SID-02338: How do I configure permissions by user?

Status:	Answered	TWiki version:	6.0.0	Perl version:	5.18.2
Category:	CategoryAccessControl	Server OS:	Ubuntu 14.04	Last update:	8 years ago

I'd like to limit permissions for a specific user. The AccessControl documentation at twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/TWikiAccessControl focuses mostly on permissions by topic rather than permissions by user, but there is one section, "Forbid certain users to do certain actions by configuration", that has the example

$TWiki::cfg{ForbidUserAction} = { AggresiveCrawler => 'edit, oops, search', ReadOnlyUser => '!view, viewfile', TotallyForbidden => '!nothing', };

What do I do with this example? Is there a page or file that I should add this to? Or is there a better way to restrict a user to, say, ReadOnly status?

Side note: This question submission form has a tip that I can find my TWiki version on my TWiki/WebHome page. I can't find this information anywhere there, so I guessed

-- TWiki Guest - 2017-11-22

Discussion and Answer

This method of access restrictions has been introduced for rather special use cases. The example in the documentation is a piece of Perl code which needs to be inserted into your configuration file, lib/LocalSite.cfg. The feature is not (yet) configurable with TWiki's configure screen.

The "traditional" method for restricting a user to read-only access would be to use the DENYWEBCHANGE setting in the web, to be defined in every web's WebPreferences topic. Per default this setting is empty. This isn't too cumbersome unless you have dozens of webs to protect. If you expect several read-only users, you can create a ReadOnlyGroup for these users, and set DENYWEBCHANGE = ReadOnlyGroup.

About the side note: The information may be difficult to spot. On TWiki 6 it is located in the panel "System Maintenance" (third column in the second row), and on TWiki.org it reads "Installed: TWiki-6.0.0, Mon, 14 Oct 2013, build 26523, Plugin API version 6.00".

-- Harald Jörg - 2017-11-22

The traditional method seems to work. Thanks for your help!

-- TWiki Guest - 2017-11-27

-- TWiki Guest - 2017-11-27

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