ElkArte Community

Project Support => Support => Topic started by: marauder13 on December 20, 2018, 09:02:39 am

Title: How to make Categories/Boards invisible
Post by: marauder13 on December 20, 2018, 09:02:39 am
G'Day all,

I have just installed Elkarte, and I have been starting to delve into the inner workings of the forums, via the admin panel. One aspect that I am certain is possible is making Categories & Boards visible and invisible, depending on the group the user is a member of. I have tried looking through the documentation, but I have not been able to find anything, neither was I able to find anything on the greater Internet.

What (hopefully not) obvious thing have I missed in the admin area that would allow me to set up this feature?

Thanking you in advance for your time, and assistance,

M13
Title: Re: How to make Categories/Boards invisible
Post by: badmonkey on December 20, 2018, 11:41:16 am
If you go to ACP > Forum > Boards > Modify Boards > **board you want invisible**, you can select membergroup access.  ;)
Title: Re: How to make Categories/Boards invisible
Post by: marauder13 on December 20, 2018, 09:22:16 pm
Thanks for the reply, Badmonkey, but it didn't supply the answer I was looking for.

What I am wanting to so is the following -
When someone comes to the forum, and they haven't logged in, all I want them to see is the Category "Lobby", and the boards listed underneath. Once they have become a member, then other categories and associated boards appear, depending on their group assignments.

I have found where to hook up permissions to various boards, but I have not been able to determine which setting will make the category & board invisible. What I am seeking is the specific permission, administrative setting that will hide and reveal sections of the forum to the user.

I know that this can be done with SMF, as I am a member of a community that is using SMF. When not logged in, only a select group of categories are physically visible. Once a member, then more are available, and with other assigned roles, even more are revealed.


Once again, thanking everyone for the time and help,

M13
Title: Re: How to make Categories/Boards invisible
Post by: ahrasis on December 20, 2018, 11:36:51 pm
Elkarte always have secret boards here where nobody can see them, not even the admin, as they are invisible. :P

Well to me, it is all board permission and it is exactly as @badmonkey said.
Title: Re: How to make Categories/Boards invisible
Post by: marauder13 on December 21, 2018, 12:00:44 am
Again, thank you for the reply. Once again, it has not answered the question I have asked.

I know it is a board setting, even before I asked for help. I know it is possible to do, but I do not know how to do it.

What I need to know is what actual option within the board permissions makes a board and hopefully category too, invisible. Which named setting is it? If it is not a binary option, what option needs to be selected? It is not clear to me which option I need to use, and there is no documentation available to assist.

Thanks again,

M13
Title: Re: How to make Categories/Boards invisible
Post by: marauder13 on December 21, 2018, 12:15:35 am
After a little poking around, and finding a post by aharis on the SMF forum, I finally found the option that I have been looking for.

I made the typical newbie mistake of not reading through all the options, nor reading the hints. Under Forums > Settings was an option "Enable the option to deny to deny board access based on membership group", which was the option I was looking for. Now, when I go about setting up permissions, I have a list of options that set the visibility that I had been looking for.

This help request can now be marked as solved.

Thank you to everyone who gave their time to help.

M13
Title: Re: How to make Categories/Boards invisible
Post by: ahrasis on December 21, 2018, 02:28:19 am
I am surprise I answered that in SMF once before but I truly believe the board permission in SMF 2.0 is not 100% the same with ElkArte.
Title: Re: How to make Categories/Boards invisible
Post by: emanuele on December 21, 2018, 02:56:41 am
@marauder13 actually, it's not necessary to deny permission to access a board, usually it's enough "not to allow", but it's tricky when post-based membergroups come into play because in that case you'd have to not allow all the membergroups based on the number of posts.
Depending on what you want to achieve one or the other may be better, but if you have found what suites you, then all the better. :)

And welcome!
Title: Re: How to make Categories/Boards invisible
Post by: marauder13 on December 21, 2018, 06:39:06 am
Quote from: ahrasis – I am surprise I answered that in SMF once before but I truly believe the board permission in SMF 2.0 is not 100% the same with ElkArte.

As I am not sure how the SMF software does it, I can't really comment on the compatibility. But the concept, and the way you described things in that post, gave me the idea of what to look for when I went back and investigated things further.
Title: Re: How to make Categories/Boards invisible
Post by: marauder13 on December 21, 2018, 06:43:38 am
Quote from: emanuele – @marauder13 actually, it's not necessary to deny permission to access a board, usually it's enough "not to allow", but it's tricky when post-based membergroups come into play because in that case you'd have to not allow all the membergroups based on the number of posts.
Depending on what you want to achieve one or the other may be better, but if you have found what suites you, then all the better. :)

And welcome!

I am not looking at using member post quantity as a basis for member groups, so that will not be an issue for me. I prefer to assign members to various groups based on details of the member, and not on the number of posts they have made.

Also, thank you for the welcome. I look forward to contributing to the community in the future, once I have gotten used to Elkarte. This is the first forum software package I have used, so there is a lot of learning for me to do. So far, so good.
Title: Re: How to make Categories/Boards invisible
Post by: emanuele on December 21, 2018, 07:12:26 am
Quote from: marauder13 – I am not looking at using member post quantity as a basis for member groups, so that will not be an issue for me. I prefer to assign members to various groups based on details of the member, and not on the number of posts they have made.
But if you have such groups, then is enough. ;)
Title: Re: How to make Categories/Boards invisible
Post by: badmonkey on December 21, 2018, 09:10:42 am
Quote from: marauder13 –
Quote from: emanuele – @marauder13 actually, it's not necessary to deny permission to access a board, usually it's enough "not to allow", but it's tricky when post-based membergroups come into play because in that case you'd have to not allow all the membergroups based on the number of posts.
Depending on what you want to achieve one or the other may be better, but if you have found what suites you, then all the better. :)

And welcome!
  
I am not looking at using member post quantity as a basis for member groups, so that will not be an issue for me. I prefer to assign members to various groups based on details of the member, and not on the number of posts they have made.

Also, thank you for the welcome. I look forward to contributing to the community in the future, once I have gotten used to Elkarte. This is the first forum software package I have used, so there is a lot of learning for me to do. So far, so good.
 
 Whether the membergroup is post based or not is completely irrelevant. Permissions and accessibility will still operate precisely the same whether post based, assigned, requested, or a paid subscription. Removing access permission will work the same as "denying" access - that's effectively what it does. 

Not understanding the answer does not make it incorrect.

It's your board, and you operate it how you see fit. IMO the proposed approach is overly complicated. Keep it simple - you'll thank yourself later.   ;)