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HomeHomeOur CommunityOur CommunityGeneral Discuss...General Discuss...Feature request : permissions on skin levelFeature request : permissions on skin level
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5/4/2006 6:07 PM
 

Have you ever had this kind of problem :

You have got a page design with quite obscure menus from a web designer that you have to implement on a DNN system. You end up creating menu inside skin (without using any dynamic menus) and loose a lot of the base functionality of a CMS. On the other hand as the site administrators need menus to access Admin and Host -sections of the site, a some sort of menu has to be placed somewhere - I usually put it into some subpage as a module that has only access by site administrators.

Problem is that as good as the default SolPartMenu and others available at the moment are, they can't do everything. This problem bothers me every now and then and my solution would be that since with new profile provider each profile has an GUID -string, would it be possible to enable in skin.xml a permissions -section under each skinobject -section so that you could define roles that have access to view some skinobjects in some skins and vice versa. With this one could get a fixed menu visible with the option to show inside the same skin a dynamic menu with admin and host menus in case user has identified itself as an administrator.

This could work in other skinobjects than menu as well. If you want to enable search, logo, banners etc. depending on who is accessing your site, you could do this on skin level (i.e. subscribe to some role to see some banners and other roles see other banners or don't see banners at all).

So, visibility setting based on user's role in skin would be first step and maybe next one would be defining the content itself depending on user's role - like, show different kind of logo/menu/etc based on page accessing user role would be great.

Limitless possibilities :D

 
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5/5/2006 9:51 AM
 
While I'm with you 100,000% on the menu issues, I'm not really seeing this enhancement's benefits. I'm not saying they aren't there, I'm just having trouble visualizing a situation where one might use it. The concept is very interesting, however. And, let's face it, having the option is better than not. Honestly, I will probably start using a similar feature in my skin objects just to support the idea, despite the fact that I can't see an immediate use.

I will say that, if I were posed with such an issue, I would simply make a pane where I wanted the object and use role-based permissions to determine who can access it. That just seems like a solution that would be easier to manage in the long haul. Plus, it's easy to create a simple skin that has one or two more panes to support this.

I would be interested in hearing simple ideas on your concept, tho.

Also, back to the menu issue, I plan on coming up with a menu skin object that will work in one of two ways. Either it will allow you to specify template sections or it will support XML/XSL transformations. I think the XML way would be easier to process and be more powerful, so that'll probably be the way I go. I will probably do this for menu and breadcrumbs, because I don't personally like either. Eventually, I may look into a navigation provider for that, but I'll have to look into the feasability for that before committing to it. I already know I need the skin object at a minimum, tho - I've had too many people ask for features the built-in menu can't support.

Michael Flanakin | Microsoft Consulting Services
www.michaelflanakin.com
 
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5/5/2006 10:00 AM
 

You're right - this feature propably would be better off to work with panes, although panes should be enabled a possibilty to have html and skinobjects inside them.

Also at the moment I think panes have to be empty to use them and they are all accessible from design mode - could there be a lock of design capabilities of pane for some roles based on definitions in skin.xml ? Would this work ?

 
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5/5/2006 10:31 AM
 
Actually, panes don't have to be empty. Well, at least not in user control skins. I've never done an HTML skin, so I couldn't say anything about that. However, putting something in the pane doesn't really give you anything - you can't access control it, it's just content that's always displayed (unless the skin handles permissions). If you need these advanced features, I suggest you look into creating use control skins.

Michael Flanakin | Microsoft Consulting Services
www.michaelflanakin.com
 
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HomeHomeOur CommunityOur CommunityGeneral Discuss...General Discuss...Feature request : permissions on skin levelFeature request : permissions on skin level


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