Cardinal Media Server Accounts
The first Cardinal account that logs into your Media Server will be made the server owner.
Your self-hosted apps support two types of user accounts: Cardinal Accounts and local accounts.
Cardinal Accounts
Cardinal Accounts (also called "cloud accounts") are a free cloud service provided by Cardinal Apps Inc. that provides secure authentication for your self-hosted apps and connects you to other Cardinal users and cloud services. Product information for this service, including specifics about features, tiers, and pricing is available at cardinalapps.io.
The information on this page details how Cardinal Accounts integrate with your self-hosted apps.
Claiming Your Media Server
Claiming your Media Server with your Cardinal Account is the most powerful way to secure it. Once your server app is up and running, just log in with your cloud account and the claim will happen automatically. You can self-host and claim as many Media Servers as you like.
Once claimed, all of your self-hosted apps gain access to all of the features included in your subscription tier. To confirm that the claim was processed correctly, verify these things:
- In your self-hosted Admin app, your Cardinal Account should have the Owner role.
- In the Account Portal, under Claims, confirm that the
instanceIdmatches the one you see in your self-hosted Admin app.
Joining Other Self-Hosted Apps
Owners of self-hosted apps can invite other users using Invitations. When a cloud user logs into a new self-hosted app for the first time, they will be asked to authorize exactly which bits of information the self-hosted app can see about their Cardinal Account. This set of permissions is called "permission scopes".
When you authorize an app access to these scopes, you are also allowing the app to refresh the data for as long as the authorization is active. Your can manage your app authorizations in the Account Portal.
Permission Scopes
| Scope | Description |
|---|---|
| user_id | Your unique Cardinal user ID |
| user_public_name | The public name you've set, if you've set one. |
| user_email_confirmed | A boolean indicating whether you have confirmed your email. Your actual email is never shared with server owners or other users. |
| user_avatar | Your cloud avatar |
| subscription | Your subscription tier |
Seats
The number of cloud seats that a Media Server supports is determined by the subscription of the server owner. Each seat can be occupied by a one cloud user at a time. When the server is at capacity, no new cloud users will be able to join until a seat becomes available.
Local accounts and the Guest account do not use seats.
Local Accounts
Your Media Server also support local accounts. You can create and manage local accounts in your Admin dashboard. There is no limit to how many you can make, and they support all of your self-hosted app's offline features.
Your Media Server is the identity provider for local accounts. That means that local accounts are restricted to that one Media Server instance, and cannot be used with other Media Servers.
Guest Account
The Guest account is a special account that allows for offline admin access to your server. It's a convenient way simplify your authentication layer.
The Guest account can be disabled by an Admin.