usergroup permissions - please help

[Sculli]

I can't seem to get this right, and I realize that it shouldn't be too complicated. Please, if anyone understands what I am talking about, help me out, my users can't get to their forums. :disappointed:

My situation:

CategoryA
SubForumA
SubForumB
SubForumC
...

I have a lot of user groups, each user group is only supposed to have access to their SubForum, so UserGroupA should only have access to SubForumA. UserGroupA should also not know anything about the existance of SubForumB and any other subforums under CategoryA.

I have spend hours on this today and I can't seem to get the permissions right to achive this. Please see attached images.

If you even just have a wild guess as to what is wrong, please post, I am extremely desperate.

Edit: This was imported from phpbb2 using impex. The board works flawlessly for all those forums where the "registered users" have access.

Edit2: Basically I can have the users post to their forums IF I set view and post permissions for CategoryA. If I do that, then the UserGroupA, which is only supposed to see SubForumA, is seeing all subfora, and can probably read and post to all of them as well. That, of course, is unacceptable.

I don't quite understand why this seems so difficult to implement, in phpbb this was basically one drop down box that would set the permissions as to whether a user group has access to a subforum or not.

[attroll]

I think I know what you are wanting. I had the same issue a long while back. You want Group A to be able to see Forum A and you Want Group B to only See Form B. But you don’t want Group A to see Forum B or Group B to see Forum A and I understanding that correctly?

If that is the case then you need to go into you ADMINCP--> Forums & Moderators--> Forum Permissions

Then go to the forum that you want to remove Group B from reading. Click [Edit] Group B. Then find CAN VIEW FORUM and put the button so that no is darkened in. Then do the same think to the other forums for each group.

I hope this makes since and this is what you wanted. If not then never mind anything I said.

[Sculli]

Originally Posted by attroll

I think I know what you are wanting. I had the same issue a long while back. You want Group A to be able to see Forum A and you Want Group B to only See Form B. But you don?t want Group A to see Forum B or Group B to see Forum A and I understanding that correctly?

Yes, that is exactly what I want.
Thanks for your suggestion. I think what I need to do is set view and post and whatever permissions to YES for all groups in the category and to NO for all groups and all forums. Then I go back in and set the permissions to YES for each groups forum. That way I only need to do it 38 times.

[attroll]

I know exactly what you mean I have 8 additional usergroups and over 400 forums to go through. I can feel you pain. I am glad I could help.

[Sculli]

Alright, so I have vB installed for about a week now, and I have spent quite some time in the AdminCP going through group and forum permissions, and I still don't quite get it.

http://www.qcdn.org is my forum for those who would like to take a look.

Registered users only see the public forums.
Then there is a private category, which has some 40 private forums. Each private forum can only be accessed by a specific user group.

I have several questions and remarks:

Why is private_usergroup_01 even listed in the permission table for the public forums if it's only purpose is to give access to private_forum_01 within private_category?

How can I create a private_usergroup_XX that will have access to private_forum_XX only, without that I have to go in and edit the forum permissions of all forums, public and private, for that private_usergroup_XX?

I came from phpbb2, where group and forum permissions were straight forward. I am not sure what my problem in vB is, but I do hard a hard time to wrap my mind around just how exactly group and forum permissions work.

For instance, unless I give all private_usergroups view/edit/post permissions to my private_forum_category, they can not post to their private_forums. If I do give them view/edit/post access to the private_forum_category, they get view/edit/post access to ALL private_forums within that category, UNLESS I got in and revoke that access for those private_usergroups they are not supposed to have access to. This is ridiculus. I mean I shouldn't have to edit 40+ forum permissions just to add a new one. Clearly I am missing something.

If anyone could be kind enough to explain in detail just how this works. I can do Y!, AIM, ICQ, IRC chat as well if someone has the time to walk me through it.

Alternativly you can sign up on my forum, then PM me, and I can put you into a usergroup that can see all private forums (not read them, just see that they exist). That may make things a bit easier.

Is there some sort of plug-in or extension that makes forum and usergroup permission assignment easier?

Thanks in advance. I hope this whole thing is not supposed to be as complicated as it is, and that I am just missing the obvious.

[Andreas]

Cat A
- Forum X
- Forum Y

If you set permissions for Category A to View = No, they won't be able to view Forum X and Y, unless you give them permissions there.
If you set permissions to Category A to View = Yes, they will be able to view Forum X and Y, unless you set their View permission in those Forums to No.

This is how the permission system works - permissions are inherited from the parent forum.

[Sculli]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I am unable to duplicate what you suggested.

Cat_A
- Forum_X (usergroup_X has access)
- Forum_Y (usergroup_Y has access)

I have a usergroup_X. In the Forum Permission Manager I clicked on "Deny All" for Cat_A. That essentially set every groups permission to do anything to No.

Then, in the Forum Manager under Forum_X, I went into the usergroup_X permission panel and set View/Post to Yes.

Still, usergroup_X can not see Forum_X.

See, the thing is that I don't want usergroup_Y to know that there is a Forum_X. However, I do want usergroup_Y to see that there is a Cat_A, and that their Forum_Y is part of Cat_A.

This really shouldn't be all that difficult to set up.

[Andreas]

Hmm, works just fine for me as you described it.

http://kirbydemos.ath.cx/forum

Nobody can see Category A (http://kirbydemos.ath.cx/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=9), but Users in Usergroup X can access Forum (http://kirbydemos.ath.cx/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=12) and Users in Usergroup Y can access Forum Y (http://kirbydemos.ath.cx/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=13).

Testaccounts
testuserx / test
testusery / test

But I think this is not what you want
You want to give everybody access to Category A, right?

[Sculli]

I am logged in as testuserx and I can not see Forum X when looking at http://kirbydemos.ath.cx/forum/. I can get to Forum X with the link you provided, but I can not see it in the forum list.
Using IE6.

My Cat A is just for people who are in special usergroups that are different from registered users. Everyone who is in a special usergroup, is also a member of registered users and has access to all public forums.

In addition those who are in a special usergroup should be able to see cat a, and forum x (if they are in usergroup x), but not forum y (because they are not in the usergroup y).

attroll and I were just testing this out on a board he has set up for testing purposes, and we didn't find a good solution to my problem.

Let me try to write this up a little more concise.

I have registered users. The registered users can freely access public areas of my board. Registered users can also be part of any number of additional usergroups.

I currently have 40 private usergroups.
Each usergroup has it's own private forum.
Those 40 private forums are located within a private category.
Registered users who are not part of a private usergroup should not be able to see the private category or private forums. This part is easy, and I have it working without a problem.

Members of a private usergroup should be able to see the private category in the main forum listing (main forum page, whatever you want to call it). Within that private category members of a private usergroup should be able to see the private forum (or fora) they belong to, and nothing more.

So if a user belongs to one private group, then he or she should not be able to see the 39 other groups.

Currently I see two MAJOR problems. Whenever I set a usergroup permission in the category, it is inherited by all fora within that category. That's a great feature, it just sucks that one can't turn it off.

Here is what happens.
I create a new private group, group41, which gets it's own private forum, forum41, under my private category. I do want group41 to see the private category, but only forum41 within it. Instead I end up giving group41 access to all other forums within the private category, because of inherited permissions. So then I need to go through, and manually edit the group41 permissions for the 40 forums group41 doesn't belong in.

There has to be a better way...

[Andreas]

Originally Posted by Sculli

I am logged in as testuserx and I can not see Forum X when looking at http://kirbydemos.ath.cx/forum/. I can get to Forum X with the link you provided, but I can not see it in the forum list.
Using IE6.

Obviously, as Usergroup X does not have permission to view Category A (which is the parent of Forum X) so Category A (including its childs) won't be displayed.

In addition those who are in a special usergroup should be able to see cat a, and forum x (if they are in usergroup x), but not forum y (because they are not in the usergroup y).

Then make it so that Usergroups X and Y can view Category A, but only Usergroup X can view Forum X and only Usergroup Y can view Forum Y.

Members of a private usergroup should be able to see the private category in the main forum listing (main forum page, whatever you want to call it). Within that private category members of a private usergroup should be able to see the private forum (or fora) they belong to, and nothing more.

As said, make it so that all private usergroups see the private category, but only those forums that they should see.

I create a new private group, group41, which gets it's own private forum, forum41, under my private category. I do want group41 to see the private category, but only forum41 within it. Instead I end up giving group41 access to all other forums within the private category, because of inherited permissions. So then I need to go through, and manually edit the group41 permissions for the 40 forums group41 doesn't belong in.

There has to be a better way...

- Add the new "Forum41"
- Make it Deny for all
- Edit Permissions for Group41 in Forum41 so they can see it
- Edit group41s permission for one subforum that they can not view
- Copy this permission (forum-based) to all other subforums that they can not view, Overwrite Duplicate Entries=No, Overwrite Inherited Entries=Yes