Inviting external users

Until now, project collaboration in GeoCloud Drive has been restricted to users within the same customer account (i.e., organisation registered in the myWorld portal), resulting in limited data sharing between different organizations.

With the release of GeoCloud Drive [version 25.9.1228 on Sep 5th, 2025], it is possible to enable collaboration across customer accounts. Users from other customer accounts can be invited to contribute to specific projects, allowing collaboration with external stakeholders, such as clients, architects, or local authorities. This functionality will simplify and foster data collaboration with GeoCloud Drive between different companies.

External users can be invited to a specific project by either people with Account Admin rights or people with certain Project Roles (Project Owner, Project Editor).

Only company representatives with the role Account Admin will be able to manage the external user role and their rights in the project (i.e., changing from the Viewer role to the Editor role).

📘 What is considered an external user?

An external user is someone who has an account in GeoCloud Drive, but it is not associated with the same customer account of the project he/she want to access.

📘 How to invite an external user to GeoCloud Drive?

To invite someone to a project, start by navigating to the project's "Members" tab and select "Add members (The “Add members” button will only be available to Account Admins and Project Owner/Editor. Members who have Project Viewer rights will not be able to add new members.)

The company representative sending the invitation (via WebApp) will input the email address of the person they wish to invite. If the email entered does not correspond to someone within the company account, it will indicate an "External" (as shown in the video below).

When the invitation is sent, a notification will appear indicating whether the action was successful or if an error occurred. Please note that to be added as an external user, the invitee must already be a member of a GeoCloud Drive account. If the entered email does not correspond to an existing account, the invitation will fail, and a notification will be displayed.

When the external user is invited to the Project, they will be added with the default Project Role of Viewer. The role then needs to be adapted as necessary.

📘 How to manage external users' rights and accessibility in a project?

In some cases (e.g., enabling external users to upload data), it may be necessary to change the role of external users from Viewer to Editor.
This is possible through the Members tab in each project by members with the company Account Admin rights.