Question User Groups, User Group Privileges, ACLs

A long time ago one of our members wrote a great article/tutorial about how to "extend" Joomla user types and how Kunena could leverage these additional types. Although I have never attempted the idea myself - and the user who started the topic has not been seen around here for a long time - you might find it worth your while. Joomla ACL Hack for user groups + Kunena Inherits the groups without any modification!

I suspect some of the links may be defective. If anyone would like to repair and update the details I'm sure a lot of us would appreciate your help.

I appreciate the fact that it makes total sense to integrate user groups with the upcoming J1.6 ACL features.

However, I have use cases where I want more granularity of user groups when it comes to forum control and forum permissions.

Honestly, I do not want have to depend solely on groups and permissions that I configure for my CMS to be equal to how I manage my forum. It's going to add overall overhead to my CMS management that is just for tweaking what can happen on the forum.

I'm currently managing a big board in vBulletin and will be importing all of those users into this new forum. I do not want to add complexity in CMS groups and permissions just to accommodate forum permissions.

Also, realistically, after Joomla 1.6 stable is released (maybe this year some time?), how long are most of us going to have to wait for all our mission critical components to catch up to stable releases in such a way that they will all talk to each other? Another 6 months? That puts serious use of Kunena with user group permissions into 2011 some time.

Couldn't you come up with some solution of User Group Management for Kunena that will allow for Joomla's 1.6 ACL, but not be totally dependent on it? Couldn't your User Group Management be it's own solution that once J1.6 comes out, you can incorporate it, but your user group management allows for a finer definition? That way you could get it in sooner rather than later and we don't need to wait for the perfect time when we are ready to upgrade existing complex community sites to J1.6?

you are really putting the kart before the horse with this one bethedance, how can they factor joomla ACL into kunena when the joomla ACL isnt even finalised? as smart as the kunena team are they can not predict the future.

This topic is very closely associated with a couple of other discussions we've had recently and I've merged them together. Although ACLs have not formally been implemented in Joomla 1.5 and, with due respect to the users who've chosen non-Joomla forums, I don't know how granular security controls can be governed without something like ACLs, it is possible to permit or deny users access to Kunena forum categories. These mechanisms will be extended in the future to deliver the additional security that users have requested. I also believe that implementing the additional security should not be a major headache for users.

However, the biggest headaches and the biggest debates I've witnessed, from hundreds of discussions I've had with other users of web-based forums, can be summarised with this one simple question: Why are people obsessed with migration?

You see, if you eliminate the data that's supported on one software platform when moving to a different technology, you eliminate 99% of the problems. But that, of course, is oversimplifying the matter ... and it's just my opinion.

The Kunena development team also includes membership of the Joomla Leadership Team and several Joomla core developers. I think they've got a fairly good handle on the future of Joomla.

K 1.6, currently in development, as I have mentioned elsewhere, aims to make Kunena "best-practice Joomla" as far as possible within the present time frame.

hmmm. Well, I'm not sure if my post came across with the right slant. Ideally, in the long run, AFTER I get my arms around using Kunena for an important related site to my current html/vB site/forum, I am definitely hoping to be able to 'migrate' from my vB 3.8 forum that has been around for 8 years to a Joomla/native forum solution and I'm currently putting my eggs in the Kunena basket as I feel quite let down by vB itself.

But, that's my longer-term goal.

Short term, like now, I'm finishing development of a related site, to which all of those users will be invited/imported (just the users, not the posts). I'm starting this new forum from scratch. My current members have an expectation of functionality and utility that they've grown to know and love. Over the years, I've cherry-picked the available functionality to meet my community's needs and it's served everyone well.

I'm not looking for an exact match of features/functions, but I need to get close to what we currently do for the simple reason that it works for us. On top of that, I'm looking for new features and functions to drive the adoption and use to the next level. I think the combination of Joomla, JomSocial and Kunena are the ticket (among some other key components for my particular requirements).

sozzled, I don't quite get you when you say if you eliminate the data when moving to a new platform, you eliminate the problems. Well, heck yeah, you do. But, that's not 'moving' is it? Isn't that just starting over? But even in my case right now of starting over, I'm still serving my same marketplace that has about 85% of the same issues and needs as my legacy forum.

Cerberus, to your point, I get you, but I'm assuming that since J1.6 Beta is due out 'any day now' (I'm just making that up--it's supposedly due out very soon--of course, I count software release expectations in reverse dog years), the Kunena dev's already have access to the J1.6 ACL schema and code and have already have a strategy for incorporating it. They seem pretty on top of things to me. Whoohoo.

I'm also assuming that the request for better user group management isn't going to make K1.6, but I'm just trying to make a case for the sooner the better and not waiting nor entirely relying on J1.6 ACL.

Is it possible to restrict access to a certain thread or section of the a forum?
I would like to create a section for gaming clans to allow them to talk in private.

Please if this is possible, could you let me know.


Thanks