Allow help to be sectioned for different user groups

Do I understand that you're talking about a "can read help text in section foo" type permission system? Something like the 'access' part of a menu item?

So I started rolling a patch that integrates advanced help into D7, and I added a 'help arguments' key to menu items. This takes exactly the arguments $module and $topic. Seems to me like we could piggyback on the menu item's 'access'. How does that taste you?

Yeah, I toyed around with it before realizing that Gurpartap was doing the same. Will contact.

#299050: Help System - Master Patch
I do not see any per section type permission system in the patch yet.

I started to use advanced help on the frontend of the website (help for users, not for admins), so a permission system is a much needed functionality for me now. Is there any quick solution (or idea) how to restrict the access on some topics?

+1 on this feature. We must be able to disallow users to access module help (which is for developers), while allowing them to access site help (which is for users).
Subscribing.

+1

A logical idea would be to optionally associate each entry in the .ini file with a permission (or list of). Thus, if I don't have the 'administer module' permission, I wouldn't see the help topics associated with 'administer module'.

This would tailor the help system to each user role and unclutter it for users with fewer permissions.

+1 subscribing
need to be able to have help for non admins (people who can only add nodes should not be able to view the help for views)

+1 Subscribing

One solution that I'm investigating is creating a "enduser help" module in the Advance Help format, and include both a permission and a hook_form_alter to route designated "end-users" to just the enduser module's help index page. Thought it'd be relatively simple to add this - but have been stymied by an index page that won't show. Posting the current implementation online to solicit ideas and suggestions:

function enduser_help_menu_alter(&$items) {
  // View help topic index.
  $items['admin/advanced_help']['title'] = 'Enduser Help';
  $items['admin/advanced_help']['page callback'] = 'enduser_help_page';
  $items['admin/advanced_help']['type'] = 'MENU_CALLBACK';
  $items['admin/advanced_help']['access arguments'] = array('view only enduser help');
}

/*
 * modify all help topics to administrative overlay
 */
function enduser_help_admin_paths() {
  $paths = array(
    'help/*'          => TRUE,
    'advanced_help/*' => TRUE,
  );
  return $paths;
}


function enduser_help_page() {
  drupal_goto('admin/advanced_help/enduser_help');
}

  
/**
* Implementation of hook_permission()
* 
*/
function enduser_help_permission() {
    return array(
			'view only enduser help' => array( 
                                'title'       => t('View only end-user help'),
				'description' => t('User will see only the contents of the custom end-user help'),
             )
     );
} 

Patch.

small fix.

As long as help texts are in plain HTML files that can be accessed directly by anyone who knows (or is able to guess) the URL, we should not call this "permissions". What is needed is something allow help to be sectioned for different user groups so that ordinary users of the site are not confused by help pages written for developers. This is about the UX, not access control.

Advanced Help is never going to be a swiss army knife for help. This is out of scope.