I need to set up a new User Role, where the user has access to the forum, but not to all the boards. Is there a way to do this? Can anyone please give me a hint on how to restrict access to some boards but not others?

Thanks!

Coleen

First of all, do you mean "boards" or "forums"?

In my forum ( ie "board" ) I have set up some "forums" that are only accessible by eg "Registered", "moderators" and such.
I have also created new roles as "Site Editor" (for the rest of my site), "Banned" (users that are assigned to no access at all) , "Sin Bin" (users that are temporarily inhibited from posting, but can read all forums that "Registered" can except one "forum" ) and so on...

The thing is that you can create a new user role, and when it is created you assign the rights for it to the "forum" you wish to limit access to. If you create a new role, it is available for use in the specific "forum" you wish to restrict. You will also have to add the the role(s) to the user profile for a user in the user profile tab "User Roles" in "Admin user"...

I have attached 2 pics from my forum, first is in the "Admin->Users and Roles->Roles" and the second one from "Admin->Forums->Edit Forum" (button to the right of the forum name).

Hope this can give you an idea of how to work it, please ask more if you feel you need more detailed explanations..

---

Typically I would call each "forum" a board - i.e., Yaf calls the main site a "Board" and each "board" on it a "forum"...

So I need to be able to grant access to users to see certain "forums" so I need to set up a new User Role to restrict access from the "forums" that are completely private until they complete their required Info post (where I can then verify their IP address)

I think I've figured it out - but one question - on the User Detail section for each user (where I grant them access) if I check the box "Is Approved" under User Details, but under User Roles check the box for the new role I have created, they will still have access ONLY to the "Forums" (boards) that I assigned to that new role - correct?

Thanks very much for your help and your quick response!

Ok, the "board" is the highest level - just as I have - containing "forums" for which you used the terminology "boards" if I got it correctly. Please correct me if I have misunderstood...

The "Is approved" has nothing to do with user rights, if you uncheck that - the user will go back to "Unapproved" status and will be listed under "Unapproved users" in the Admin main page. The same status they have until they have confirmed their registration via email (if you use that).

You can make "User Roles" as you wish, and it is in each "forum" you restrict or allow access, since a "User role access" will be available to each forum to be selected & defined for the specific forum. So it is more like "Forum - what Role should have access?" than "User Role - has access to these Forums" way of thinking.

As an example I show you my moderator forum access...

---

Thanks! Okay, got it! Setting them to "Approved" under User Details just adds them to that "group" - so I think I have it set up correctly. Yes, I do have them set up to be verified via email - then once they respond, I grant them access to certain "Forums" (boards) and once they complete the "Required Info" (which allows me to get their IP address) Then they are granted access to the rest of the boards

Thank you for your help 🙂

The "Is Approved" is just to register them as valid members of the forum, nothing else - they are then recorded in the "Registered" user role. As I said, nothing to do with their "rights" in different "forums" by default. That depends on what you have set the "Registered" user role access to in each forum.

If you plan to ban members, I would recommend creating a "Banned" role with no access in the forums and then check that role & uncheck "Registered" in the user's "User Roles" on the member admin page. That's the way I do it besides also "Suspending" them... Quicker to tick a checkbox too than to enter the values in he "User Suspend" tab if you need to block a spammer or such quickly....

Since I use the YAF membership also for my site, I *have* to check the "Banned" role on the site pages since the "Suspended" does not prohibit login - You just get a message that you are suspended (with no access to the forum) but you are still logged in.... But that's my problem, not a forum problem, so if you plan to integrate the forum into a site - something to think about... 😞

---