is logged in but doesn't hold the right ability, now sees a permission denied message instead of the record.

Who can add or edit records?

Editing is governed by the same three tiers.

Guest edits (database level)

On the Settings → Privacy tab, Allow guests (users who are not logged in) to edit animals in the database controls whether editing requires an account at all.

• Unchecked (default): only users you've added to your database can add or edit animals. Guests can browse (subject to the report-level settings above) but not change anything.
• Checked: anyone, logged in or not, can add and edit animals. Pair this with the Changelog report if you enable it, so you always have a record of who changed what.

Field-level editing

On the Settings → Fields tab, the Only Administrators can edit this field checkbox lets you lock down a single field without changing the overall database permission. Non-admins can still view the field (unless you've also hidden it), but they can't change its value.

Role-level editing

Editing is tied to three abilities: Edit Animal, Delete Animal, and Lock Animal. Assign these through Users → Manage Roles the same way you'd assign view abilities. For example, a "Read-Only Member" role would have view abilities but no edit ability, even though the user is logged in.

Can visitors sign up for accounts on their own?

On Settings → Privacy, Open database registration controls whether visitors can create accounts themselves.

• Unchecked (default): no public signups. You add users manually from the Users section of your admin area and assign each one a role. Use this if membership is gated on payment, club approval, or any other process you handle outside the software.
• Checked: any visitor can sign up for an account directly on your database. New signups are automatically assigned the Registered User role, which you can reconfigure (on Manage Roles) to carry whatever abilities you want new members to have. Membership fees, if any, are something you handle separately.

Common setups

User roles, at a glance

Every database ships with three built-in roles. You can edit their abilities or create new ones on Users → Manage Roles.

• Administrator: manages users, approves edits, edits and deletes animals, locks records, and views advanced reports.
• Moderator: approves edits, edits and deletes animals, views advanced reports. Cannot manage other users or lock records.
• Registered User: adds, edits, and deletes animal records by default. This is the role new signups receive when open registration is enabled. Edit the role on Manage Roles if you'd like new signups to have a different set of abilities.

Changing your settings later

Every privacy control described above can be changed at any time without affecting the records already in your database. If you launch with an open database and later decide to gate it, flipping the checkboxes on Reports, Privacy, and Fields is enough. If you gate a field or report that previously contained data your users could see, the data itself is preserved. It just stops being visible or editable outside the roles you've granted the matching abilities to.