[opencms-dev] OpenCms Not at all User Friendly

[Isaac R. Higgins]

This letter seems some-what inflammatory, but I can offer some assistance.

Most of your questions can be answered by reading through the examples and tutorials in a clean install of OpenCMS.  I suggest you setup a machine as a test server and database so that you can bang around and familiarize yourself with OpenCMS.

Most other information can be found here:
http://opencms-wiki.org/Main_Page
and in the list serve archives.

We generally do not like to answer questions that have been answered several times before or that have been answered in the documentation.  The clean-install TemplateOne examples will prove most useful when trying to learn to be an OpenCMS site administrator.

As far as being a content author, there is almost nothing more simple than creating and updating content.  Familiarize yourself with the "Explorer" which works much to the same structure as windows explorer where resources exist as folders and documents of various types.  Right click on a resource in the right pane of your explorer to access various options, including edit, permissions, and properties.  Permissions work just like they do in windows, there shouldn't be much confusion here.  Windows has a group called "Administrators" as well as an account called "Administrator"  There is a hierarchal structure for permissions inheritance just like in windows. Look at your "My Documents" folder in windows as an example.  It is locked from viewing by other users in the system, but if a user is in the administrators group, they can see it.  Additionally, as an OpenCMS(6.2.3) admin, you have the freedom to use groups only to assign permissions (this works great when there are many users in a group who need the same rights) or you can assign specific user permissions to a specific resource and opt to override inherited permissions.  

You request "role based" permissions to be implemented... check out the features page for OpenCMS 7:
http://www.opencms.org/en/support/features/features7/usermanagement.html

Lastly, I suggest you read the documentation for both versions.  If you can't figure out how to install the modules, you can find versions of it using google.
OpenCMS 7 Documentation Modules: http://www.opencms.org/en/download/documentation.html
OpenCMS 6 Documentation Module Archives: http://www.opencms.org/en/download/archive.html

A quick google search lead me to this:
http://cms.ngsltd.com/opencms6/opencms/
Use the links at the top to browse the opencms 6 clean install documents.
Here's one for OpenCMS 7:
http://www.bng-galiza.org/opencms/opencms/


To answer more specifically:
1. I would start with folder structure in the current project.  Explore making changes to templateone, and creating a microsite to help gain familiarity.

2. Your idea seems logical for your purposes, but not for the majority of OpenCMS users.  For example, I have one project and 1000s of users.  I like being able to manage groups separately from users and projects. One the other hand, if you had a small handful of users, and a lot of projects, it could be infinitely cumbersome to have to administer new groups and users for every project created.  Take advantage of inherited permissions, you can assign a group to a folder and all it's subfolders. Additionally, I don't know of any Microsoft products that add user/group creation into the project setup wizard.  Not even Active Directory (which is the base of all MS networked users/groups).  They all give you a default group to be administered later.

3. In the administrators view of explorer, create your users/groups.  In explorer view, right click on the resource you wish to permit, and assign permissions.  I can't imagine a simpler way.  You can assign users and/or groups in the same manner.  Group assignments work for me because I could have 100 users in a group and assign them all the rights to a resource at the same time.  Then, I can pick one user out of the group and assign them publish rights (which will override their group rights).  You can learn more about permissions if you create a separate account for yourself and experiment with what different settings do to your practice account.

4.a.b. Admin always has full permissions from my experience

4.b. You can test this and see what the results are, there is a hierarchy of permissions when applied to a resource and you can specifically override inherited.

4.c. If one of the user's groups grant permission, permission is granted.  The formula for Group1, Group2, Group3 is:
deny permission if (Group1 or Group2 or Group3) has denied permission, else, allow permission.
So, if one group has denied view access, then the other groups can not allow view access, unless it's the Admin group.

-----Original Message-----
From: opencms-dev-bounces at opencms.org on behalf of Raj Malhotra
Sent: Thu 4/3/2008 9:15 AM
To: The OpenCms mailing list
Subject: Re: [opencms-dev] OpenCms Not at all User Friendly
 
Hi Georgi
It may sound silly to you as you may be one of the experts in OpenCms.But i
have just started working in OPenCms .I am working on a OpenCms application
which uses 6.2.3 version I have to migrate it to 7.0.4 version.
I will say that there is no true sequence to create a project.I will post
few questions which came to my mind
1.I want to create a website so should i start with creating project in
opencms or first should create folder structure.?

2.what to create first group or users. what i am doing after trying random
way is that first i am creating folder structure then i will create group
then user  assign user to group and finally will create project .This is my
suggestion that everything should be in wizard manner once you click on
create project ,you should be provided with options one by one and at the
end your project should be complete.ex like microsoft products.

3.I am totally confused with the users.groups and roles .How we are
assinging permission is not at all clear .Present way is not friendly .when
you create user you just assign group but i just cannot see where how
permmissions are assign or  how permission system is going to work.

4. once you create everything and righclick on the resource say  a jsp. And
you select permissions .you see userr permmissions,permssion inherited from
parent folders and resource permission.The following doubts are in mind
regarding this.

 a.user permission means if  i  login as Admin then   'user permission' on
resource means that admin has these permission on the jsp.


 b.looking at 'permissions inherited from parent folder' there  you have
Adminstrators ,Users,ProjectManagers group.I think that if login user is
Administrator then his available permsions are shown in Administrators
groups,If login user belongs to 'ProjectManagers' group then ProjectManager
group is showing his permission.

but then b is contradicting a.

c.finally resouce permission also there .so if all these is shown in the UI
what is the actual permissions fo login users how its determined if user
belongs to two groups.

I read something about 'Role based Acess Control' and heard lots of praise
for such system.I am not sure but if it makes OpenCms simpler then it should
be implemented.

I have looked this much only in OpenCms and i found permssion assingment
very complex.I have already posted many posts in last few days but didnt get
single answer.


regards
Raj

On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 6:51 PM, Georgi Naplatanov <gosho at oles.biz> wrote:

> Hello, Raj
>
> can You explain, or give some examples for non user friendly behaviour
> of opencms ?
>
> Raj Malhotra wrote:
> > Hi
> > I am beginner in opencms.I think it is not at all user friendly
> application
> > . If you take example of  windows and linux .its more complex like
> linux.A
> > new person cant understand it easily.I wish it should be as easy as
> > windows.May be opencms community should work on making it more user
> > friendly.
> > thanks
> > Raj
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
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