Module Grants

Module Grants makes modules that deal with content access permissions operate better on unpublished (as well as published) content. It also makes sure that access grants behave in an orderly fashion when such modules are used together.

• Access grants are tested for unpublished content just as they are for published content
• Allows modules that feature fine-grained access control (e.g. Workflow, TAC-Lite) to work together
• While Module Grants' raison d'etre is to act as a catalyst amongst other modules when dealing with unpublished content and/or fine-grained access control, it does come with a handy feature of its own via the Module Grants Monitor submodule, which is bundled with the package download. After enabling Module Grants Monitor, a new item, Accessible content, appears in your navigation menu. Clicking on it reveals a summary of all the content the logged-in user has access to (i.e. view, edit) after access controls have been applied by the content access modules installed on your site. So if you have Workflow installed then what's editable to you and what's only viewable to you will depend on the workflow state the content is in. With the TAC-Lite module enabled it will depend on the vocabulary term(s) used in the content.

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The Accessible content summary has sortable columns and comes with a double row of tabs allowing you to filter by publication status, author etc.

This module works around a couple of quirks in the core access permission system that tend to get in the way, for instance when you set up workflows and/or are dealing with categorised content.

By ensuring that access grants are tested for unpublished content just as they are for published content this module allows you to implement approval workflows that deal effectively with content moving from author to moderator BEFORE it is published (i.e visible to the public). And that's probably where it's needed most: once content is visible for all to see, it's a bit late to start an approval process!

Module Grants works particularly well with Revisioning in creating content approval and publication workflows. See the Revisioning project page for some step-by-step tutorials.

When publication workflows and category-based content are used together (e.g. after installing Workflow and TAC-Lite) this module makes sure that their combination exhibits the expected behaviour: access is granted to content only when it is in the right state AND (rather than OR) of the right category.
For example, when taxonomy access control is set up so that an Arts moderator/publisher can't view a Sports article, because Arts moderators don't have access to the “sports” term, then it would be wrong if that Arts moderator suddenly does obtain access to Sports, when someone put content in the “review” state, and by the workflow access grants moderators are allowed to view content in "review". Yet, this will be the behaviour you'll find if you don't have this module installed.

Installation instructions can be found on the Module Grants documentation page.

Some related forum issues:
#362105: Granular Taxonomy-Based Publishing Workflow,
#387412: Workflow_access problem in 6.10,
#156028: Workflow nodes must always be published for access controls to apply

Latest features

Available in 6.x-3.4
Fix #675596: Broken query with Module Grants in combination with Domain Access
Fix #678348: SQL errors after upgrading Module Grants when also using Views and Coherent Access
Available in 6.x-3.3
The Accessible content menu option is now implemented through the optional (sub)module Module Grants Monitor, which requires Smart tabs.
If you don't like the memory function that Smart tabs brings to your pages, but would still like your tabs on the Accessible content page to work properly without any permission issues, then simply go to Administer >> Site configuration >> Smart tabs and blank out the Pages to include text box on the page. If you want the Smart tabs memory function for the Accessible content page only, then enter in the Pages to include text box the following line:

If you're happy to have the memory function on all your pages enter * in the text box.
o Updated translations: German [thanks: tadesse] and French [thanks: chmoindron].
o Support Revisioning's "view revisions of any|own content type" permissions #549414: Even more granular "view revisions" permissions.
o #654606: Columns for Revisions and Accessible Content node views
o #575610: "update", "delete" grants for unpublished content depend on "view revisions" permission
o #611904: Unable to delete node when not published and Workflow enabled
o Fix #601064: Module Grants behavior is inconsistent for node listings, comment #9

Important: If you upgrade Module Grants to a later version and you also use Revisioning make sure to also upgrade that module to the latest version as well. And don't forget to visit Site building>>Modules so that the changes are activated.

Downloads