Options for password protecting forums/threads?

[jjeeffff]

Hi,

I was wondering what facilities xenforo has/is iminently due to have for controlling access to areas of the board.

The board I intend to launch will have a bunch of subforums for specific books(not my own products). I want to be able to restrict access to those forums to people that own the product concerned.

For example - can I set passwords to a forum (say the first word on page 5 of the product) and members have to enter that to prove they are a purchaser and then gain access to the forum. If so, will xenforo remember that they have provided the correct password - or will they need to provide it on every visit.

Failing passwords like that, I assume there is a permissions system built in to the software, manually setting up permissions for all the users would be too impractical, but maybe I could have a cusotm page that lists the subforums/products - with a box for each where users can enter the 'first word on page 5' or similar and then submit the form - which would then update that users permissions for any subforums for which they provided the correct answer. My PHP is next to nil, but is a system like described above something that would be a relativitly simple thing to code? I assume it would just be a matter of checking the answer is correct then updating the mysql record for the members access permissions?

Any advice about xenforo's suitability or specifics about how I should achieve my aim appreciated

Thanks!

 

[Paul B]

A password system as you have described does not exist.

However, nodes can be set private via the ACP, which requires access to be explicitly granted.
This can be done at usergroup level or for individual users.

I suspect it wouldn't be too difficult to code an add-on so you could always request one in the add-on forum: http://xenforo.com/community/forums/add-on-requests.35/
You do however need to be a license holder (or have an associated forum account) to post in the customer forums.

 

[Decent60]

XenForo has a permission setting that allows you to control what members of a specific usergroup can gain access to which board on the forum. There is also a subscription section that allows members to purchase/donate whatever you specify and can move members to a specific group.
Doing permissions like that would be the simplest way to give members access without over-complicating things.
Doing it the method you suggested would cause a lot of checking and writing to the database, which could cause errors. Beyond that, passwords could be "given" out on the internet and regular members could have access to it without ever purchasing it.

 

[James]

It doesn't exist as default functionality, but let me make a suggestion:

If you create an add-on to require the password if the user doesn't have access to the forum, then you can create the add-on to ask random questions (preventing a password leak) and then use the add-on to edit their individual permissions and grant access.

(Fairly obvious, but I figured any suggestion helps )