Question [Resolved] Set up multiple categories for specific users

Hello,

I need to set up K1.7 with a minimum of three sections. One of the sections I'd like to use as a private section. We have a neighborhood watch in town and I want to restrict usage and viewership to only that set of registered members.

So essentially, I need guests to be able to view two public sections. Another set of registered users to post on those two same public sections. The third section, which should be private, needs a set of registered users to be able to post messages, receive subscriptions, and send a reply post via email or at least log on easily to the forum to reply.

In the future, a series of private sections for different groups of users would be my goal. Is this possible with K1.7? What would be the best way to implement this? I've been going through the documentation. I'm not finding anything specific to my question.

Best Regards,

Ben

Database collation check: The collation of your table fields are correct

Legacy mode: Disabled | Joomla! SEF: Enabled | Joomla! SEF rewrite: Disabled | FTP layer: Disabled |

This message contains confidential information

htaccess: Missing | PHP environment: Max execution time: 45 seconds | Max execution memory: 96M | Max file upload: 24M

Kunena menu details:

Joomla default template details : ja_nex | author: JoomlArt.com | version: 2.5.0 | creationdate: February 2012

Kunena default template details : nts_kbusiness | author: 9ThemeStore | version: 1.6.5 | creationdate: 2011-05-07

Kunena version detailled: Installed version: 1.7.2 | Build: 5215 | Version name: Omega | Kunena detailled configuration:

Warning: Spoiler!

[th]Kunena config settings:[/th]

board_offline	0
board_ofset	0.00
enablerss	1
enablepdf	1
threads_per_page	20
messages_per_page	6
messages_per_page_search	15
showhistory	1
historylimit	6
shownew	1
jmambot	1
disemoticons	0
template	nts_kbusiness
showannouncement	1
avataroncat	0
catimagepath	category_images/
showchildcaticon	1
annmodid	62
rtewidth	450
rteheight	300
enableforumjump	1
reportmsg	1
username	0
askemail	0
showemail	0
showuserstats	1
showkarma	1
useredit	1
useredittime	0
useredittimegrace	600
editmarkup	1
allowsubscriptions	1
subscriptionschecked	1
allowfavorites	1
maxsubject	50
maxsig	300
regonly	1
changename	1
pubwrite	0
floodprotection	0
mailmod	0
mailadmin	0
captcha	0
mailfull	1
allowavatar	1
allowavatarupload	1
allowavatargallery	1
avatarquality	65
avatarsize	2048
allowimageupload	0
allowimageregupload	1
imageheight	800
imagewidth	800
imagesize	150
allowfileupload	0
allowfileregupload	1
filetypes	txt,rtf,pdf,zip,tar.gz,tgz,tar.bz2
filesize	120
showranking	1
rankimages	1
avatar_src	fb
fb_profile	fb
pm_component	no
userlist_rows	30
userlist_online	1
userlist_avatar	1
userlist_name	1
userlist_username	1
userlist_posts	1
userlist_karma	1
userlist_email	0
userlist_usertype	0
userlist_joindate	1
userlist_lastvisitdate	1
userlist_userhits	1
latestcategory
showstats	1
showwhoisonline	1
showgenstats	1
showpopuserstats	1
popusercount	5
showpopsubjectstats	1
popsubjectcount	5
usernamechange	1
rules_infb	1
rules_cid	1
help_infb	1
help_cid	1
showspoilertag	1
showvideotag	1
showebaytag	1
trimlongurls	1
trimlongurlsfront	40
trimlongurlsback	20
autoembedyoutube	1
autoembedebay	1
ebaylanguagecode	en-us
fbsessiontimeout	1800
highlightcode	0
rss_type	topic
rss_timelimit	month
rss_limit	100
rss_included_categories
rss_excluded_categories
rss_specification	rss2.0
rss_allow_html	1
rss_author_format	name
rss_author_in_title	1
rss_word_count	0
rss_old_titles	1
rss_cache	900
fbdefaultpage	recent
default_sort	asc
alphauserpointsnumchars	0
sef	1
sefcats	1
sefutf8	0
showimgforguest	1
showfileforguest	1
pollnboptions	4
pollallowvoteone	1
pollenabled	1
poppollscount	5
showpoppollstats	1
polltimebtvotes	00:15:00
pollnbvotesbyuser	100
pollresultsuserslist	1
maxpersotext	50
ordering_system	mesid
post_dateformat	ago
post_dateformat_hover	datetime
hide_ip	1
js_actstr_integration	0
imagetypes	jpg,jpeg,gif,png
checkmimetypes	1
imagemimetypes	image/jpeg,image/jpg,image/gif,image/png
imagequality	50
thumbheight	32
thumbwidth	32
hideuserprofileinfo	put_empty
integration_access	auto
integration_login	auto
integration_avatar	auto
integration_profile	auto
integration_private	auto
integration_activity	auto
boxghostmessage	0
userdeletetmessage	0
latestcategory_in	1
topicicons	1
onlineusers	1
debug	0
catsautosubscribed	0
showbannedreason	0
version_check	1
showthankyou	1
showpopthankyoustats	1
popthankscount	5
mod_see_deleted	0
bbcode_img_secure	text
listcat_show_moderators	1
lightbox	1
activity_limit	0
show_list_time	720
show_session_type	0
show_session_starttime	0
userlist_allowed	0
userlist_count_users	1
enable_threaded_layouts	0
category_subscriptions	post
topic_subscriptions	every
pubprofile	1
thankyou_max	10
email_recipient_count	0
email_recipient_privacy	bcc
email_visible_address
captcha_post_limit	0

Third-party components: None

Third-party SEF components: sh404sef: The file doesn't exist sh404sef.xml !

Plugins: System - Mootools Upgrade: Disabled | System - Mootools12: Disabled

Modules: None

G'day,esotericvision, and welcome to Kunena.

In general I would advise people in your situation to read Sections, Categories, sub-Categories (Part 2) - advanced setup for special groups . I say that "in general" that is where you will find the information, however that article was written a couple of years ago and events in the Joomla world have overtaken things so that a lot of the information you will find there is a little confusing ... to say the least.

The answer to the question starts with an understanding of Joomla 2.5 ACLs. When you've got your mind wrapped around how to implement ACLs then it's fairly easy to create categories in Kunena that rely on Joomla ACLs to give different types of users access to different categories. What we really need, however, is a more up-to-date document that shows people how to use Joomla 2.5 ACLs with Kunena and, unfortunately, that document (which would probably take me a several days, without interruptions, to write) does not yet exist.

So, what would help you (and me) and many hundreds of others in your situation is better documentation. I think this is important. I would therefore put out a general call for help from anyone in the community who would like to help us to improve the level of documentation, please help us. If anyone, reading this, is willing to lend a hand, please contact me directly by PM. The only requirement is that you know something about Joomla ACLs and how to write English.

You can create a third, private category and restrict its access so that only certain people can access it. The Wiki article Sections, Categories, sub-Categories (Part 2) - advanced setup for special groups contains some information to explain the process. I wish it was better written to help you. That's about the best I can offer at this time, unfortunately.

Really appreciate the information. It's a bit a relief knowing it can be done at all. It's not so great knowing I'll have 20 hours into climbing another learning curve. Whatever information I can find I'll post to this thread to help but it seems I may not be the right one to write it. lol.

Ben

NOTE: Joomla ACLs (access control list tutorial 1.6-2.5)
docs.joomla.org/Access_Control_List/1.6-2.5/Tutorial

Just a quick follow up to my last post. Between the the documentation from Kunena and Joomla Docs, this really hasn't been bad at all. It's just a couple hours of playing around to get it up and running. I'm sure that there will be snags but this is VERY doable. Thanks!

Best,

Ben