| Access
Lists and User Groups
Access
Lists
Groups
User Group Access Lists
Superhosts
Access
Lists for Macros and HTML Files
Troubleshooting
Resources
Access
Lists
Access
lists are a set of permissions attached to a discussion, folder,
or chat room, which determine what privileges are given to individual
users or groups of users. Access lists are inherited - that is,
unless a discussion or folder has specifically had an access list
created for it, it will use the access list of the parent folder.
  When
you click on the Access button in the button bar, for a
folder or discussion that doesn't have an access list, you get
this dialog.
If you
want to view the access list it's currently using, click the link
to the top-level access list.
If you
want to import an access list, click
Import and identify the file name. The file must already
be in the webx directory on the server. Take care that you identify
the filename correctly: if you try to import something from this
location other than an access list file, you will corrupt your
database!
To create
a new access list, click Create Access List.
Figure
2 - Top portion of Access List page:
In the
top section, individual users and groups of users are listed along
with their specific access privileges
- host
- participant
- moderated
- read-only
- no
access
Users
with no access will not even see the discussion listed in the
containing folder. To change access privileges for a given user,
click the radio button to set the privileges you wish to invoke.
To remove an individual user from the access list, click off the
radio button next to the name.
You
can also import or export an access list from the buttons in this
area.
You
can list groups of users instead of individuals
in the User Name section.
In the
bottom portion of the Access List page you can add users or groups
to the list:
To add
users or groups to an access list, type in their names in the
more users or groups field, one name per line, specify
their access privileges just above, and click Add Users.
Sometimes
if the list of names on the access list is too long, you'll need
to click Show Access List Only in order to see them all.
It's also possible to add users to an access list by looking at
a list of all users and choosing (with the checkbox) which users
to add. To do this, click Show All in the center of the
page. With either of these controls, you can specify a Prefix
to indicate to Web Crossing where to start the list. For example,
if you wanted all the users from the letter S onward, you would
put an S into the prefix box before you clicked the button.
Show
User Groups allows you to create groups and add users. See
Groups, just below, for more information.
You
can limit access to Access Lists to just the sysop, if
you wish. Normally all hosts can edit access lists within their
own areas. To change this setting, go to the Control
Panel > General Settings > Site Information and at
the bottom of that section you'll find the checkbox to turn this
on or off.
| Note:
See the sections on Newsgroups
and Email for special
issues with user access when using those protocols for user
participation. |
| Note:
One little oddity about links and
access lists: The only way to set an access list for a link
is to create the link, then click on it and follow the link.
At the location, click on Access List and create the
access list. This access list will then be for both the link
and the original object. Normally when someone has "no
access" for a folder, discussion, etc. they don't even
see the item listed in the contents of the containing folder.
But with an access list on a link, they will see the link,
but are told they don't have access when they attempt to enter. |
Groups
Clicking
on Show User Groups in the middle of the Access List page
gives you a list of all your user groups. There's always a group
called "users," containing all your registered users,
that is created by default.
To add
new groups, choose a name and click on Add New Group.
In this example, a new group called "crickets" has already
been created. To view the users in any group, click the group
name. You'll also be able to add users on that page.
| Note:
Any privileges given to an individual user will supersede
the privileges given to any group of which he or she is a
member. For example, if a user is a member of a group given
read-only status, he or she can also be individually given
host or participant status, with greater privileges, or no-access
status, with fewer privileges. |
The
Access List button here is an access list for the Groups and Access
List functions - not a button back to the Access List which brought
you here. This is necessary so anyone with host privileges can't
add and subtract people to the host group list, for example, without
the sysop's approval. For more information see User
Group Access Lists below.
You
can add users to a specific group at the time of registration.
See the Sysop
Documentation for more information.
User
Group Access Lists
You
can restrict access to user groups with an Access List. To find
the User Group Access List, click on the Access List for a folder
or discussion, and then in the middle of the page, click Show
Groups. Clicking on the Access List button on the page
listing all the groups will get you to the top-level User Group
Access List. If you select a specific group, you'll be given an
Access List button which controls access to that specific
group. These User Group Access Lists control access to add or
subtract users from this group and create and delete groups.
Figure
5 - TopLevel User Group Access List page
Names
or groups can be added and deleted, as with regular Access
Lists.
The
access privileges available are:
- Host
- Can
change group access list
- Can
delete group
- Can
change group members
- Can
view group list
- Read/Write
access
- Can
change group members
- Can
view group list
- Read-only
access
- No
access
- List
is totally invisible
Superhosts
There's
a special category of users called Superhosts. Superhosts have
basically sysop-level privileges except they can't change certain
configuration settings. Superhosts are generally intended for
hosted situations where the true sysop, the hosting ISP, doesn't
want the customers to be able to change critical configuration
settings such as IP address, etc.
To
add Superhosts to your site, go to the Control
Panel > User Management > Registered Users > Superhosts
and define a group name. Once you actually create a group with
that name, any user(s) placed in that group will have superhost
privileges. If you don't want superhosts at your site, just leave
the field blank.
You
can use the WCTL command userIsSuperhost
to
find out if the user is a member of the superhost group or not.
A check for if userIsHostOrSysop
will return true for a superhost. Note that for the true sysop,
hostIsSysop
is true and userIsSuperhost
is false. For superhosts, hostIsSysop
and hostIsSuperhost
are both true. In other words, a Superhost is considered a sysop
for WCTL purposes, but the true sysop is not a Superhost.
So
to test to see if the user is the true sysop (i.e. a sysop but
not a superhost), you would use:
%% if
userIsSysop && !userIsSuperhost %%
Access
Lists for Macros and HTML files
With
Web Crossing 4.0 it's now possible to create Web Crossing links
to macros and HTML files served by Web Crossing. By placing those
links within a the webx/htmlLinks directory, and then creating
a link inside folder with an access list on it, it's possible
to password-protect those files. See Linking
to Macros and Static Files and the webx/htmlLinks
directory.
Troubleshooting
I logged
in as a test user who'd been given a certain set of access privileges,
but my test user didn't have the privileges I expected.
- Check
the access list for the discussion or folder in question. Individual
access rights will supersede those of any group the user is
in.
- If
the user is subscribed as part of a user group, double-check
the group membership list.
My access
lists or user groups lists changed and I didn't do anything to
it!
- Check
to see what other hosts might have access to the access lists
and user group functions.
Resources
Sysop
Documentation
Sysop
Control Panel
- User
Management
- Guest
users
- Registered
users
- Customize
|
