[Mediawiki-l] Hidden templates & User Rights

[Matthew Sprague]

Hi All!

    I am interested in using mediawiki for a runbook of sorts.  A way to 
keep information on networks & client environments.  However, id like to 
have a bit of control over user access.  I'd also like to be able to 
customize the user's view depending on their rights assignment.  For 
example, i'd like to keep passwords & router configs in the run book, 
but only allow admins to see them. 

I saw this post on http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Hidden_pages


    Hidden templates are also desirable

[/First, excuse me if I'm re-hashing an old discussion; I'm fairly new 
to mediawiki, but eager to get the most out of it. --Def 
</w/index.php?title=User:Def&action=edit>/]

It has been said that pages in the hidden namespaces cannot be used as 
templates due to page caching. This appears to be accurate, but there 
are some useful (good?) things that can happen if so-called "hidden 
templates" can be made to work. The biggest benefit (/Warning: POV/) is 
that the contents of a given article can be made to change depending 
upon the rights of the user viewing it. Consider the following example.

An article containing details of a network design is written. Among the 
details are items of varying sensitivity. These may be passwords or 
anything else that the general population using the wiki don't need to 
see. Rather than placing these into the main article, these are placed 
in the {{restrict-1:network/pass1}} - {{restrict-1:network/passN}} 
articles. Now, in the main article (titled simply "network" in this 
scenario), we transclude the templates into the right place, all nice 
and neat. Viewers who have rights see the passwords or other info, while 
others see nothing. It might be nice to have some "not authorized" text 
in the latter case, but it is not necessary.

See also Extended template syntax </wiki/Extended_template_syntax> and 
Extended template syntax/Alternative conditional syntax proposal 
</wiki/Extended_template_syntax/Alternative_conditional_syntax_proposal>

--Def </w/index.php?title=User:Def&action=edit> 23:13, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)


This seems to be pretty much exactly what i need, but i haven't seen any 
follow ups.  Does anyone have any more information along these lines?  
any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

-- 

Matthew Sprague	 		msprague at readytechs.com
Project Engineer		     973.455.0606, x204
ReadyTechs, L.L.C.		     www.readytechs.com

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