XF 1.5 Permission Problems in Forums

[Jim McClain]

I really tried to pay attention to the permissions discussions and thought I understood, but apparently not. I think I falsely assumed that if I provided Registered user group with permissions in the category, then all I would have to do is click the Inherit button at the top for each individual forum in that category to give Registered users the same permissions I gave them in the category.

No? I am having real difficulties giving Registered members permission to post replies to topics. They had permission in my vBulletin 3.8 forum, so I don't understand why those permissions didn't follow them in the transition. But that doesn't matter anymore, yet I still have trouble granting permissions. I shouldn't have to go into every forum and every user group to specifically grant permissions.

What am I missing?

 

[Chris D]

If all of your members are in the "Registered" user group, and the permissions for the majority of your forums are the same (e.g. everyone should be able to view, everyone should be able to post, etc.) then you absolutely don't need to set them on a per node basis.

For a start, put everything back how it was by going into any node permissions you changed and make sure they're all set to Inherit. As a side note, "Inherit" is the default value, so if you are trying to change permissions on a parent node then all of the node's children will automatically inherit those without you having to go into each child node manually.

Assuming no other permissions have been changed manually, then it should just be a case of going to Admin CP > Users > User Group Permissions > Registered and setting the permissions in there and these will automatically get inherited by all of the nodes automatically.

There is a tool that can help: Admin CP > Users > Analyse Permissions.

If there's a certain forum where permissions aren't quite working as they should be you just click the "Node Permissions" tab, select the forum and type in an effected user.

This will analyze the permissions for that user in that forum and list the final value of each one. That can be expanded to show you how that value has been reached.

 

[Jim McClain]

Thanks Chris. I'm prob'ly not the first guy that stayed up all night and then let the minor frustrations balloon out of control. I'm sure I have screwed something up along the way. It'll probably become very clear after I get some sleep.

Thanks.

 

[Jim McClain]

I took the easy way out of this dilemma and hired @MattW to take care of this for me. He relieved the stress and, as always, did a great job. But now I find myself in another pickle.

Viglink is a product I use to help monetize my site. But I have premium members who contribute financially and their expectation is they will see no ads on my site, including the Insert Links created by Viglink. This is where a word or phrase will be turned into a link, ostensibly, to take the person who clicks it to a relevant product. It accounted for a nice addition to my income when using the vB forum.

But now the problem is, unchecking the option for the user group, Supporting Member, in the Viglink preferences does NOT prevent the premium member from seeing those links because the member also belongs to the Registered group, which is supposed to see those links.

How do I get around that?

 

[Chris D]

You could create a user group promotion which promotes everyone NOT in the Supporting Member group into a group called "Non-supporting Member" (or similar).

You would then uncheck "Registered" too from the Viglink preferences and instead check "Non-supporting" member.

That should solve the problem.

In an ideal world he VigLink preferences would have an option for "NOT in these groups" etc. which would allow you to exclude, but in lieu of that, the above should work.

 

[Jim McClain]

In an ideal world he VigLink preferences would have an option for "NOT in these groups" etc. which would allow you to exclude, but in lieu of that, the above should work.

Thanks for the suggestion, Chris. I am still discussing, via email, the situation with the Viglink support head. I don't think they were aware of the permissions hierarchy before, so this might result in a change to their XF add-on. For the time being, I will limit the visibility of the Insert links to unregistered/not logged in. I don't know how that will affect my revenue, but I hope it's not at all.