I have a group of users that need a forum that only they can see. To be more specific, if a user is not a member of this group they should not even know of the existence of this special forum.

I know how to minimize access to a forum so that only members of a certain group can access it, but what I need is for the existence (for example - no headers even indicating it's there) to be visible only to members of one specific group.

The only solution I can think of is to create a second XOOPS install and make this specific group of members a part of that userbase. This solution however would be more awkward for these members to deal with. It would be much more convenient to have a forum that would only be visible if they were members of this one special group.

Thanks,
Charles

What I would do in this case is install phpbb2 for other purposes. Then what I would do is create a custom block for the allowed usergroup to see a link and whatever else.

Not a perfect solution, but more desireable from a webmaster standpoint. This way, you have total control over the bulletin board with features that completely hide the forums unless the user is logged in. You can track registered users and see who is allowed and isn't through the member database. Forums would only be visible to logged in registered users of your phpbb2 installation.

Just my 2 cents...

What a great idea Stew! I'll give it shot and see how they like it.

Though, in the long run, I would rather have everything neatly wrapped up in one environment. If XOOPS does make something like this available, (maybe by adding a "groups with visibility" option to the forum-configuration permissions page), will I be able to import the topics and threads created in the phpbb2 site into the XOOPS databases?

Thanks,
Charles

This guy has a real good hack for newbb. it totally block the view from others. I tried it and it works well



http://www.regenerateweb.net/portal/modules/mydownloads/

No problem.

I know it's not a long term solution, but for now it might do. People really like phpbb2 anyway, so I dn't think they will mind the extra registration.

More features are coming down the pipe in the next newbb release and I wold look out for it when a new package is released for Xoops, possibly v2.1 From what I've heard, the newbb module is getting a complete overhaul.