Why are forum permissions affected by a change in forum name? Is there a fix?

[mishkan]

Here's what happens...

(1) I create a category forum called "A-category" and a child forum called "A-child".

(2) I set forum permissions such that usergroup B has no permissions in A-category, which cascades down such that B has no permissions in A-child.

(3) I test out what B can see... all is well... B doesn't even know the "A" forums exist.

(3) I change the name of A-category to A-category-new.

(4) I test out what B can see... trouble... B can now see and access both of the "A" forums!

(5) To fix this, I had to go back and redo the forum permissions in step #2 above.

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I'm running vB 2.2.6. There are no hacked files.

Is there a fix for this... so that I can change a category name without affecting the forum permissions for that category? Thanks.

[Mike Sullivan]

I know for a fact it shouldn't (and basically can't) function based on name -- associations are kept on id numbers which only change on delete/recreation.

I did try it nonetheless and couldn't reproduce it.

[mishkan]

Thanks for the quick response.

I did more testing on my board, and I found that you're correct, in that my problem does NOT depend on changing the category name. But there is surely a problem... and it looks like it's related to another problem I'm having, with the "private forum" setting.

Problem 1... "private forum" setting

I add a category or forum, and I make sure that "private forum" is set to NO. I save the forum. I do admin cp > forums and mods > modify to just look at the settings... and "private forum" is now YES. It doesn't matter if I change it back to NO... it just keeps resetting itself to YES.

Problem 2... loss of permission settings

(1) I create a category forum called "A-category" and a child forum called "A-child". I set "private forum" to NO for both.

(2) I set forum permissions such that usergroup B has no permissions in A-category, which cascades down such that B has no permissions in A-child.

(3) I test out what B can see... all is well... B doesn't even know the "A" forums exist.

(4) I go... admin cp > forums and mods > modify... and I choose "edit" next to "A-category". I look at all the settings, and I put "private forum" back to NO... remember it had reset itself according to problem 1 above. And I click on "save changes".

(5) I test out what B can see... trouble... B can now see and access both of the "A" forums!

(6) To fix this, I had to go back and redo the forum permissions in step #2 above.

[mishkan]

BTW, in this thread... http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...&pagenumber=2, Steve suggests a fix for problem 1 above. I haven't done it yet... should I go ahead? Or do you want me to try something else? I thought I'd check with you, first, as I'm bringing problem 1 to your attention in this thread. Thanks again.

[Mike Sullivan]

The private forum option is quite kludgy, and will probably be removed in 3.0 as forum permissions are so much easier to set up now. Come to think of it, I think it's one of the cooler improvements, but anyway...

The private forum setting will be set to yes on any forum where the registered group has "can view" settings set to no. This is where the problem stems from -- if you leave the private forum setting set as is, the problem won't happen. Moving it back to no will delete the permissions on it. (The setting is designed to only update the permissions if you change its value.)

It's really more of an architecture/documentation type problem than anything else.

[mishkan]

Thanks for the explanation. I'm really glad to hear about the forum permission improvements, in vB3. Correctly setting up forum permissions in vB2.2.6 has been a challenge for me... very confusing with the various places to make changes... and the "private forum" enigma. Great job, for finding a simpler way to manage forum permissions without compromising on flexibility!

Just so I'm clear, I would like to test my understanding of your explanation...

(1) Under admin cp > user groups > modify, I have set all permissions to NO for these user groups... "registered", "unregistered", "coppa", and "awaiting email confirmation". Therefore, if I understand you correctly, "private forum" will always be automatically set to YES, whenever I create a new category or forum. And so, problem 1 isn't really a "problem", because "private forum" is behaving as intended. Right?

(2) As far as problem 2, I should simply leave the "private forum" setting alone... in other words, just leave it set to YES... for all forums. Right?

[Mike Sullivan]

1. Yup, it's behaving correctly. I'd like to change it so it functions better, but I don't really think that's going to happen unless you include removing it as making it function better.

2. Right. The code that edits permissions will only be "hit" if you change the value.

[mishkan]

Thanks so much.

I've taped a note to my monitor... "Leave 'private forum' set to YES!"... so I'm all set.