Limiting Viewing/Access to PHPBB forums by using NS Groups

Regular Joined: May 13, 2006 Posts: 89

Hi...I Have been all over this web site (or think so) and cannot really find a definitive answer to this. There is a lot of discussion about what Nuke Sent Groups can do, and it really sounds like just exactly what I want to do, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to link the groups to the Forums.

Example: I have create a half dozen forums on a new web site. Two of the forums, I want to limit to a select few users. So, in my mind, a "regular" user (not a member of the select group) would see 4 forums. The "select few" would see all 6.

So, I have added the select few to a special group. The other users, I have added to a "registered users" group. Both of these groups were created in NS.

Now, the problem: When I go into PHPBB Forum admin, I cannot figure out how to "encode" the permissions of each group to to the individual forums.

When I go to Group/Permissions, I choose one of my new groups, I guess I am expecting to see the list of forums, with the ability allow/disallow access to the forum (in the simple permissions?), to that group (see link, below):

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Anything obvious that I am missing! thanks for any help / pointers that walk through the detailed steps (cause I am sure I am missing a detail, somewhere).

Thanks,

Spurtus

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:55 pm

First a bit of nomenclature. The groups feature in RN is Nuke Scripts, not Nuke Sentinel. The confusion is understandable since Bob Marion wrote both (with appropriate credits to others) but there is a difference.

Second, while the NS (Scripts) groups scripts create a corresponding Forum group for each NS group that's created and populate it with the same members, this is not the same as Forum Groups. Bear in mind that Forum groups were created by the PHPBB software developers with no knowledge that NS groups even existed. If you want to manage PHPBB groups you need to go into PHPBB itself and do so. That is a topic in itself since administering Forums groups is a bit convoluted ... you will see the usergroups themselves on the main Forums screen (not administration) but anything you want to do about permissions and access and the like is buried at various places within administration.

I hope that helps a bit.

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 8:12 pm

Thanks for the fast response. SO I guess I am wondering what the benefit of the NS Groups is. But it sounds like I need to, instead, create my groups in PHBBB, if I want it to control access to visiblity of those groups. I swear someone said that this was possible, but oh well...phpbb groups, it is! Thanks for the pointer...I did not even bother to try to do that, given what I thought the alternative utopia of the two working together might be Smile

Thanks again!

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 8:18 pm

Ok...I did go ahead and try creating the groups in PHPBB, but had the same result. if you look at that image I attached in that first thread, I am trying to get it to work such that when I go go Group Permissions, that "center" part of the screen, where it says Simple Permissions, has an allow or disallow drop down. A friend with this working (in fact, he said it worked with NS GROUPs and that was how he did it, which is what started all of this), has those dropdowns under Simple Permission, and you just walk down and choose allow/disallow for each forum...quite slick (except I cannot make it happen). I know I am missing something incredibly obvious, I am sure.

Spurtus

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 8:26 pm

NSN groups has a lot of utility. For instance you can use it to control access to both blocks and modules. But if you want to control Forums permissions you need to work with Forums groups. I'm not sure at all what the bit with Group Permissions, Simple Permissions is. It is true that if you create a group with NSN groups you will create a corresponding Forum group (same name, same members). So maybe that's what you are referencing. You will still need to go into Forums administration to set up permissions and the like.

There has been a lot of discussion of this over the last year. Some, like me, would prefer to see it less integrated, others more integrated. I really don't know where it is going but it is confusing at present.

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:12 am

Sorry to butt in fkelly.

spurtus, you need to first set the forums you want to restrict access to private under Forum Admin -> Permissions. You can then go back to the Group Admin -> Permissions and set which groups are allowed to access the restricted areas.

I hope this helps.

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:56 am

No problem at all Jakec. That is a good point you make.

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 7:09 pm

Thanks, all! Your response, JakeC was just what I needed. Thanks!

Spurt