Creating user groups (member level subsets)

I’m using the latest WP version and bbPress 2.3.1 with s2Member Pro.

bbPress seems like it will work for our veterinary organization’s forums. The only thing missing is the ability to add a group of users to a forum… For most forums, we have them restricted based on s2Member level and this is working fine. But for a couple of forums, we need to restrict them based on a smaller group of members, not an entire s2Member level.

For example, we have a Board of Directors s2Member level, and a bbPress forum for this. But in the forum, we only want to include a subset of the BOD members, not *all* of them.

Is there a way to create a group that’s not all-inclusive of an entire role?

For example, we have a Board of Directors s2Member level, and a bbPress forum for this. But in the forum, we only want to include a subset of the BOD members, not *all* of them.

Is there a way to create a group that’s not all-inclusive of an entire role?

s2Member doesn’t have any way to do this natively, but I believe BuddyPress supports groups and forums for these groups.

See: http://buddypress.org/

The only other way I can see you setting this up could be to edit the bbPress templates for your theme, and using the Advanced PHP Conditionals that s2Member gives you to protect specific forums.

See: Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Advanced PHP Conditionals

I can *only* use the forum component of BuddyPress, is that correct? And if I create groups of certain people, will I be able to also use the s2Member roles to restrict access to forums, as well as my new groups? I’m assuming it works pretty much the same way as plain bbPress only with the group ability added…

I can *only* use the forum component of BuddyPress, is that correct? And if I create groups of certain people, will I be able to also use the s2Member roles to restrict access to forums, as well as my new groups? I’m assuming it works pretty much the same way as plain bbPress only with the group ability added…

You can disable a lot of features of BuddyPress, but some will be available no matter what. I believe the main things are the registration page at /wp-login.php?action=register will become /register/ and integrate with your theme, and your members will be given a public profile.

It’s not a perfect solution but if you’re looking for some of the solutions that BuddyPress offers that’s the quickest way to get what you need.

My client’s not allowing any front-end registration anyway, so that should be okay…

Okay – I spoke with my client again and now we’re back to restricting forums by user level, which is great.

However, we need to restrict one forum to *only* one s2Member user level – not “this user level AND any above it.” Is there a way to do this with s2Member restrictions? Like maybe with a category or URI?

I saw this plugin:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/forum-restrict/

But people say it’s not working currently.

This article may help you with that: Knowledge Base » Levels without incremental access

Thanks for the link – I’ll read carefully.

Because I’m using this to manage access level for a forum, would I be better off using custom capabilities since I can enter them in a field in the bbPress forum editing page? If I used conditionals, I don’t understand how I’d implement it…

Well, if you want to remove the incremental access and you don’t mind it being that way in the whole website, then removing the capabilities from the roles would be the way.

Hmm – now that I think about it, I only need this protection on 2 forums, the third one every logged in user can see. But two will see only themselves and the open one.

So – level 1 is Members, everyone sees the Members forum.

Level 3 is Board of Directors, they can see Members and Board of Directors forums.

Level 2 is House of Delegates, they can see Members and House of Delegates forums.

So it’s not so much incremental, as locking a forum so that only 1 level can see it, but that level can also see the basic Members forum for all users. Does that make sense?

Sort of. So you want one forum protected at Level 0 for everyone logged in, another for Level 1 users only, and another for Level 2 users only?

Now, you’ll still need to do something to the topic permalinks so they include the board’s slug in them, or it won’t be possible to use the URI restriction to protect all topics in a forum. Please see the documentation for what s2Member can do with bbPress. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Other Integrations -› bbPress®[/hilite]

You can protect individual Forum Topics/Posts/Replies at different Levels with s2Member, or even with Custom Capabilities. Forum Topics/Posts/Replies are integrated by bbPress® internally as “Custom Post Types”, which can be protected by s2Member either through Post Level Access Restrictions, or through URI Level Access Restrictions (recommended). If you choose to use Post Level Access Restrictions, please remember that s2Member will provide you with drop-down menus whenever you add or edit Forum Topics/Posts/Replies to make things easier for you.

Regarding s2Member’s Post Level Access Restrictions with bbPress®. Before you decide to use Post Level Access Restrictions, please take a look at: s2Member -› Restriction Options -› URI Access Restrictions and consider the following limitations in the current release of s2Member. It is currently NOT possible to protect a Forum, and have all Topics inside that Forum protected automatically. In order to accomplish that, you’ll need to use s2Member’s URI Access Restrictions. Also, s2Member is currently NOT capable of protecting Topic Tags; but you can use URI Restrictions for these also.

“Sort of. So you want one forum protected at Level 0 for everyone logged in, another for Level 1 users only, and another for Level 2 users only?”

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That’s correct. I’m waiting to see if the client is happy with bbPress’ capabilities then will go into this more thoroughly. I just wanted to make sure it CAN be done.

Okay. Check the documentation I pointed you to then.

And for the role capabilities, editing the [hilite mono]s2member_level2[/hilite] role and remove the [hilite mono]access_s2member_level1[/hilite] capability may be all you need.

Remember to lock the roles after you edit so they’re not changed back to default after an s2Member update. Knowledge Base » Locking s2Member Roles/Capabilities

Okay – I’m in the User Role Editor plugin now. I want to do this:

-edit the s2member_level3 role to remove access_s2member_level2 capability

However there are no s2member_level# capabilities listed in User Role Editor at all, nothing to do with s2member except where you choose the role in the select box. Where do I find these capabilities to edit?

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And this will fix it so that in bbPress, Level 3 members will no longer be able to see Level 2 forums? That’s what I need. I watched the videos on custom capabilities but I don’t think that will work in this case. If I’m wrong, please advise.

Ah – I see now – I got rid of User Role Editor and installed Capability Manager Enhanced. Now I can load s2member_level3 and I see a big array of capabilities – but all the checkboxes are empty.

I see access_s2member_level2, an empty checkbox. How do I now remove access_s2member_level2 from s2member_level3’s capabilities? Shouldn’t something be checked by default for Level 3?

Just to be clear – if I load any of the s2Member roles, ALL the checkboxes are empty. If I load a default WP role, some boxes are checked.

I don’t know, I’m not familiar with Capability Manager Enhanced, but it’s odd that the boxes to be unchecked, since it’d seem to mean that the role doesn’t have capabilities… You can try resetting the roles/capabilities. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options -› Membership Levels/Labels[/hilite]

i’ve been mucking about w this issue as well, restrict forum AND child topics/replies access by user role

there is a new plugin in development that works with wordpress members plugin to accomplish this, and it seems to work fine alongside s2member & URE in my testing as well

http://www.tehnik-design.com/tehnik-bbpress-forum-permissions/

http://wordpress.org/plugins/members/

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/members-and-bbpress

sam

When I logged back in and looked at Capability Manager Enhanced again, boxes were ticked and just unticking the capability for s2Member Level 2 (while adjusting Level 3’s capabilities) worked perfectly. Forums are now restricted the way we wanted.

Great! Thanks for the update, Debbie. I’m glad you sorted it out.

Thanks for the info, Sam.