How do I allow different users different access to forum content?

Posted by edudx on July 25, 2005 at 2:34am

I have three forums. One if for the Board of Directors, and the other two are for separate projects, A and B. I have roles set up for BoD, project A, and project B users. I have forum topics organized similarly by containers, BoD, project A and B, I want the BoD, project A and project B users, only to view, create and edit their respective forums and not see the others. It is not desirable to allow general project team members to view the board of directors forum posts. They want me (the admin) to control access (i.e. they don't want to sepecify the privacy of their posts). I've got node_privacy_byrole installed, and it's good for limiting access to new nodes I've created. But I don't see how to apply privacy settings to the forum.

Or is it possible to create new forum nodes just for the BoD, project A and B users, and then keep the base forum as a kind of general company forum. Alternately I saw several posts in here about restricting access to blocks. If there was a way to create blocks and add forums to them and limit block visibility by role that would be great, however, I couldn't figure out how to use the patch file (and there were no instructions) as part of the post. Can anyone help?

Thanks,
edudx

Comments

Taxonomy_access or organic groups

Posted by sillygwailo on July 25, 2005 at 5:00am

Check out the taxonomy_access module, which controls access to forums, which are taxonomy terms. Note that the module requires patching the taxonomy module.

Alternatively, check out the organic groups module, where you can control access to items and select multiple "audiences" for items.

(Username formerly my full name, Richard Eriksson.)

Patching via FTP or locally?

Posted by edudx on July 25, 2005 at 6:53pm

Thank you for the pointers. I didn't see taxonomy_accesss_module when I was browsing the modules list.

However, I'm not able to patch the module. According to the install instructions: "Patch taxonomy.module with the included taxonomy.patch with the command 'patch -p0 < taxonomy.patch' while in your drupal installation's module directory"

I don't have access to my shared web host via ssh or telnet. All they're giving me is FTP access. How do I submit the patch command via FTP? Can I run the patch locally, in the taxonomy_access_module folder, which contains the module file, or do I have to run it in the directory with all the modules? If that's the case, can I download a copy of the modules folder, run the patch locally, and then upload/replace the directory? It is not clear if the patch fixes just the taxonomy_access_module, or whether if modifies other modules.

Thanks again.
edudx

installed taxonomy patch locally

Posted by edudx on July 26, 2005 at 12:54am

This is a follow-up to my last post.

I was able to use the patch included with the taxonomy_access.module, by downloading my modules folder (backing it up) and then putting the taxonomy_access.module and the taxonomy.patch in the modules directory, and then uploading the updated directory. I figured this was a safe way to do it, b/c I didn't know what the patch was updating. Also, it was a workaround b/c I couldn't run any ssh commands on my web host.

For newbies to patch like me, the directions aren't clear that the taxonomy.patch updates the taxonomy.module *not* the taxonomy_access.module. Once I figured that out, I knew I had to run the patch in the same directory as the taxonomy.module.

Hope this helps someone.

You're right, the patch is a

Posted by merlinofchaos on August 11, 2005 at 3:32am

You're right, and the problem is that the patch is a bad thing. People shouldn't have to patch their base code to install a module.

It's partly because the taxonomy_access module is a bit hack-ish. I haven't liked my experiences with it, so far. I am hoping that as time goes on, something better can replace taxonomy_access. I'm just afraid that by saying that I'll end up having to be the one to write it.

-- Merlin

[Read my writing: ehalseymiles.com]
[Read my Coding blog: Angry Donuts]

contrib

Posted by sepeck on August 11, 2005 at 5:46am

See, that's what contrib modules are for and why some features don't migrate into core. If you can improve on things, then things might get migrated into core.

-sp
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Misc Black Mountain

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