Permissions, explanation anyone ?

[Topaz505]

Compared with phpBB2, I find the new phpBB3 ACP panels dealing with Permissions very confusing.
The html documentation is - well - terse and the "paper" manual has strange gaps in this area.

Before I attempt it, has anyone else made a write-up of how they think one should operate them ?
. . . and which they would be willing to share ?

PS Dreadful news about the "break-in"; thanks for all the hard work to get the site back up again.

[Brf]

Try this: http://phpbbcom.phpbbservice.nl/kb/arti ... sions.html

[Topaz505]

Thanks brf, I have seen parts of that document before, I think, but never in such a complete form.
As you will see below I am looking for an explanantion from the other direction (as well): what is the meaning of particular panels in the Permissions part of the ACP.

A question: I am trying to make a user the (standard) moderator of a series of forums under a single category.
(I am no longer sure if I should be saying, a series of sub-forums under a single top-level forum . . .).
The page "setting_mod_local" (see browser address field) suggests that in the lower of the two panels "Select a Forum" you can do this in one shot by selecting the category.
It does not seem to work for me?
Am I missing something ?

A comment (probably not your fault ): the page "view_user-global" must win the prize for the most weird design !
I do not understand why the subpanels are labelled "Manage users" and "Look up user". They are almost the same - except that the number of users displayed in "Manage users" is a fraction of the total number; at least on my system - why's that ?

Hope you have the time/patience to help me out.

[Brf]

For your first question:
If you select a forum from the bottom dropdown in Forum Permissions or Forum Moderators and Submit, then that forum and its subforums will be listed at the top of the next page. When you select Users or Groups to add/edit, those forums and users/groups will be split out on the final page where you select the permission role.

For the second:
If you give a user permissions at the user-level, then their name will show in the Manage Users box, much as the groups with permissions show in the Manage Groups box. Then you would only need to click on their name there to edit/delete the existing permissions. The Add Users/Find a Member is for finding members you have not assigned individual permissions to.

Personally, I would never assign permissions at the user-level. It is much easier to manage permissions by usergroup.

[Topaz505]

Thanks for your reply, Bfr.
I will try out again the two screens we have discussed.
I agree about groups. I do normally set permissions on a group basis.

I am wondering if some of my problems (confusion) is that I used the convertor to upgrade from phpBB2 to phpBB3.
My forum has a lot of restrictions (registered users only, all divided into overlapping groups, highly segregated categories, group leaders are most often the forum moderator - you get the picture).
May be the convertor took a simplistic approach to transforming the permissions entries ?
I keep being surprised by the permissions that are set.
At least I should find out why users appear in the "Manage users" box; they should, with few exceptions, be in groups.

One elementary clarification: if user X is in group Y. I give group Y standard access for forum permissions. If I look at user X's forum permission should they be "no role assigned" or does the user inherit permissions from the group. i.e. will be standard permissions?

[Brf]

User permissions only show what permissions were assigned at the user level, they do not show any permisisons assigned at the group level.

If you want to see a user's total permissions result, you should be using View Permissions Masks pages at the bottom of the Permissions tab.