Permissions and Custom Groups

[mikeAB]

Hi there, I have a couple of total newb questions if you don't mind. I'm trying to figure out how Permissions and Groups work in xenforo and having a little trouble getting my head around it.

1. Permissions: A friend and I are setting up a private forum where you must be a registered and approved member to view the forum content and post.

There would be two types of users:
Type A: Would be the standard user who can view and post pretty much anywhere.
Type B: I'd like to restrict these guys each to their own category/sub-forum. Sorry, I'm not sure of the proper term, it was category in Discourse.

So, Type A users could view all the Type B user threads in each Type B's category. The Type B however, is restricted to interacting only in his own forum category/sub-forum.

For example, say Type A users are "drivers" and B users are "car dealerships". Each "dealership" will have their own category in the Sub-forum "Dealerships". i.e. GMC, Honda, Toyota. The "drivers" will be able to see all of the different "dealership" threads, however, Honda dealers (Type B) can only see the Honda threads...

-- And --

2. Groups - am I able to create "custom groups"? It seems to me Type A users would be your standard "Registered" group. I'm not sure what to do with Type B users. It seems I could almost simple give them only permission to their specific Sub-forum?

Any help much appreciated!
Thanks,
Mike

 

[Paul B]

That would be possible using user groups and permissions.

 

[mikeAB]

That would be possible using user groups and permissions.

I assumed that's the case. I'm trying to figure out how. As I said I'm a newb here and not sure how things work...

How do you create a "custom" User Group? That may not be necessary, I guess.

I am assuming each user would get assigned Permissions when approved. Most users will be Type A and would get "Registered user'. But the Type B user should only have Permissions to their specified Sub-forum Node.

When a Type B user signs up, could I just create a Sub-forum and only give that user permission to his new Sub-forum? i.e. A Honda Dealership signs up. So I create a "Honda" Sub-forum under the "Dealership" section and set his Permissions so that is the only section all he can see/post/create threads in.

 

[Paul B]

Once you purchase a license, you can post in the customer forums for help with setting everything up.

Detailed support is not provided in the pre-sales forum.

 

[mikeAB]

I'm demoing to see if I want to purchase and how this would work. Isn't that what the "pre-purchase" section is for??

 

[TheGreek]

I'm demoing to see if I want to purchase and how this would work. Isn't that what the "pre-purchase" section is for??

My presumption that detailed support isn't given due to the fact that people will get nulled licenses and then come here asking for support, trying to enjoy the benefits of having a license without having a valid one.

 

[mikeAB]

I'm not asking for "detailed support". I'm trying to find out if this forum software will work us.

So the presumption is that any new person asking how the software works is a hack?? How in the world do you get new customers here? That's f'd up. What a waste of an evening...

 

[mikeAB]

Would love to get some sort of meaningful response to my questions above before I move on to another forum software provider. I am really liking the looks of Xenforo, but if this is the sort of response you get when asking questions...

New question: Can you Edit something you have posted?

 

[Damien Alexander]

New question: Can you Edit something you have posted?

Yes you and your mods can edit anything that has been posted.

You can also make it so normal users can edit things or not edit things. All that is available in the usergroup settings

 

[mikeAB]

Thanks. So that must be tuned off in this forum then? I couldn't find it.

 

[Dragonfruit]

Thanks. So that must be tuned off in this forum then? I couldn't find it.

That's likely the case, or it's only available for paid customers. I noticed many of my old posts didn't have it either, it could be because the editing ability is on a timer. Such as only allowing people to edit their posts in the first 15-30 mins.

Here's a screenshot from a test post:



You can see where the "Edit" button is.

And I was just able to edit this one

 

[mikeAB]

Ah yes, I see that in my Demo area now. I was trying to edit the previous post here and didn't see it... Thank you.

 

[TPerry]

Would love to get some sort of meaningful response to my questions above before I move on to another forum software provider. I am really liking the looks of Xenforo, but if this is the sort of response you get when asking questions...

New question: Can you Edit something you have posted?

Yes it can be done using user permissions and forum permissions for specific user groups. As to the nuts & bolts of HOW to do it, yes, that is detailed support and provided to licensed users. The fact that you have been told by several that it CAN be done is what this area is for.
And the reason that detailed support is NOT provided in an area like this is the exact reason given above. There are frequently users of non-licensed versions coming in and asking for detailed help (which how do I frequently falls into) - See this post as a classic case, how do you install it if you are not currently licensed unless you have an "unofficial copy".
Once you are licensed, detailed help for items like this is readily available either from this site itself or from submission of tickets.

 

[mikeAB]

Thanks

 

[Steve Freides]

@mikeAB, on our XF forum, we manage everything at the group level, and haven't yet found something XF can't do for us - it's very flexible. It's easy to have a group for people viewing without having registered, another for people who have registered, another for people who meet certain criteria, another for moderators, etc.

My experience in the world of computer software has been that the more powerful a program, the steeper the learning curve. XF is easy enough to get running out of the box, and this forum is a good place for support once you're using it.

More than you asked, perhaps - just my opinion, and your mileage may vary.

-S-

 

[mikeAB]

Thanks for the reply Steve. As we dug around more, we really liked to features that Xenforo offers. I'm happy to say that my partner and I have decided to move forward with Xenforo and I will be pestering you guys with newbie type set up questions over in the support forum.

Just a general cautionary tale to whomever; while I can appreciate the reasoning behind the obtuse replies, not every new poster asking set up questions is a hacker. A more up front explanation, even pointing to a generic Sticky with some sort of explanation as to WHY details aren't being given, would help Pre-Sales PR - a lot...

 

[Steve Freides]

Thanks for the reply Steve.

You're welcome, glad to be able to help out a little.

Just a general cautionary tale to whomever; while I can appreciate the reasoning behind the obtuse replies, not every new poster asking set up questions is a hacker. A more up front explanation, even pointing to a generic Sticky with some sort of explanation as to WHY details aren't being given, would help Pre-Sales PR - a lot...

@mikeAB, no disrespect to you intended, but your perspective is an oversimplification from my point of view. There's a story - can't remember where I read it now - of a martial arts seminar in which a student asks a question, and the teacher answers to the effect of, "When you've practiced more, you won't have that question." The teacher didn't answer the question but, IMO, the teacher gave the best answer by not answering.

How do you create a "custom" User Group? That may not be necessary, I guess.

You guess correctly. You setup each of your groups as you wish them to be setup; several groups are part of the product as delivered, but every group is "custom" and you can create as many as you need, you can change the behavior of the supplied groups, etc.

And you have great control over the various parts of your forum as far as permissions go, and the permissions you give to each section of your forum combine with group permissions and individual permissions to give you almost endless possibilities.

My presumption that detailed support isn't given due to the fact that people will get nulled licenses and then come here asking for support, trying to enjoy the benefits of having a license without having a valid one.

That response didn't come from @Brogan. It assumes facts not in evidence.

On the XF forum I administer, I'm the guy, more or less, who does what @Brogan does here (except that it's as regards the content we discuss on my forum).

I'm happy to say that my partner and I have decided to move forward with Xenforo and I will be pestering you guys with newbie type set up questions over in the support forum

My criticism is intended to be helpful and I hope it's received that way.

Welcome aboard.

-S-

 

[mikeAB]

Hey Steve, no offense taken. Really. And I very much appreciate you taking to the time to reply.

...but

I don't feel my "perspective is an oversimplification" in the slightest. Maybe a little further explanation might help you see my perspective?

This particular functionality is (was) the litmus test of whether or not to the software will work for us. I had been RTFMing the manual and trying different things out in my demo all evening long. I had also recently figured this out in Discourse but we wanted another comparison to try out. So I came here a bit frustrated and I had a legitimate Pre-Sales question. I very carefully tried to spell out my issue in order to find out "will this forum software do what we need it to do"?

Obviously, I figured it out because we purchased a license. But I'm admittedly still a bit frustrated with the response here. Anyway, it's time to move on. Sorry if it came across badly, but I was actually just trying to be helpful.

Thank you for the welcome!

Now I think it's past time to put this thread to bed...

 

[Serpius]

Hey Steve, no offense taken. Really. And I very much appreciate you taking to the time to reply.

...but

I don't feel my "perspective is an oversimplification" in the slightest. Maybe a little further explanation might help you see my perspective?

This particular functionality is (was) the litmus test of whether or not to the software will work for us. I had been RTFMing the manual and trying different things out in my demo all evening long. I had also recently figured this out in Discourse but we wanted another comparison to try out. So I came here a bit frustrated and I had a legitimate Pre-Sales question. I very carefully tried to spell out my issue in order to find out "will this forum software do what we need it to do"?

Obviously, I figured it out because we purchased a license. But I'm admittedly still a bit frustrated with the response here. Anyway, it's time to move on. Sorry if it came across badly, but I was actually just trying to be helpful.

Thank you for the welcome!

Now I think it's past time to put this thread to bed...

Just to give you a bit of perspective on my side of this...

My previous forum software was MyBB forum software. It's a very basic straight-up setup without too many "bells and whistles". Users groups and permissions were easy to setup.

For different reasons at the time (October 2019) I made the decision to switch to Xenforo. One of the biggest learning curves that I found was the differences in how User groups and user permissions are used in Xenforo.

When I first setup Xenforo, I was still stuck on the ways of MyBB, but I found out in a short time that what I learned in MyBB did not apply to Xenforo.

One of the weird ways that I found out from another admin was the way user group permissions are INHERITED.

For example, in the default Admin account, you'll see a lot of options that are INHERITED... from the default REGISTERED group. When I first encountered that I said to myself "Wait... that doesn't make sense." Why did the default setup of Xenforo do this? (recall... I am still stuck on the ways of MyBB)

Well, this Admin stated to me that is initially the normal behavior of Xenforo. When you go to the Admin group permissions, you have the ability to change those permissions that were NOT INHERITED from the Registered user group and have the Admin group permissions done the way you want it.

Therefore, please CHANGE all INHERITED options to YES. All other options that you will see on that permissions page are more likely to be set to NO, change all of them to YES. You can use the Quick Set option to speed things up.
Also, you'll have to expand the Moderation section and set those to your liking.

Likewise, if you look at the Moderator user group, again, that's all INHERITED from the default Registered User group.
In the same way as the Admin user group, change those 'NO' to "YES" based on your preference for that user group.
One item that I am still not 100% clear on is... the difference between 'NO' and 'NEVER'. Maybe someone in Xenforo can clear this little bit up.

This is one example of how Xenforo differs from MyBB. With InVision, I do not know how InVision is set up, but whatever way you have learned in InVision may NOT apply to Xenforo.

You will note that in Xenforo, what we used to call 'Forums' in MyBB are called 'Nodes' in Xenforo. A different word for basically the same thing in MyBB, but that threw me off for a while.

I hope this little post will help you a bit in your endeavors with Xenforo.

 

[Paul B]

Therefore, please CHANGE all INHERITED options to YES. All other options that you will see on that permissions page are more likely to be set to NO, change all of them to YES.

No, don't do that.
It's wrong.

XF permissions are cumulative.

User groups | Manual | XenForo

End-user documentation for XenForo

xenforo.com

Implementing permissions across multiple user groups

Having logged in to quite a few installations to resolve permission issues, it's clear that a lot of people haven't quite grasped the concept. So here are a few pointers: 1. All members should have the Registered user group as their primary...

xenforo.com