Ability to have specific user groups within a siteaccess

Author Message

michael durand

Thursday 04 May 2006 3:48:55 am

Hello!

I am new to eZ system and have a question I couldn't find answered in the documentation or in the forums.

My goal:
I would like to set up a CMS website for a university. Each teacher should have a separate website, that should be accessible by its students. Furthermore, the teacher should be able to create subgroups of students that may have a restricted access to some sections of the website. These subgroups should be specific to the website and not be shared with the other websites.

What I understand so far:
From what I read, I understand that multiple websites can be installed on a same eZ publish installation using "siteaccesses". I understand also that these "siteaccesses" share the same database.

What is not clear to me is this:
Can a teacher be designated as an editor only for its website (basically, can I restrict a siteaccess admin interface so that only one part of the document tree is displayed? Do I have to use sections to do that or is there any other way to do this?)? Also, I would like a teacher to be able to create subgroups of users, but those subgroups should be tied to a siteaccess. Is that possible?

Any answer would be kindly appreciated!

Thanks a lot,
Michael Durand

Mark Marsiglio

Thursday 04 May 2006 4:58:47 am

Multiple websites can be installed and share the same database. The most common reason for doing this that I know of is to use a different design templates for the same data. We use this feature when installing redesigns that use new templates.

Any editor can be given edit priviliges with a subtree limitation. This means that you create a role (teacher) that has edit priviliges, and assign those priviliges with a limitation based on the parent folder/object. So, assign that role to a user/group, and pick the starting page from which they can edit. They will only be able to edit content under that page in the tree.

Your role can limit the viewing of pages in the same way, so you can restrict what users can see in either the admin or the public site.

We stopped using sections for assigning roles a while ago, but it does work fine. It seems to add an extra step for this purpose (creating and assigning a section) when the subtree limitation works better. Sections are great for using unique designs for different parts of the site, though, and if you have already implemented it, then using it for permissions is not an extra step.

Similarly, you should be able to allow teachers to create a subgroup of users, and add users to it (just an extension of the roles and permissions). In my experience though, this may be beyond the skill set of an average CMS user. I would expect that some manual configuration at the start of each semester may be necessary. Also, you may be able to pre-make the groups, and for teachers to add users would be easy. As long as the roles are assigned, it should be fine.

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michael durand

Thursday 04 May 2006 8:01:01 am

Hi Mark,

Thanks a lot for this explanation, it is quite clear.

Best regards,
Michael Durand

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