Security

There are two parts of the Forums module's security model:

 

1. The security of the Forums module administration interface.

2. The security of the forums published on the web site.

 

Forums module administration interface

 

Access to the Forums module administration interface in CMS Desk -> Tools can be managed in the Modules -> Forums permission matrix in CMS Desk -> Administration -> Permissions:

 

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Display module - the module will be displayed in the administration interface
Modify - allows users to modify forum settings
Read - allows users to only read forum settings

 

The users without any permissions who are moderators of at least one forum are allowed to access the Posts waiting for my approval dialog only.

 

Security of forums published on a web site

 

If you Edit (Icon_Edit) some forum and switch to its Security tab, the permission matrix displayed in the screenshot below will be displayed.

 

Columns of the matrix represent the following actions:

 

Access to forum - defines who can enter the forum and view posts
Attach files - defines who can attach files to forum posts
Mark as answer - defines who can mark posts as answers in Question - Answer forums
Post - defines who can add posts to the forum
Reply - defines who can reply to forum posts
Subscribe - defines who can subscribe for receiving notifications about new posts in the forum

 

Rows in the top part of the matrix have the following meanings:

 

Nobody - the action can not be performed by anyone
All users - anybody can perform the action
Authenticated users - only signed-in registered users can perform the action
Authorized roles - only members of roles specified in the lower part of the matrix can perform the action

 

Below the permission matrix, there is one more check-box:

 

Allow user to change the name - if checked, users can change their name displayed with a forum post when entering the post; if unchecked, user name will be used

 

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The following properties of the Forum group web part are also related to forum security:

 

Hide forum to unauthorized users - indicates whether forums for which the user has no permissions are visible for him in the list of forums in a forum group
Redirect unauthorized users - determines whether to redirect unauthorized users to the logon page or whether to display only an info message
Access denied page URL - URL where the user is redirected when trying to access forum for which she is not authorized