New subject: [Mediawiki-l] How to prevent access of different user groups to different namespaces

13 Jun 2006


      From what I've been reading, this seems possible, perhaps even without 
special patches. However, there also seem to be a plethora of different 
ways to go about this, and I'm wondering if the a "standard" way that is 
recommended. I'm running MW 1.6.3, and can upgrade if necessary.
What I'd like to do is create a "Public" namespace. This will be 
editable and mostly configurable to all logged in users. In addition, 
users will be able to edit most "talk" pages, including that from the 
main namespace.
Than Main namespace will be viewable by all (including *), but only 
edited/changed by an "Editors" group.
A "Privileged" group may be created. If so, it will have all of the 
abilities of the Editors group, plus the ability to view/edit a 
"Private" namespace, which none of the lower-level groups can even read. 
The basic intent is that new "official" pages will be developed here, 
and then moved into the main namespace when complete.
Finally, "sysop" will be able to do anything.
Here's the stuff I've put into LocalConfiguration to try to get things 
started:
/**
 * Additional namespaces. If the namespaces defined in Language.php and
 * Namespace.php are insufficient, you can create new ones here, for 
example,
 * to import Help files in other languages.
 * PLEASE  NOTE: Once you delete a namespace, the pages in that 
namespace will
 * no longer be accessible. If you rename it, then you can access them 
through
 * the new namespace name.
 *
 * Custom namespaces should start at 100 to avoid conflicting with standard
 * namespaces, and should always follow the even/odd main/talk pattern.
 */
$wgExtraNamespaces =
       array(100 => "Public",
             101 => "Public_Talk",
             102 => "Privileged",
             103 => "Privileged_Talk"
             );
My understanding is that this should create my new namespaces, there 
also seems to be a variable for creating "privileged" namespace, but I'm 
not sure the what is does differently, i.e. what the difference between 
a privileged namespace and a normal namespace.
I also read that new user groups are created directly in the DB, using 
SQL. I have no problems with this, though if someone knows of a simpler 
way, I wouldn't be averse to hearing about it :-)
The final step in this process is to assign rights based on namespace 
and group, not just on a group. I've come across these instructions: 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Access#Setting_permissions_for_a_G..., 
but was wondering if there's a better way of doing things. That seem 
kind of hacky, plus I'd guess it might need to be redone on upgrades of MW.
I have a few more questions:
1) Is there a way of saying that a particular group should take its 
rights from one or more other groups, and then modifying specific rights 
for itself? ("Rights inheritance", basically.) Alternatively, can a user 
be a member of more than one group, and if so, how are conflicting 
rights resolved?
2) Is there a convenient way of forbidding all rights to all groups, and 
then granting rights access as desirable to the given groups? I realize 
that the default rights configuration is largely the "correct" setting 
for a normal MW site, but I like the "all things forbidden unless 
allowed" since it makes for a very easy to configure website (you'll 
here about things that are disallowed but shouldn't be very quickly :-)) 
plus also maximized out of the box security. Currently my permissions 
settings look like this:
$wgGroupPermissions['*'    ]['createaccount']   = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['*'    ]['read']            = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['*'    ]['edit']            = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['*'    ]['createpage']      = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['*'    ]['createtalk']      = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user' ]['move']            = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user' ]['read']            = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user' ]['edit']            = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user' ]['createpage']      = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user' ]['createtalk']      = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user' ]['upload']          = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user' ]['reupload']        = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user' ]['reupload-shared'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user' ]['minoredit']       = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['autoconfirmed']['autoconfirmed'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['bot'  ]['bot']             = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['bot'  ]['autoconfirmed']   = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop' ]['edit']            = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['createpage']      = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['createtalk']      = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['block']           = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop' ]['minoredit']       = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['block']           = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['createaccount']   = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['delete']          = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['deletedhistory']  = true; // can view 
deleted history entries, but not see or r
estore text
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['editinterface']   = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['import']          = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['importupload']    = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['move']            = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['patrol']          = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['protect']         = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['rollback']        = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['upload']          = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['reupload']        = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['reupload-shared'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['unwatchedpages']  = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['autoconfirmed']   = true;
The main problem with this is that I'm not sure I've "shut down" all of 
the permissions I want to. Heck, I don't even fully understand some of 
the permissions yet :-)
As always, many, many thanks.
Ken