Forum OpenACS Q&A: strange permission problem

Collapse
Posted by Ben Koot on
Hi folks,

On my travel forum, registered members of the subsite can read forum messages. Here are the settings...

Inherited Permissions

* Jack Snijders, admin
* Registered Users, wp_create_presentation
* Registered Users, general_comments_create
* The Public, faq_view_faq
* Ben Koot, admin
* The Public, faq_view_q_and_a
* The Public, press_read
* Registered Users, news_create
* The Public, news_read
* The Public, read

Direct Permissions

Registered Users, create
Registered Users, read
Registered Users, write
Ben Koot, admin
eTurbonews Members, create
eTurbonews Members, read
eTurbonews Members, write
eTurbonews Administrators, admin

Any idea what the problem could be? I would assume the subsite

Thanks
Ben

Collapse
2: Re: permission problem (response to 1)
Posted by Caroline Meeks on
What is the error you are getting?

Sometimes forums issues have to do with read_private_data.

Try changing PrivacyControlEnabledP to 0

Collapse
Posted by Ben Koot on
This is the error message


* Your Account
* Logout

* 1 member online

Welcome, Richard English

* Start »
* eTurbonewsBlog about travel »
* Forum »
* Not Allowed

Action Not Allowed
We're sorry, but it appears that you do not have the permission to perform this operation.

Collapse
4: Permission problem (response to 1)
Posted by Ben Koot on
Caroline,

your comment got me searching and I found this posting. Seems to be the same problem. https://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=279978

From an end user point of view I would question...

1. Do I need the privacy setting; i.e what does it solve for me. If the reply is Huhhh?,

2. Why is it there? Is it realy this that messes up an international software toolkit?

3. Why can't it be turned of from the forum parameter page, because nobody would ever think of going to the kernel to change this, if that's the solution to the problem. I hope to find out tomorrow.

Cheers
Ben

Collapse
Posted by Ben Koot on
The mess is increasing,

Here's the response my client receives after the privacy reset

Well, now I can read what's been posted but can't reply. The system asks me
for my password but won't accept the password I registered with, coming up
with an "unknown user name or password" response. Next?

Folks, this permission system realy sucks if you ask me

- reader is registered member
- all permissions are set correctly

All I want is that people can read a posting and can reply to it. What's the big deal ???? Could it be we have end users security and hacker security perception, so both with difrent goals?

I smell over engineering, or a broken package. Maybe its better to set defaults on low security so humanoids can use the system from basic install, and have all the fringe security benefits as options. Fighting with this issue I noticed that the main site permissions are not even coppied to subsite and trying to copy the settings form openacs.org, 1 deafault setting was even missing. The trouble is once you start fiddeling with permissons you're lost in seconds. THere must be a better way build a UI than have us guessing as to who to assign functionality. But what the heck, I am a simple administrator, why should I have to fight with this shit.

I also notice there seem to be 2 permissions systems. Maybe that's where things get messed up. One level is the package/subsite, where choices make a lot of sense, but activating those don't seem to have much effect. The second is the admin/sitemap level where you can give individual users rights. That's where the real mess starts. I have a feeling somehow these options create the confusion. Maybe they are relics of past designs.

This doen't make any sense. Please let me know how I can make the forum web 2.0 today. This now becomes a critical issue, as I am about to introduce OACS to a huge travel trade network.

Ben

Collapse
Posted by Dave Bauer on
Sounds to me like your user is not logged in and forgot his password. The inability to login when a login screen is presented is not related to the read_private_data parameter.
Collapse
Posted by Caroline Meeks on
Ben,

Did changing the parameter help your situation? Its just a guess that that might be your problem it could be something else too.

It is certainly not related to any login issues.

Collapse
Posted by Ben Koot on
I did change the parameter, but that didn't solve the problem. The permission issue seems to be related to this https://openacs.org/bugtracker/openacs/bug?f%5fcomponent=56165&format=table&f%5fstate=7&bug%5fnumber=1338&project%5fid=56106
I have created new password for the client. I havn't heard back, so assume the problem is solved.

Thanks for your help