Public Groups

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 9:40 pm

First off, I'm loving 2.2. It's great. I launched my site at the end of last week, and everything seems to be working perfectly (even w/ all my groups, forums, permissions, etc).

Though, I believe i may have found a bug. I set up two public groups for which members can join on their own. Well, when they join through the 'Join" button, it joins them in the group (both on the normal phpnuke side and the forums side [assuming there is a difference]) but it will not unlock the forums that are designated for that group.

In order to fix this, i have to manually go into the user groups admin module, delete the user from the group, then re-add them to the group. This then unlocks the forums for them.

It is perplexing because even when they join the group themselves, it says they are IN the group in every possible screen that i can check (phpnuke admin AND forums admin).

As a temporary fix i just put up the group description on a content page then tell them to PM me if they want to join.

So, is this just happening to me? Or is this a possible bug?

I have activated shortlinks if that makes any difference.

Also, PhP 5+ is being used.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this =)

~VirtualWar

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:13 pm

I can't give a definitive answer without more research but consider:

the nsngroups tables are completely separate from the forums groups tables. NSNgroups creates a corresponding forums groups table when you create a nsngroup. However, the same can't be said for forums groups ... if you create one it doesn't create a nsngroup (I'm almost sure). The problem is that from an "archeological" perspective, the author of nsngroups was aware of Forums but the PHPBB folks don't know about and don't want to know about Nuke related groups.

We've had several discussions in forum threads over the past year about this topic. I don't think we have a definitive answer. I would prefer to keep the two "groups" (forums and nsngroups) separate. Others see the advantage in making them work together.

If you want to debug this bring up phpmyadmin and watch what happens when you create an nsngroup. Then try various permutations. For instance delete the group from the forums usergroups screen and see what happens to the nsngroup. Or delete a user from the forum group and see if he gets deleted from the nsngroup. Watch what happens when you give a forums group privileges to a forum. You won't see any counterpart on the nsngroups side.

And in the specific case you are talking about look at what happens when you go thru the normal forums group process versus what happens when they join a group thru nsngroups. I doubt that nsngroups "knows" enough about forums to update everything it should.

So is it a bug? I'd call it a design deficiency. The effect is the same.

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:18 pm

fkelly wrote:

So is it a bug? I'd call it a design deficiency. The effect is the same.

*Ponders words of wisdom* Very interesting. Has the RavenNuke Team thought of making its own branch of PhP-Nuke Rolling Eyes

(You dont have to answer that. I know it's been discussed ten fold).

registered · Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6437

Technically, RN is already it's own branch of PHP-Nuke. Rolling Eyes

RN is based on version 7.6, but has improved functionality, security, patches and tweaks.

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 5:13 am

Actually, after re-reading the original post, I think there is a problem with joining a public group, especially after seeing how it was resolved. Maybe the public group function doesn't add the corresponding member record in the forums group table. virtualwar, can you verify that?

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 1:55 pm

I will check as soon as i get home from classes in a couple hours. =)

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2008 1:58 pm

I've been trolling thru the nsngroups programs just to confirm what I said earlier. They all do something like this when an individual is added to a group:

Code:

   $db->sql_query('INSERT INTO `'.$prefix.'_nsngr_users` (`gid`, `uid`, `uname`, `sdate`) VALUES ('.$gid.', '.$uid.', \''.$uname.'\', \''.$xdate.'\')');


   $db->sql_query('INSERT INTO `'.$prefix.'_bbuser_group` (`group_id`, `user_id`) VALUES (\''.$phpBB.'\', \''.$uid.'\')');

The above is from GRJoin.php which is in /modules/groups/public. However if you look in /admin/modules/nsngroups the programs there work the same, adding a user to a corresponding bbuser_group table when he is added to a nsngr_users table.

Montego and I have discussed this a few times and have a difference of opinion, but I think this "model" is fundamentally broken. The problem is that you have a separate group maintenance capability within PHPBB and that does not know anything about nor care about nsngroups. So if you go delete a user from a group in Forums he won't be taken out of the corresponding nsngroup. And there definitely are separate groups tables with different structures between nsngroups and Forums.

Personally I am coming to the conclusion that we have a broken model with the bbtonuke approach and that the nsngroups issues discussed here are just one instance of it. We ought to just leave the PHPBB code and tables alone from Nuke and at most have a program that "interfaces" between the two (import/export of users for instance). I know that would not be as "integrated" but it would be much more reliable and stable and much easier to upgrade when the next version of PHPBB comes along (as it already has).

There is a web site I use named Expresso.net which takes this approach. They have their own internal pages and if you want to use their forums you have to register separately. From within the Expresso net internal pages you just click a link to "take me to forums" which basically logs you in to your separate ID there. Within the forums you are dealing with pure PHPBB code with no bbtonuke type of hacks.

edited 2/20 .. to correct placement of code tags