The Situation - You’ve just started your new Drupal site, and you’re wondering how you’ll manage those thousands (hopefully hundreds of thousands) of users and what they can and can’t do.
You’ve entered the realm of Permissions. You click on the link titled Permissions, in the Users area, and I’d like to welcome you to the “Checkbox Maze Game”. You proceed to create all your roles according to the people who will be using your site. This includes your Assistant, your Junior Admin, some Moderators and various other roles. But wait…!!! Stop! Don’t check that box!
There may be a better way to manage permissions which will be more flexible in the long run. I personally remember my first try at the Checkbox Maze Game and it’s through my experience that I present this video about understanding Drupal’s permissions and how it’s much more straight forward when someone just tells you how it works.
To get you started, did you know the only role that needs the checkbox ‘post comments’ checked is authenticated user?*
*(unless you’re going for something much more complex)
Ahh the checkbox maze… I just wrote a post about some of the caveats regarding the Drupal permissions. I think it’s inportant to realize that the roles are module-based and not content-based. I have a little more on this on my blog, if you (or anyone) are interested!
Thanks,
www.DaLeeMan.com
Your point is valid, although I consider it to be one of a technical point of view. Site owners are (and I’ll make an assumption here), typically a bit more tech savvy and also responsible for adding modules. I’ll also assume that most visitors to this site have access to install modules.
When covering basic concepts such as these, my perspective is to view things from not having worked with Drupal ever before. I’ve personally made the mistakes I covered in the video, and the granularity you achieve by focusing on permissions, relative to content, provides a more flexible vantage point on permissions down the road. I didn’t mean to imply that permissions are inherently tied to content, rather the view point taken regarding their use should start there.
I somewhat figure that once a module is installed, and new permissions become available, it’s implied that those permissions derived from that module.
Thanks for the comment!
Thanks for the post. I’ve been through the checkbox maze game and wished I knew it was so easy.
So all I checked was “authenticated user” and I’m up and running just fine. Thanks!
When I view this page (FF3.0.3) I hear audio, but see no video