Private Topics Plugin

[RGJ (Richard - Communiteq)]

@sjjh

thus maybe just an irrelevant thought, how to mitigate the risk: Before/during disabling the plug-in, show a dialogue to the user, reminding them of the consequences of disabling the plug-in

Problem is that the most common way of disabling a plugin is by simply removing it and then rebuilding. So from within Discourse, the plugin just “disappears” at once.

@Jagster

watch status of the plugin and inform right away admin(s) that the category is visible to the world.

How about a theme component that, when the setting private_topics_enabled is not found, or is false, displays a warning banner and uses CSS to blank out some specific categories to mitigate the impact?

[sjjh (Simon)]

@RGJ

Problem is that the most common way of disabling a plugin is by simply removing it and then rebuilding. So from within Discourse, the plugin just “disappears” at once.

I see. Would a warning-message to stdout/stderr improve the situation in this case? (Might not be enough on it’s own, but better than nothing.)

[RGJ (Richard - Communiteq)]

@sjjh

Would a warning-message to stdout/stderr improve the situation in this case?

Same problem: at the moment the plugin is gone, there is nothing that would be able to output that message.

[Jagster (Jakke Lehtonen)]

Sounds actually quite good. I think.

[thoka (Thomas Kalka)]

If it were possible to implement this plugin in a way that it allows additional groups of people to post and see their own messages, disabling of the plugin would be no risk.

[harryob]

I can’t tell where the change in core occurred, but I believe some change pre 57df0d526e has allowed for users to see topic titles on the home page, which is a change in behavior, as far as I recall.

[RGJ (Richard - Communiteq)]

I have tested this on tests-passed as of earlier today (4c7d58a, after your commit) and I am unable to reproduce this.

• create empty forum
• enable private topics plugin
• enable private topics on site-feedback
• create user 1 and have it create a post in site-feedback
• log out and verify that anonymous users do not see the topic
• create user 2 and verify it does not see the topic, not in the category and not on the home page (discovery routes) (including “new new” and “hot”)
• disable private topics and see the topic appear for user 2
• log out and see the topic appear for anonymous users

Do you realize that admins can see everything (per the “Topics are visible for the topic starter and for users in the following groups:” category setting and the private topics admin sees all plugin setting) and everyone can see admin posts (per the private topics permitted groups plugin setting) ?

[harryob]

Hi Richard, yep! I’m testing this in an incognito tab. I’ve got quite a lot of other plugins enabled - so it might be something else interfering, so I’ll get back to you after disabling some - sorry it’s not as clear cut as I initially thought.

[RGJ (Richard - Communiteq)]

@harryob

I’ve got quite a lot of other plugins enabled - so it might be something else interfering,

I’ve been testing this on my 93-plugin test site so this makes me curious

@harryob

incognito tab

That said, I did also test this with no user logged in, BUT it should be good to know that anonymous pages are being cached on various levels, so if you enable the private topics plugin, you might still be seeing existing topics for a few minutes.

[harryob]

Unfortunately, I wasn’t all that successful narrowing down any conflicts caused by plugins. I’m sure my measly 15 plugins are likely all covered by your test site’s 91, however!

These were both taken in incognito mode, and I can reproduce it with a user without sufficient privileges to view the contents of the private topic categories, too. I’ve checked my category settings for Private Topics, and the global site settings, and those don’t seem to be in error, either.

If there’s any additional debug you can think of, or steps to check, I’d greatly appreciate it - but thank you for your support on this regardless - this plugin really has been great for our needs!

[RGJ (Richard - Communiteq)]

Ah, that category setting is what causes it. I can repro. To be continued.
Thank you for reporting!

[RGJ (Richard - Communiteq)]

I have pushed a fix for the above issue.

[thoka (Thomas Kalka)]

If this plugin is used together with your Discourse Private Replies Plugin, one gets infinite recursion in digests, since both plugins use alias_method :original_for_digest, :for_digest.

[RGJ (Richard - Communiteq)]

Thank you for reporting this, I have resolved the conflict.

[huynhthai824 (Sora &\)]

Can users send access requests to the topic creator?

Similar to sharing files/folders in Google Drive, the Topic Creator who receives the topic access request notification will Accept or deny to view the topic content, notified via Email/Discourse notification.

This means that the Topic Title is now public but users must click on the Request access button.

Thank you!

[RGJ (Richard - Communiteq)]

This could be done by having users request access to a group, and have the group be able to access the topics.

[Heliosurge (Dan DeMontmorency)]

Richard has another plugin that is similar but different that might also work…

Discourse Private Replies

Github: GitHub - communiteq/discourse-private-replies This plugin hides topic replies for everyone but the topic starter and the post author. Use cases This can be used for for instance homework assignments where the teacher opens a topic and posts an assignment, and all students make a post with their answers. When everyone has submitted their work, the teacher can open up the answers so the students will be able to discuss them. A second use case can be an auction where something is offered…

[Festinger]

Hi @RGJ,

We’re using your plugin with much joy.

Some of our members are reporting that they are receiving a message stating there are new replies.

There were over 100 new, but I only see the “You have no new topics.” when clicking on it.

Can we disable the notification of new replies of this particular private category?

Thanks!

[oga]

We are looking for a way to offer Support (PRIVATELY). So a teacher can assign Homework to a Student. The student can submit his/her answers.
Only the student and Teacher can view the assignment.
A Teacher can also assign a homework to a Class, only members of that CLASS can view the question and answers.
I saw this Plugin

Private Topics Plugin

Summary Private Topics Enables private topics in a regular category Repository Link GitHub - communiteq/discourse-private-topics Install Guide How to install plugins in Discourse Features This plugin allows you to add an extra security setting to categories so that users can only access their own topics. You can also designate one or more groups that can see all topics in the category. This is typically used for providin…

Wondering if it is suiatable for such task.
Thanks

[RGJ (Richard - Communiteq)]

@oga

Wondering if it is suiatable for such task.

Absolutely.

@oga

A Teacher can also assign a homework to a Class, only members of that CLASS can view the question and answers.

For a class you could consider a category, where the access to that category is limited by a group, which contains the students in that class.