---
title: Role Types
slug: role-types
createdAt: 2025-06-11T20:26:21.329Z
---

Activate supports three types of roles:

- **Static Roles** 
- **Dynamic Roles** 
- **Target Roles** 

# Static Roles

A **Static Role** is defined directly within Activate, and members are added manually through the interface.

**Common use cases**

- Department-based roles (e.g., Finance, HR) 
- Location-based roles (e.g., Auckland Office) 

**Characteristics**

- Membership is managed directly in Activate 
- No external data source is required 

# Dynamic Roles

A **Dynamic Role** automatically calculates membership based on information from external systems such as Active Directory.

**Common use cases**

- Roles based on AD Groups or OUs
- System-specific roles such as Service Desk or Administrator roles 

**Characteristics**

- Defined by a **Members** parameter in Activate 
- Membership is updated automatically from the external source 
- In Activate Studio, dynamic roles are shown with a **gear icon** overlay on the role icon 

Activate does not support nested groups for role memberships.

:::hint{type="info"}
Dynamic Roles are evaluated on demand rather than on a fixed schedule. Membership is calculated when a user’s roles are checked and stored only after the user accesses Activate. As a result, role membership may not be up to date for users who have not logged in recently. For reporting scenarios, a scheduled task may be required to ensure role data is refreshed.
:::



# Target Roles

**Target Roles** are hybrid roles used mainly for **security checks** and **targeting logic**, rather than direct membership.

**Key points**

- Users are not automatically added 
- Viewing role members will show no results 
- Use an **AvailableUsers** parameter instead of **Members** 
- Intended for internal logic and access control 

**Built-in Target Roles**

- **Self** – True if the current user is the same as the target user (similar to Windows “Self”) 
- **Owner** – True if the current user owns the target object (e.g., distribution list or security group) 
- **Direct Reports** – True if the target user is a direct report of the current user