• • • Could not get it working with master groups as described by MovieLady, so I changed the IsGroupMember function to recursivly go through all sub groups:
    •         // returns true if $who is member of $group
              function isGroupMember($who, $group)
              {
                  $thegroup=$this->LoadPage($group);
                  if ($thegroup) {
                      preg_match_all("/\+(.*?)\+/",$thegroup["body"],$group_members);
                      foreach ($group_members[1] as $group_member) {
                          if ($who == $group_member) { return true; }
                          if ($this->isGroupMember($who,$group_member)) { return true; }
                      }
                  }
                  else return false;
              }
    • Does anybody have an idea why the setup described by MovieLady should work? I my setup members of the Group UGMetro or UGSports did not have access to pages where the read/write acl's were set to UGNewsroom

• The only code needed should be that HasAccess() function has to be modified in order to search if the user is part of the group or not.

• Then he would write in this page all the user logins he wants to be part of the group (embeded inside plus signs to avoid confusions: +UserLogin1+UserLogin2+).
  $search = "+".$who."+"; In the GroupListPages, the participants logins have to be embbeded inside '+' signs

• Then he would write in this page all the user logins he wants to be part of the group (embeded inside plus signs to avoid confusions: UserLogin1 UserLogin2 ).
  $search = " ".$who." "; In the GroupListPages, the participants logins have to be embbeded inside ' ' signs

• • Correct. I'm using this to control access on my intranet and I've got multiple layers of groups (many that cross over) that allow me to manage groups of groups. Here's how I'm using it:
  • Group 1 (UGMetro) has several names: +Reporter1+ +Reporter2+ +Reporter3+ +MetroEditors+
  • Group 2 (UGSports) has others: +Reporter4+ +Reporter5+ +Reporter6+ +SportsEditors+
  • And the master group (UGNewsroom) looks like this: +UGMetro+ +UGSports+
  • Works just fine for me. :) --MovieLady

• This doesn't really make sense, because u can add it as a subgroupe using his page/groupname, no ?

• This check is already in place as of version 1.1.6.0. --JavaWoman

Managing User Groups through ACLs

My solution

• The idea is that anyuser could define a new group by creating a dedicated WikiPage: something like MyProjectGroup.
• Then he would write in this page all the user logins he wants to be part of the group (embeded inside plus signs to avoid confusions: +UserLogin1+UserLogin2+).
• He would decide through the ACLs of this page who can manage the group list.
• Then he may use this page name in the ACLs of any page in order to manage the access authorizations.
• The only code needed should be that HasAccess function has to be modified in order to search if the user is part of the group or not.

Dependancy

The code

• Two suggestions here:
  1. Call it "isGroupMember" rather than CheckGroupMember: that conveys better that you'll get a TRUE/FALSE answer;
  2. Make sure the function always returns a boolean (easy by casting the substr_count() to boolen) instead of sometimes a boolean and sometimes a number.
• Apart from that I think this is a brilliant idea! --JavaWoman
  • Done as recommended - thanks -- ChristianBarthelemy

How to use it?

• +UserLogin1+
• +UserLogin2+.

To Do

Security Risks

1. 1. Call it "isGroupMember" rather than CheckGroupMember: that conveys better that you'll get a TRUE/FALSE answer;
   2. Make sure the function always returns a boolean (easy by casting the substr_count() to boolen) instead of sometimes a boolean and sometimes a number.

• Apart from that I think this is a brilliant idea! --JavaWoman
  • Done as recommended - thanks -- ChristianBarthelemy

• Two suggestions here:
  • 1) Call it "isGroupMember" rather than CheckGroupMember: that conveys better that you'll get a TRUE/FALSE answer;
  • 1) Make sure the function always returns a boolean (easy by casting the substr_count() to boolen) instead of sometimes a boolean and sometimes a number.
    Apart from that I think this is a brilliant idea! --JavaWoman
    • Done as recommended - thanks -- ChristianBarthelemy