XF 2.2 How do I make the forums page only visible to registered users?

[Luke247]

I've been searching but can't find how to do this. Or maybe I don't know the correct terminology for it.... But, I want my forums page (www.example.com/forums) to be a page that says something like "You must register to access the forum" with the register/login field. Once they are logged in, that page opens up and shows the list of forums...

Will someone please help me learn how to do this?

 

[Nicolas FR]

Groups & Permissions > User group permissions > Guests > General permissions > View : No

 

[Alan_SP]

If you do all your forums invisible, it would be also good idea that you create notice that explains them that they have to be registered, and make this notice visible only to unregistered.

But I never tried setup like that.

 

[Nicolas FR]

Easy to do with notices system. Good idea.

 

[Paul B]

An alternative approach is to make the forums visible but not the threads.

That gives unregistered visitors an idea of what the forum is about.

 

[Luke247]

Hi everyone. Thanks for the help. I set general permissions > View to "No" and now it shows the login form and says "you must be logged in to do that". This is a good first step. However, I would like the page to look different... Is it possible to customize this page with html? If so, how do I do that? Is there a specific template?

Thanks again.

 

[Nicolas FR]

login template i guess.

 

[Alan_SP]

Is there a specific template?

I think that notices could be html, and thus, you can create pretty complex notice, and still you wouldn't need to edit anything outside notice, which is easier and simpler to do, than messing around with template system, which can have some issues.

 

[Sim]

So you want to run a private forum which is only visible to registered users and not to guests?

I wrote a tutorial about how to achieve exactly this - I run several private forums: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/how-to-make-a-xenforo-forum-private-no-guest-access.7844/

 

[Nicolas FR]

than messing around with template system, which can have some issues.

working on templates is not prohibited and allows for extensive customization of its forum.
You just have to do it well and nothing will be messed up.

 

[GW2]

An alternative approach is to make the forums visible but not the threads.

That gives unregistered visitors an idea of what the forum is about.

On our forum, unregistered visitors can view forum titles, and can also view thread titles within each forum (intended to attract interest), however a visitor cannot view posts in a thread unless registered. That arrangement seems to be working good for us.

 

[beerForo]

On our forum, unregistered visitors can view forum titles, and can also view thread titles within each forum (intended to attract interest), however a visitor cannot view posts in a thread unless registered. That arrangement seems to be working good for us.

Is that an add-on? Viewing post titles only is not built in.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Is that an add-on? Viewing post titles only is not built in.

We also do that. It depends how you configure permissions: View thread content

 

[GW2]

We also do that. It depends how you configure permissions: View thread content

For user group "Unregistered/Unconfirmed:
Forum permissions>>View threads by others = Yes; View thread content = No

For user group "Registered":
Forum permissions>>View threads by others = Yes; View thread content = Yes