User Permissions Report?

[Senkusha]

As a new user to XenForo, I'm a bit anxious about user permissions. I've already found two boards where somehow I've removed the permission to post a new topic as Administrator. Are there any Resources, extensions, anything that I could run to quickly see if there's any boards that have been restricted access for my member groups, or even over-privileged?

Edit: Also I just noticed that despite setting my group permissions for Regular members, when I double checked a specific user, under Permissions, everything was set to No.

Which group overrides what?
Does it matter that this is from an Import (SMF)?

Thank you!

 

[chillibear]

You can analyse some permissions from the Groups & permissions → Analyze permissions menu - that's on a per user basis, but should show you what the "final" permission set is for a user. That might help you figure out what permission sets you have.

If you view an individual user in the admin UI and go to their Permissions tab it will all be No. That's how it is supposed to be. Their group membership will override the No values for various options. You generally only use the per user permissions if you have the odd exception to work around - maybe a user who reports every other post and you want to remove reporting permissions just for them, etc. You may well do that on a per user basis, but generally permissions are handled by group membership. So look at that user using the tool mentioned above and you'll see what they can "see".

I'd suggest either using the "login as user" add-on to allow you to become another user or creating a couple of "test" users you can log into to confirm things as a "normal" user. It can be very helpful if you're exploring things like the private messaging and permissions to just do that between your own account and a test on logged on in another browser window (in anom mode, etc).

 

[Jeremy P]

This resource may be helpful for understanding the cumulative permissions system:

P

Implementing permissions across multiple user groups

Feb 22, 2012

How to make best use of the cumulative permission behaviour

• Paul B
• XenForo tips & guides [2.x]

 

[woody]

VB had the ability to compare permissions between user groups. One feature I miss (likely the only one....)

 

[Grover]

If you view an individual user in the admin UI and go to their Permissions tab it will all be No. That's how it is supposed to be. Their group membership will override the No values for various options. You generally only use the per user permissions if you have the odd exception to work around - maybe a user who reports every other post and you want to remove reporting permissions just for them, etc. You may well do that on a per user basis, but generally permissions are handled by group membership.

Thanks for explaining this, @chillibear . I am totally new to the XF permissions system (just upgrading from vBulletin to XenForo) and posts like these are really helpful.

Talking about user permissions, there is something I don’t yet understand. If you have a moment, maybe you can look at my questions overhere:

Post in thread 'vBulletin board imported in XenForo: what areas are important to test?'
https://xenforo.com/community/threa...eas-are-important-to-test.233122/post-1759855

 

[Grover]

This resource may be helpful for understanding the cumulative permissions system:

P

Implementing permissions across multiple user groups

Feb 22, 2012

How to make best use of the cumulative permission behaviour

• Paul B
• XenForo tips & guides [2.x]

@Jeremy P Great, I was looking for a document like these, where common questions concerning XF’s permissions system would be answered and further explained. As a total newbie to the XF permission system, resources like these are really helpful .

I noticed that both in the text in the main resource as well as in the updates, @Paul B talks about the terms “Allow” and “Revoke”, but this terminology was used in the older XF versions if I understood it correctly? Maybe it’s a good idea to change that into “Yes” and “No”, as these terms are also displayed in the screenshots presented in that resource.