GSLounge Demo Site Updates

The latest changes to the demonstration site:

• Created an Orientation page
  
• Forum topics and comments are now only visible to authenticated users (following a suggestion from Dean Stellini)
  
• User log-in user interface placed in header rather than left side-bar
• Left side-bar links to Calendar, Blogs, Forum and Feedback (same links are now also located in the header)
• Users applying for gslounge.com accounts are now limited to email addresses of the following format: *@columbia.edu or *@*.columbia.edu
  
• ex.
  
• foo@columbia.edu
• bar@cs.columbia.edu
• Updated the Resources links to actually point to the Academic Calendar etc.
• Enabled the Site Contact page so anonymous and authenticated users can contact the Communications Team about anything they wish.
  

Following these directions I created the first database backup:

• mysqldump -u db_drupal -p -h data.skaftafell.net gs_drupal > ../db_backups/06032007_nodeaccess.back

Forum access was limited to authenticated users through the Nodeaccess module for Drupal. The anonymous user can see that a forum exists but they can't go deeper than that.

Nodeaccess controls which users can access certain paths. Nodeaccess, though under only prototype development for Drupal 5.1, is what I am hoping to use in order to limit access by anonymous users to sensitive areas of gslounge.com starting with the Forums.

Enabling Nodeaccess:

• ssh to host of Drupal installation
  
• wget http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/drupal/files/projects/nodeaccess-5.x-1.x-dev.tar.gz
• gzip -dc nodeaccess-5.x-1.x-dev.tar.gz
• mv nodeaccess modules
• From the Drupal admin control panel admin/build/modules
• Enable Nodeaccess
• Update node access permissions
• Administer/User Management/Nodeaccess
  
• "Forum Topic"
• Remove "view" permission from "anonymous user"
• Save Grants
• To complete this task, I wrote a message to anonymous users trying to view forums instructing them to login or register in order to read/comment on forums.
  

Thanks,

Brody