[Using Sakai] Does anyone know how the group permissions at the top of Resources tool work?

Tue Feb 24 15:21:21 PST 2015

I think there may be two separate functionalities to discuss here:

A. Group permissions. This enhancement has been in existence for
awhile (if I recall, since Sakai 2.7). I also seem to recall a few
issues with it, I'm not sure if they've been resolved? I'm assuming
this needs to be configured via prop setting. You can see the UI in
this community instance:

https://qa10-mysql.nightly.sakaiproject.org/portal

Just create a group and then go to the permissions UI in the Resources
tool--you'll see a dropdown menu for selecting the entire site or a
specific group (and applying permissions to that group).

This is more of a global enhancement, since it allows for targeting
permissions to specific groups in several different group-aware Sakai
tools (not just Resources) that provide user-facing permissions.

But I confirmed this doesn't seem to be working in that community
instance, at least not in Resources. Steps to reproduce:

1. Create group, add student members
2. Go to Resources permissions UI and select group; then enable
"create resources" permission for student role
3. Go to Resources as student member of group.

Expected result is being able to add content. But the "Add" menu does
not display. I also tried hiding a content item and enabling the "read
hidden resource" permission for the group, but that didn't work
either. Here are some potential related JIRAs for this enhancement,
though not necessarily specific to Resources tool:

https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/SAK-19645
https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/SAK-21525
https://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/SAK-20921

B. Sub-folder permissions in Resources. Disregarding the enhancement
described above, permissions cannot be set for groups at the root
level in Resources, only for subfolders. In this case, however, you
don't set them via the permissions UI, but but via the "Actions" menu
for the appropriate folder--and by selecting "Edit Folder Permissions"
in that menu. With this approach, you have to keep in mind that the
subfolder inherits the parent folder permissions, and while you can
enable permissions, you can't disable inherited permissions.

Best,
Jim Mezzanotte
Asahi Net International

On Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 1:53 PM, Neal Caidin <neal.caidin at apereo.org> wrote:
> Finally came back to this issue.
>
> I cannot reproduce the steps, even on Longsight qa10 server.  I've created a
> couple of groups but I don't see an option under Resources -> Permissions to
> select any of the groups and assign group specific permissions.
>
> Puzzled.
>
> -- Neal
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 7:15 AM, Adam Marshall <adam.marshall at it.ox.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>>
>> We have just looked in to this. We have a scenario:
>>
>>
>>
>> A lecturer wants 3 of his students to act as editors and upload PDFs into
>> a folder in resources. He wants all other students to be able to read these
>> PDFs. He doesn’t want to give the 3 editors a different role in the site.
>>
>>
>>
>> So I suggested this.
>>
>>
>>
>> +++++++++++++++++++++++
>>
>>
>>
>> 1/ Create 2 Site sub Groups
>>
>>
>>
>> Student Authors: includes the 3 authors
>>
>> Student Readers: includes all other students.
>>
>>
>>
>> 2/ In Resources – click on the Permissions button at the top of the screen
>>
>>
>>
>>   a/ select Student Authors from drop down list and give them “create”
>> permission (and edit & delete own)
>>
>>  b/ select Student Readers from list and make sure they don’t have
>> ‘Create’ etc
>>
>>
>>
>> 3/ We then create a subfolder and make available only to the 2 groups the
>> idea being that people in Authors group will have and extra permission or 2
>> compared to the Readers group.
>>
>>
>>
>> ++++++++++++++++++++++
>>
>>
>>
>> If one logs in as a member of Authors group that one does indeed see the
>> “Add” option in Resources
>>
>>
>>
>> If one logs in as a Reader one also see the “Add” option.
>>
>>
>>
>> In both cases the individual user can upload files.
>>
>>
>>
>> That cant be right can it?
>>
>>
>>
>> Unless I’m misunderstanding how things are supposed to work, then this is
>> an escalation of privileges type bug isn’t it?
>>
>>
>>
>> This is all in place on fawei-test on https://qa10.longsight.com/
>>
>>
>>
>> adam
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>>
>> ** Note change of email address to adam.marshall at it.ox.ac.uk **
>>
>>
>>
>> Dr A C Marshall, WebLearn Service Manager, University of Oxford.
>>
>> IT Services, 13 Banbury Rd, Oxford. OX2 6NN.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> From: sakai-user-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org
>> [mailto:sakai-user-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org] On Behalf Of Fawei Geng
>> Sent: 27 January 2015 17:29
>> To: Sakai-Dev; pedagogy at collab.sakaiproject.org;
>> sakai-docs at collab.sakaiproject.org; i18n at collab.sakaiproject.org i18n;
>> accessibility at collab.sakaiproject.org; sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org
>> Server; portfolio at collab.sakaiproject.org; sakai-qa at collab.sakaiproject.org
>> QA; sakai-pmc at collab.sakaiproject.org
>> Subject: [Using Sakai] Does anyone know how the group permissions at the
>> top of Resources tool work?
>>
>>
>>
>> Dear all,
>>
>>
>>
>> Does anyone know how the group permissions at the top of Resources tool
>> work?
>>
>>
>>
>> The purpose of my test was to allow members in a group with access or
>> student role to be able to create/delete files in a folder in Resources
>> while other users with access (student) role in the site are still able to
>> view the folder content.
>>
>>
>>
>> This is how I tested:
>>
>>
>>
>> ·         Log into a Sakai project site as a maintain role (I believe it
>> will be the same for a course site).  Create a group via Site Info > Manage
>> Group.  The group includes a few access users (or students)
>>
>> ·         Go to Resources and click on “Permissions” at the top: see
>> attached screen shot “Permissions -1”
>>
>> ·         On the next page, click on the drop-down list next to “Set
>> permissions for” and select the group created, e.g. group, and then I
>> granted ‘create’ and ‘delete own’ permissions for this group
>>
>>
>>
>> As a result of above, I was hoping that  the group members would be able
>> to create/delete files in Resources in the site.   However, after logging
>> into the site as a group member, I was not able to create/upload files in
>> Resources.  In other words, the settings above did not make much difference.
>>
>>
>>
>> Could anyone please let me know where I did it wrong?
>>
>>
>>
>> Many thanks in advance.
>>
>>
>>
>> Fawei
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> Fawei Geng, FHEA CMALT MBCS
>>
>> Learning Technology Support Officer
>> IT Services, University of Oxford
>>
>> 13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN
>>
>> Blog: http://blogs.oucs.ox.ac.uk/fawei/
>>
>> Twitter: http://twitter.com/oxford4learning/
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>
>>
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