Someone Explain ACLs/Permissions to Me Please

bitcalc

I just can't work out how they work, by default all the ACL boxes are unchecked for everyone but I as an administrator can do what I like even though the boxes are unchecked, guests can read everything when the box is unchecked, but they can only post a topic if I check the box.

There's the contradiction, to post you need it checked and to view it doesn't matter what it's set to.

Help???

a_5mith

@bitcalc
If you tick them all in the admin options. Any that aren't ticked will then be treated as "not allowed". If Admin is set to blank, then the others set to blank are considered active. I think.

So, to set them up, tick everything in every category as an admin, and all the other groups, then leave unticked what you don't want. For example, I have a moderation corner, which looks as follows

Admin is also fully ticked, guest and all my custom groups are all unticked. It is a bit confusing though.

bitcalc

@a_5mith

Ah, thanks, that makes sense now, well enough sense to make it do what I want. We definitely need a help document producing soon or something, or perhaps a line or two in the popup to make it more intuitive...

a_5mith

@bitcalc I agree, but documentation is boring. Much more fun to work these things out by trial and error.

bitcalc

@a_5mith I don't like docs either, but I think this might be useful (below), helping just one person will make me happy!

So... should anyone else be in the same situation I was:

when everything is blank, it works with some defaults and mimics:
- admins: all boxes ticked
- registered-users: all boxes ticked
- guests: read-only access (find, access and read)
when a permission is active (ticked), the other permissions come into effect (obey ticked or unticked state)

psychobunny

Yeah we should add a bit of documentation to the top of that ACP page. Anybody willing to PR?

a_5mith

@psychobunny said:

Yeah we should add a bit of documentation to the top of that ACP page. Anybody willing to PR?

I'd add it to docs.nodebb under an ACP header, then just document every option of the ACP and what it does. Saves clutter that way. Don't mind throwing something together with some screenshots etc. assuming the docs accept screenshots.