JForum User Guide?

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Is there any sort of JForum User guide, particularly for the Administrative Functionality? I had been planning to use mvnforum when I stumbled accross jforum last night.

The reason I ask about a user guide, is because I was playing around with the Group Permissions last night and could not figure out how they worked (they did not appear to do anything at all as best I could tell).

I am interested in setting up a message board, but I would never allow Anonymous posters. I would also like to restrict both read and write functionality to certain Groups as well (so if you are not a member you either don't see the forum or can't enter it). It was unclear how much of this functionality is supported by JForums. Thanks for any help!

-Bryan
[originally posted on jforum.net by Anonymous]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

No, unforttunatelly we still dont' have an User Guide. :roll:

About the Group Permission Control, here you go: "regular" users are, by default, associated to the user "General". When you click in the link "Permissions" of any group, you'll see all available administrative options.

Currently JForum uses a "Restricted by Default" rule, so, most of the time you'll selected the forums / categories / options which you want to denny access to.

In order to not allow anonymous posts, selected the foruns you want to restricted in the option "Deny anonymous posts". To allow users to see the forum but not write posts to it ( even registered users ), use the "Read-Only Forums" option.

Now, if you want to have a more grained control, you can set the same rules by user. All you have to do is to go to "Users" and click in the "Permissions" link. The user inherits permissions from all its groups, but, once you set differentet roles for the user, it will have precedance over the group's roles.

What more do you need? Is quite easy to give new moderation options to JForum.

Rafael
[originally posted on jforum.net by Rafael Steil]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Rafael,

Thanks for the prompt response! You mention that the JForum users are "restricted by default". Did you mean to say "allowed by default"? It sure seems to me like access is wide open unless I go in and sepcifically restrict access to it. This actually seems a little counter-intuitive to me. It seems like there should not be any allowed access unless I specifically grant it!

I think that I am beginning to get the hang of the way that the permissions work. I have no idea what in the world "Set Users' Role to follow the Group" is for. Care to explain?

Also, what does it mean to "Lock" a user?

Thanks again for your help!


[originally posted on jforum.net by Anonymous]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Rafael,

Thanks for the prompt response! You mention that the JForum users are "restricted by default". Did you mean to say "allowed by default"? It sure seems to me like access is wide open unless I go in and sepcifically restrict access to it.

You're right. Nowadays it is something like "allowed by default". This is because a patch that was made just before the 2.0 release. I forgot that.
Internally, jforum is still "restricted by default", but there are some values in database tables that make it "allowed by default".

This actually seems a little counter-intuitive to me. It seems like there should not be any allowed access unless I specifically grant it!

I completely agree. The permission control is one thing I want to change the way it works in a near future release.. is quite complex to maintain the code / new permissions currently. I want to make it easier, both for developers and users.

I think that I am beginning to get the hang of the way that the permissions work. I have no idea what in the world "Set Users' Role to follow the Group" is for. Care to explain?

It goes like this: when you set permissions to a specific user, his permissions will have precedance over group permissions, even if you go to group permission control and re-save it - eg, when you save permissions from a group, it will not override user-specific roles. So, in order to have a way to override user roles with group roles, this "Set user's roles to follow... " was created.

Also, what does it mean to "Lock" a user?

Means that you can block accounts.. Is much like a deletion, but wihout fisically removing the records from the database, with a plus that you can re-enable the user's account.

Thanks again for your help!

Thank you. I'm aware of this documentation lack, and your questions help to see weakness in the system. I don't know when I wil have some strong documentation done, since I need to focus in the code most of the time ( eg, contributions are always welcome ).

Rafael
[originally posted on jforum.net by Rafael Steil]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

I have setup Confluence for JForum. I realized that many people won't help if we don't have suck a tool.

Everyone is welcome to help. To do so, just register for an account and send me an email / Private Message that then I add to the "jforum-team" group, which will enable you guys to edit / create content.

The address it http://www.jforum.net/confluence . When we have some "strong" content, I'll integrate it with the site.

Rafael
[originally posted on jforum.net by Rafael Steil]