Obidos User Guide
https://spenego.com
Chapter 1
Obidos - Introductory Concepts
Obidos is a web based Application that allows users to store and share digital artifacts securely without
any out of band means. These artifacts can be confidential information, similar to passwords or credit
card details or bank account information. Or, it can be information that the User wants to keep securely in
one place so that they are easily accessible when needed. One example of this is the warranty information
or service contract details of an equipment or machine. In Obidos, information can be shared to groups of
users or to individual users. Any information shared with a group/user is visible only to that group/user.
It is also possible to revoke sharing. The duration of sharing can be controlled by setting an expiration
date. After the expiration date, the shared information will not be visible to the recipient.
1.1 Items
In Obidos, an Item is defined as a secure encrypted representation of a digital artifact. Such an Item can
be stored in Obidos. The encryption is done in such a way that the Item can be decrypted only with a
passphrase that is private to the User. Every Item has a name. It is possible to search for an Item using
its name.
1.1.1 Fields and Values
Each Item is made up of field(s) and value(s) that corresponds to the details of the artifact it represents.
For example, an Item named ’Xyz contract’ can have multiple fields like ’Customer number’ with
value ’5643291’, ’Tech support phone#’ with value ’888-5555-1111’ and ’Contract expiration’ as ’31
Dec, 2025’.
Figure 1.1: Item
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1.1.2 Shareable and Private Items
There are two types of Items; Shareable and Private. A Private Item cannot be shared with others while
a Shareable Item can be shared.
1.2 Notes
A Note is a special type of Item. It is similar to a sticky note (or postit note). A Note is a secure encrypted
representation of its sticky note equivalent. Every Note has a name. A Note also has a field that stores
the content of the Note. Obidos provides a main menu option to manage Notes as ’standalone’ Items
since Notes are very commonly used, Standalone Notes are free standing Notes and can be created as
Private or Shareable. Notes are the only free standing Items in Obidos.
Figure 1.2: Note
1.3 Containers
Items stored inside Obidos can be organized into Containers. Each Container has a name. For example,
a Container named ’Personal Items’ can be created to hold Items that are personal in nature.
There are two types of Containers; Private and Shareable. Shareable Containers can be shared with
others while Private Containers cannot be shared. By default, every user gets a Private Container called
’Private’ and a Shareable Container called ’Public’.
Each Container holds the Items stored in it. Placing of an Item in a Container is dictated by the type
of the Container and the type of the Item.
Private Containers can hold only Private Items. A Shareable Item cannot be placed in a Private
Container. Shareable Containers can hold both Shareable and Private Items (see Figure 1.3).
Figure 1.3: Containers
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When a Shareable Container is shared with others, only Shareable Items inside the Container will be
visible to them. Private Items inside that Shareable Container will be completely hidden from others.
As an example, a Private Container named ’Personal Items’ can be created to contain 3 Private Items
named ’Bank Account’, ’Cloud Account’, and ’Procurement Card’. Note that in this case all the three
Items will be Private because a Private Container can hold only Private Items.
In addition to having a name, each Item is made up of field(s) and value(s). For example, in the
’Personal Items’ container, the ’Bank Account’ Item can have a field ’Account#’ with value ’87399901”.
In case the Routing number of the bank has to be stored, another field ’Routing#’ can be added with its
value ’3452327’. (See figure 1.4)
Figure 1.4: Private Container
A Shareable Container named ’Lab Accounts’ can be used to hold Shareable Items that has names
’xyz customer support’ and ’Web Console’. ’Lab Accounts’ Container may also hold a Private Item
’Database Account’. When ’Lab Accounts’ is shared to others, they will see the Items ’xyz customer
support’ and ’Web Console’, but will not see the Item ’Database Account’. (See figure 1.5)
Figure 1.5: Shareable Container
Users have permissions to create/modify Containers and Items. The distinction between standalone
Notes and Containerized Items is visually represented in the following figure.
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Figure 1.6: Standalone Notes and Containerized Items
1.4 Templates
There are various Items that follow a common format. Such formats can be captured as Templates.
Templates provide common structures for often used Items. A Template has the pre-defined fields of the
Item. These Templates can be used as a guide to create instances of Items in a Container. When using
a Template to create an Item, the User has to just fill in the values for the predefined fields. Templates
can be Global or Personal. Global Templates are available to all users. Obidos provides a number of
predefined Global Templates.
For example, a Template called ’Cloud Account’ can have the following fields:
url, username, password, email
When a user uses the ’Cloud Account’ Template to create an Item called ’Web Server’, values for
the fields url, username, password and email have to be supplied by the User (see following Figure).
Figure 1.7: Instantiation of an Item from a Template
Every user has permissions to create/modify Personal Templates. However, creation/modification
of Global Templates requires special permission. The administrator can grant a user permission to cre-
ate/modify Global Templates. Users can also copy a Global Template into their Personal Templates and
modify it to suit their purpose.
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1.5 Groups
A set of users can be organized into a Group. The Group can have a name. It is possible to share an
entity with a Group. This makes it easy to share with a collection of users; especially if sharing is done
to the same Group for multiple entities.
1.6 Features
Note that all features of Obidos are discussed in the guides. However, only the features that are licensed
will be available in the instance.
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Chapter 2
Logging into Obidos
The default login screen is shown in the following figure.
Figure 2.1: Obidos Login Screen
2.1 Username and Password
In order to log into Obidos a user needs a username and password. If the user account is maintained
completely within Obidos, it is a local account. For local accounts, the username and password are both
managed within Obidos.
If the user account is set up for single signon using corporate directory service, the username and
password must be entered as they are in the corporate directory.
2.1.1 Local Password
User passwords issued by Obidos will follow the password policies set in Obidos. Initially the Ad-
ministrator will set a temporary password. The Administrator can choose to send an email to the User
informing that an account has been created. The first time the User logs in using temporary password,
Obidos will prompt the User to set permanent password that conforms to the password policy.
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Figure 2.2: Change Temporary Password
Once the new password is set, the User will be logged out of Obidos and prompted to log in using
the new password.
2.1.2 Directory-synchronized Password
If a user password is synchronized with the corporate directory service, Obidos will pass the User cre-
dentials to the corporate directory service to be validated. In this case, Obidos do not have any control
on the password.
2.2 Passphrase
When an Item is stored in Obidos, it is encrypted using one key from the personal key pair and when
the Item is retrieved, it is decrypted using the other key. Such a private key pair is personalized using
a passphrase that is chosen by the User. Passphrase is a string that the User selects. These passphrases
are not stored in Obidos. The user will have to remember the passphrase. Obidos will generate key
pair (private & public) for each user using the User’s passphrase. In order to retrieve an Item stored in
Obidos, the User will need to provide the passphrase. If the User forgets the passphrase, it is not possible
to retrieve any Item stored in the User’s Containers.
When logging into Obidos for the very first time, a user will be prompted to set the passphrase as
shown in the following Figure.
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Figure 2.3: Set New Passphrase
A session is defined as the series of user interactions within Obidos once logged in till logout. The
user can perform various activities during a session. Activities such as viewing an Item, sharing an Item,
etc. requires the passphrase of the User. Instead of repeatedly entering the passphrase for each and every
activity in the session, the User can provide the passphrase once for that session. When a user logs into
Obidos, there is an option to supply the passphrase for that session (see next Figure). The session ends
when the User logs out voluntarily or gets logged out by Obidos after a predefined period of inactivity.
Figure 2.4: Session Passphrase Activity
If the passphrase is provided at the time of logging in, the User does not have to provide the
passphrase again for activities during that session. If the passphrase is not provided at the time of logging
in, the User can provide the passphrase at a later point during the session.
Details of changing passphrase are given in the Chapter ”Personal Preferences and Options”.
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2.3 Logging Out
The user can log out from a session using the Logout Menu Item from top right panel.
Figure 2.5: Logout menu
In case there is no activity in the session for 30 minutes, the session will timeout and the User will
be presented with a warning.
Figure 2.6: Inactivity Warning
If the User fails to respond, the system will log out the User.
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Chapter 3
Password Strength
The password strength is determined by calculating entropy of the password. An entropy is described in
terms of bits. The higher the bits in entropy the stronger the password will be. An entropy indicates how
hard it will be to crack the password by brute-force. In password strength calculation, the entropy is not
the same entropy as described in information theory. Rather the raw entropy is lowered by using various
password cracking techniques before accepting.
3.1 Entropy Calculation
This section describes the basics of entropy calculation. Please note that we do not calculate password
or passphrase entropy this way, rather we use various password cracking techniques to lower the raw
entropy and if the entropy is higher or equal to the configured entropy, only then the password is accepted.
If the password length is L and the password can be chosen from N number of characters, the possible
number of passwords will be N
L
. To calculate the raw entropy H in that character space, the H has to
be a number so that 2
H
= N
L
. Therefore, the entropy calculation formula can be derived as follows:
2
H
= N
L
(3.1)
log(2
H
) = log(N
L
) (3.2)
H × log(2) = L × log(N) (3.3)
H = L ×
log(N )
log(2)
(3.4)
= L × log
2
(N) (3.5)
Given a password entropy H and the number to guess a password per second is (gps), the time in
seconds T
s
to brute force a password can be calculated with the following formula:
T
s
=
2
H
gps
1
log
b
(x
p
) = p log
b
(x)
2
log
b
(x) =
log(x)
log(b)
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The following xkcd comic illustrates entropy calculation of password in a different way.
Figure 3.1: xkcd comic for password strength
Let’s calculate the entropy of Tr0ub4dor&3 with our formula H = L × log
2
(N). The password
has upper case, lower case, numbers and a special character in it. There are 26 upper case, 26 lower
case, 10 numbers and 32 special characters (including space) in English keyboard and the length L of
the password is 11.
N = 26 + 26 + 10 + 32 = 94
H = 11 ×
log(94)
log(2)
= 72.10047736845401109442 ≈ 72
Assuming that the attacker knows the length of the password L and character space N, if gps = 1000, it
will take
2
72
1000
≈ 150 billion years to crack the password. If gps = 350 billion, it will take ≈ 428 years
to crack the password. if gps = 1 trillion, it will take ≈ 150 years to crack the password. So if brute
force is used, it is really a good password, even with the most powerful computer, it will take a long time
to crack.
According to xkcd, the password is not strong, lets see how xkcd calculates the entropy. Each of the
tiny square box in the comic indicates a bit.
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• The 16 bits implies that the word Troubador is chosen from a dictionary with 65536 words
(2
16
= 65536).
• Make the first letter upper case, there is only 1 bit.
• Two characters were substituted o → 0, a → 4 and o was not substituted, therefore 3bits of
information.
• The string &3 was appended at the end. The order is unknown, therefore 1 bit
• There are 32 special characters (including space) in English keyboard, therefore the entropy should
be 1 ×
log(32)
log(2)
= 5. For some reason 4bit was selected.
Therefore, the entropy of Tr0ub4dor&3 is 16+1+3+1+4+3 = 28, which much is lower than 72
and makes it a bad password, because the attacker might follow the similar technique than brute-forcing
it.
3.2 Entropy calculation in Obidos
The technique we used in Obidos, the entropy for the password Tr0ub4dor&3 comes down to 19.625.
we used similar techniques used the ruby gem strong password
1. Calculate entropy according to NIST Special Publication 800-63 Version 1.0.2 Appending A.2.1
• The first character gets 4 bits
• The next 7 characters get 2 bits/character
• The next 12 characters (9-20) get 1.5 bits/character
• Any character beyond 20 gets 1 bit/character
• If there are mixed case and special character, give 6 bits bonus
Using these rules, the entropy of Tr0ub4dor&3 comes down to 26.125
2. Calculate the entropy by lowering the case, which is also 26.125
3. Adjust entropy by checking if the password has any pattern of Qwerty keyboard (e.g. zxcvbn,
qwertyuiop etc.) which is 26.125
4. Adjust the entropy by looking at dictionary, doing normal substitutions like xkcd, checking for leet
speak pattern etc. The entropy comes down to 19.625.
5. Finally select the lowest entropy, which is 19.625
The entropy of correcthorsebatterystaple comes down to 30.953125 which is much lower
than xkcd’s 44 bit entropy.
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3.3 Suggestions for strong passwords
Please think passphrase when picking a password. Passphrases are longer and easier to remember than a
cryptic random password which is difficult to remember. The longer the password is, the stronger it will
be. Refer to the equation (3.5).
• Think passphrase. The longer, the better! Avoid using repeating characters
• Use a line from a poem or a song and mix with Upper, lower case letters and numbers
• Use uncommon words. Capitalization does not help much
• Add typos, space, special characters # $ % ˜ ˆ & etc. here and there. If the password is a long
passphrase, there is no requirement to use any special character. However, your organization might
have a password policy that requires them.
• Do not use username, email, phone numbers etc.
3.4 Password storage
A password is never stored in the disk, rather a memory-hardened, brute- force resisting key is derived
from the given password and a stored salt. To verify a password, the same key is derived from the
password and the salt and compared. The function deriving the key from the password and the salt is
CPU intensive and intentionally requires a fair amount of memory. Therefore, it mitigates brute-force
attacks by requiring a significant effort to verify each password.
The password is hashed using Argon2id algorithm.
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Chapter 4
Personal Preferences and Options
There are some customizations that can be done on an individual basis. These options are available
through the drop down menu on the top right side of the panel (see the highlighted red frame in the
following figure).
Figure 4.1: Preferences and Options menu
4.1 Display License
The ’Display License’ option shows your site license information for Obidos. The ’Community Edi-
tion’ has no expiration and supports any number of users. Standard and Enterprise Editions are annual
subscription based. Once the license expires, users have 30 days of grace period for using the soft-
ware without interruption. During the 30-60 day period after license expiration, existing entities can be
viewed, but no new entities can be created. After 60 days of expiration, users will be able to view only
the license and their activity history; no other activities will be permissible. List of all features available
in each license edition is displayed in this screen.
4.1.1 License Expiration
30 days before the expiration of Obidos license, users will see warning message about license expiration.
This warning message will be displayed when the User logs into Obidos. Once the license expires, users
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will have 30 days of grace period to use the software without disruption. Between 30 days and 60 days
after license expiration, users will not be able to create any new entities. During this period, users can
view their entities. After 60 days of license expiration, they will not be able to use the software. A new
license will need to be installed. During the periods of disruption due to expired license, all user entities
will remain intact in Obidos. Only with a valid license will users be able to use the software as usual.
4.2 Change Password
If the user account is local, then password can be changed using this option.
4.3 Changing Passphrase
If the User wants to change passphrase, it can be done through this option. When the passphrase is reset,
none of the existing entities owned by the User will be affected.
4.4 Forgotten Passphrase
If the User forgets the passphrase, none of the stored Items can be retrieved. In this case, the User has
two options. One is to reset the passphrase. The other is to create a new account and start using Obidos
from scratch. If the User chooses to reset the passphrase, all the stored artifacts (Notes/Items/Containers)
will be deleted and cannot be recovered. This is because Obidos will have to recreate a new key pair and
overwrite the existing key pair. Consequently, the previously stored artifacts (Notes/Items/Containers)
cannot be recovered. Hence, Obidos will delete those artifacts when the passphrase is reset. An email
with instructions for resetting the passphrase will be sent to the User. If the Administrator configured
the account to use 2FA for passphrase reset, the User will be required to use 2FA as part of resetting the
passphrases.
If the User chooses to get a new account and start from scratch, all Notes/Items/Containers in the
old account will remain intact. If the User manages to remember/recover the passphrase for the old
account even after creating a new account, it can be used as usual. Note that it is not possible to
merge the Notes/Items/Containers in two accounts. Although, the User has the option to share Share-
able Notes/Items/Containers from one account to the other and thus retrieve the contents of Shareable
Notes/Items/Containers from one account; but this won’t help in the case of Private Containers.
4.5 Edit Profile
The user can load a profile picture using the ’Upload new profile picture’ button. The profile picture can
be deleted by using the ’Delete profile picture’ button.
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Figure 4.2: User Profile
Alternate Email, Primary Phone, Mobile Phone, etc. are optional information.
’Landing Page’ is the first page the User sees when logged in. The Landing page can be set to ’My
Notes’, ’My Items’, ’My Containers’, etc.
’Privacy timer duration’ is the amount of time in seconds that an Item will be displayed for viewing.
The privacy timer starts as soon as an Item is displayed. At the end of the specified seconds, the Item
will be hidden. If you set the ’Privacy timer duration’ to 0, then the timer will be off.
The 2FA entries are only for information.
’Accept email notification?’ flag is used by Obidos to screen email notifications. When a user shares
an Item/Note/Container with another user, the sender has the option to send an email notification to the
recipient. Such notifications can be stopped by setting ’Accept email notification?’ to x.
4.6 Notifications
Obidos has an internal notification system. This mechanism will notify the User when someone is sharing
an entity or some user capabilities have been updated. Such notifications can be seen once the User logs
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into Obidos.
Figure 4.3: Notifications Status
When notifications are present, the count will be displayed inside the red circle at the top right.
Clicking on the red circle will open up the ’Notification Messages’ window.
Figure 4.4: Notification Messages
Some notifications are read only informational messages, while others are information links that can
be clicked on so that the entity referred in the message can be viewed. If a notification is to be deleted,
select the notification using the checkbox on the left and click on the ë Delete button.
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Chapter 5
General Features
5.1 Sharing
A Shareable Container or Item or Note can be shared with other user(s). An entity that needs to be shared
has to be tagged as Shareable when it is created. This is because a Private entity cannot be shared.
5.2 Revoking Sharing
The sharing of a Container/Item/Note can be stopped by revoking. When the sharing is revoked, the
recipient(s) will no longer have access to the shared entity.
5.3 Expiring Sharing
It is possible to set an expiration date on the sharing of a Container/Item/Note. After the expiration date,
the expired entity will not be visible to anyone other than the owner. The expiration date can be changed
at will by the owner of the entity.
5.4 Granting Permissions
The owner of a Container/Item/Note can share it with another user. When it is shared, the recipient will
get only permission to ’view’ the artifact. The owner can grant two special permissions to the recipient.
One is ’update’ and the other is ’own’. When the recipient is granted update permission, the recipient
can edit the artifact. If the recipient is granted ’own’ permission, then the recipient can take ownership
of the artifact. Once the ownership is taken over by the recipient, the original owner will only have view
permissions.
There are some features and menus that are commonly available in various screens in Obidos. These
are outlined here for easy reference.
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5.5 Help Menus
5.5.1 Top Level Menus
There are 6 top level menus in Obidos. They are Notes, Items, Containers, Templates, Groups and
History. Each of these top level menus has a Help selection. This Help page covers aspects of operations
within that top level menu at a high level.
As an example, looking at the Notes top level menu, there is a Help menu for Notes (see following
Figure).
Figure 5.1: Main Help for ’Notes’ top level menu
Similarly, for the Containers top level menu, there is a Help menu for Containers.
Figure 5.2: Main Help for ’Containers’ top level menu
5.5.2 Screen Level Menus
Every screen has a Help section. This Help section is accessible by clicking on the ’Help’ button at the
right of the blue header bar. (See the red circled area in the following Figure).
Figure 5.3: Screen level Help
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This screen level Help is a toggle button. When you click on the Help button, the help section will
open up at the top of the page. Clicking on the Help button again will collapse the help section.
5.6 Action Icons
In many of the sections to follow, you will come across the following icons. Each one of these icons
represent a specific action that can be performed on the artifact in context. Some icons are reused in
different scenarios with different colors. These icons are listed here for easy reference.
Icon Meaning Description
+ Add Add an Item to Container
Clear Clear the selections made
ë Delete Delete the selected entities
L Edit Edit the entity in context
/ Expired This Note or Item has expired
X Hide Hide the Note or Item currently viewed
List List users and groups the entity is shared with
○ None or Not Allowed The current activity in context is Not allowed
b Not Secure Value of this field is stored in plain text
µ Private This entity is tagged as Private
○ Revoke Revoke sharing the entity in context
µ Secure Value for this field is stored encrypted
E Share Share this artifact with others
Shareable This entity is tagged as Shareable
ÿ Shared Shows that the entity is shared with some user(s)
Sort Sort the list of entities
Y View View the currently hidden Note or Item
/ Will Expire This Note or Item has an expiration set on it
5.7 Lengths of Entries
The following table summarizes the maximum number of input characters allowed when creating various
entities.
Identifier Max number of characters
Name (Note,Item,Container etc.) 64
Template field 32
Comment field 256
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5.8 Navigation in Listings
Navigation through the listing menus are similar and described here.
By default, the entities (Notes/Items/Containers/Templates/Groups) will be displayed in the order in
which they were created with the latest one at the top. To sort the list of entities in another order, click
on Sort icon above the list bar. The sort menu will show up and you can sort based on those options.
Figure 5.4: Sort Menu Options for Items
The number of entities that exist can be seen at the bottom of the screen. For example if there are 23
entities and 14 are listed in the current screen, at the bottom of the screen you will see
" 1-14 of 23 Û
In order to move forward in the list one at a time, click on Û. To move forward a complete page,
click on . Similary, to go back in the list one at a time, click on ". and to go back one complete page,
click on .
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Chapter 6
Notes
A Note is similar to a postit note. A Note has only two parts - name and content. The name of a
Note is the identifier used for display purposes. The name can also be used to search for a Note of
interest. The content is the textual information in the Note. A Note can be standalone or placed inside a
Container. In this section we are explaining the operations associated with a standalone Note. However,
the principles outlined here applies to a Note created as an Item inside a Container too. Notes can be
Private or Shareable. A Private Note cannot be shared with any user.
6.1 Create a Note
From the top Notes menu, select Create New Note. The resulting screen will be as in the following
figure:
Figure 6.1: Create New Note
When creating a Shareable Note, it is possible to set an expiration. The user can specify the date on
which the Note will expire. Once a Note expires, it will not be accessible to the shared users/groups. It
is not possible to set expiration on a Private Note.
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6.2 List Notes
Select List My Notes from the top level Notes menu. The result with be similar to the figure shown
below:
Figure 6.2: List My Notes
The order of listing of Notes can be changed using the Sort option.
Figure 6.3: Sort Notes
6.3 View a Note
Get the List of Notes (see section above). Click on the name of the Note to view it.
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Figure 6.4: View Note
6.4 Edit a Note
From the List of Notes, a Note can be edited by clicking the L Edit link.
6.5 Delete a Note
From the List of Notes, select the Note(s) to delete by clicking on the select button to the left of Note(s).
Then click on ë Delete. You will be asked to confirm the deletion.
Note: When a Note is deleted, it will also be removed from all users to whom it was previously
shared.
6.6 Share a Note
Sharing a Note can be done only from the List of Notes (see section above). From the List of Notes, on
the line corresponding to the Note, click on E Share to initiate sharing of the Note.
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Chapter 7
Containers
Containers hold Items created by the User. A Container created as Private cannot be changed to Share-
able. Similarly a Shareable Container cannot be changed to a Private Container.
7.1 Create a Container
From the Menu bar on top, select ”Containers” tab and then select ”Create new Container” from drop
down menu.
Figure 7.1: ”Create new Container” Menu
In the ’Create Container’ page, give a name for the Container. Specify the type of the Container,
whether Shareable or Private.
Figure 7.2: Creating a Container
7.2 List Containers
Select ”My Containers” from the top ”Containers” tab. The list of Containers will be displayed in the
format as shown in the following figure.
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Figure 7.3: List of Containers
7.3 Delete a Container
Select ”My Containers” from the Container tab. A Container can be deleted only from this list. Select
the Container(s) to delete by clicking on the button to the left of the name(s) of the Container(s). Then
using the ë Delete button on the top, the selected Container(s) can be deleted. When a Container is
deleted, all Items in the Container will be deleted. All Items shared from this Container will be revoked.
Figure 7.4: Delete a Container
7.4 Share Container
A Container can be shared only if it is of type Shareable. Sharing a Container is done from ”My Con-
tainers” list.
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Figure 7.5: Sharing a Container
Using the E Share button on the line corresponding to the Container to be shared, the sharing process
can be initiated.
7.5 Changing Name of a Container
The name of a Container can be changed by editing it. From ”My Containers” list, use L Edit link to
initiate the edit process.
Figure 7.6: Edit a Container
On clicking L Edit link, the screen to edit the Container will appear. There you will be able to
change the name of the Container.
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Chapter 8
Items
Items can be Private or Shareable. Since an Item has to belong to a Container, the Container must exist
or be created first. A Private Item can be stored in a Private or Shareable Container. Such an Item cannot
be shared with any user. A Shareable Item can be stored only inside a Shareable Container.
8.1 Create an Item
From Main Menu bar, select ”Items” tab and then select ”Create new Item”. The screen with the list of
Containers will show up. To create an Item in a specific Container of interest, click on + Add link on
the corresponding line. You could also open the Container of interest and then click on + Add link to
add an Item.
Figure 8.1: Add an Item to a Container
In the next screen it will be asked to select the type of Item.
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Figure 8.2: Select the Type of the Item
The Item can be created using a Global Template or Personal Template. Or the Item can be created
as a Note. It is also possible to create an ad hoc Item. An ad hoc item is a free form. When creating a
Shareable Item, it is possible to set an expiration. The user can specify the number of days after which
the Item will expire. Once an Item expires, it will not be accessible. It is not possible to set expiration
on a Private Item.
8.2 List Items
Select ”Items” from the Main Menu bar and then select ”My Items” to set the list of all Items. Each Item
will also show the Container to which it belongs.
Figure 8.3: List Items in a Container
The List of Items can be sorted in alphabetical order either based on Item names or based on Con-
tainer names.
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Figure 8.4: Sorting Items List
8.3 View an Item
Get the List of Items (see section above). From the List of Items, on the line corresponding to the Item,
click on the name of the Item of interest
8.4 Edit an Item
Get the List of Items (see section above). From the List of Items, on the line corresponding to the Item,
there will be a button to edit the Item.
Figure 8.5: Edit an Item
8.5 Delete an Item
Get the List of Items (see section above). From the List of Items, select the Item(s) to delete by clicking
on the button on the left of the Item(s). Then click on on ë Delete button.
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Figure 8.6: Deleting an Item
When an Item is deleted, it will be revoked from all users to whom it was previously shared.
8.6 Share an Item
Sharing an Item can be done only from the List of Items (see section above). From the List of Items, on
the line corresponding to the Item, click on E Share link to initiate sharing of the Item.
Figure 8.7: Sharing an Item
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Chapter 9
Templates
Regular users can create/modify Personal Templates. However, the Administrator has to grant special
permissions for a regular user to create/modify Global Templates.
9.1 Global Templates
Obidos comes with a number of predefined Global Templates. These Global Templates are available to
all users.
9.2 Personal Templates
A Personal Template belongs to an individual user and not available/visible to other users. A user can
create a Personal Template from scratch or create one by cloning a Global Template.
9.3 Templates Management
Other than the visibility, Creation/Modification of Global Templates and Personal Templates are done
the same way.
9.3.1 Creating a Template
To create a new Personal Template, select ”Create new Personal Template” from the top level Templates
menu on the Main Menu bar (see the following Figure).
Figure 9.1: Create new Personal Template
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The following figure shows the screen for creation of the Personal Template.
Figure 9.2: Screen for new Personal Template
The name of the Template is used in the listings and searches. It can be upto 64 characters long. A
field name can be upto 32 characters long. The ”Display order” decides the order in which the fields will
be displayed from top to bottom. To add a new field, click on the Z button. Adding a second field will
display a screen as shown in the following Figure.
Figure 9.3: Adding fields to a Template
To remove a field, click on the − button.
9.3.2 Creating an Item Using a Template
Consider a Template named testTemplate with 5 fields as seen in the following Figure.
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Figure 9.4: Personal Template with 5 fields
When testTemplate is used to create an Item, the screen will present like this:
Figure 9.5: Creating an Item using testTemplate
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Chapter 10
Groups
Any user can create/modify a Group of users. A Group is a set of users identified by a name tag. A Group
belong to an individual user (who is the owner of the Group) and not visible to others. If sharing is done
frequently with a specific set of users, it is probably helpful to create a Group for those users. This will
make it easy to share with the Group once instead of sharing separately with each of the individual users.
10.1 Creating a Group
Figure 10.1: Creating a Group
Figure 10.2: Creating a Group
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10.2 Adding Users to a Group
Figure 10.3: Add Users to a Group
10.3 Deleting Users From a Group
Figure 10.4: Listing Groups
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10.4 Changing Group name
Figure 10.5: Changing a Group Name
10.5 Listing Groups
Figure 10.6: Listing Groups
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Chapter 11
Activity History
Obidos shows the history of individual user activities. This is available in the History menu.
11.1 Viewing Activity History
From the top ”History” menu, select ”Activity History” (see following figure).
Figure 11.1: Activity History Menu
The list of activities will be displayed. There is option to search for history between certain dates/times.
It is also possible to search for activities related to Items/Notes/Containers of interest.
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