Feature Wiki

Information about planned and released features

Tabs

Editing a blog post by a non-author

Page Overview

1 Requirements
- 1.1 New permission setting
- 1.2 Default permissions
2 Additional Information
3 Discussion
4 Implementation
- 4.1 Testcases

1 Requirements

Initial position for this feature request is a mantis bug (which isn't a bug, because "current behaviour is the intended behaviour", JF 28 Apr 2014): Mantis #13187

At the moment (status ILIAS 4.4) only the owner of a blog post has permission to edit his own post. You can add more "Contributors" to the blog, which have permissions to add new blog posts themselves. But they can't edit posts of other contributors. Even the owner of the object "blog" hasn't permission to edit other's posts.

Overview of blog scenarios
Blogs can be used as

personal blogs in working space area (I can add and edit posts)
teaching blogs in courses, where tutors grade the contents (I have no permission to edit posts of other authors)
collaborative team blogs in categories (often in open access categories) like blog for an institution, a departement, a company, a product, a news blog, ... (there is a team of authors, which manage all posts)

Problem: The current permission-concept do not include the third scenario "collaborative team blogs", although it would be a powerful scenario (f.e. for blog.ilias.de and other news blogs). In the current permission-concept I can't edit a post, which was opened by another author. But as a team there's a need for this permission.

Why we have to adjuste the current behaviour?
If you conduct a blog as a team, you should have the permission to edit posts from other team collegues. It could be, that someone who has begun a post is in holiday or is sick and then another person should be able to complete, edit and publish this post. So for all scenarios where the name of the author isn't that important, because all blog authors work together, we need some changes in current blog-permission behaviour.

Comparison with popular blog system
One of the most used and popular blog system is Wordpress (WP). Wordpress has a elaborated user role structure with

WP Administrator / Administrator
WP Editor / Redakteur
WP Author / Autor
(WP Contributor / Mitarbeiter)*
(WP Follower / Viewer)**

For details see: User Roles EN / Benutzerrollen DE

*"Contributor" is another role in wordpress (has no publish permission) than "contributors" in ILIAS. "ILIAS contributors" are the same like "WP Author".
**already available, every user with "Read"-rights.

Suggestions for blog posts in ILIAS

Adding a new role "Editor" (and tab) in blogs would faciliate a collaborative team blog, where a team can view, edit, publish and delete every post. An editor can moderate comments, administrate keywords and dates. This needs a new permission right "edit". Alternatively, a new permission right "edit" could also fulfill the needs for collaborative blogs in categories, so in that case a new role "Editor" is not necessary.
An Originator (and owner) of a blog should have all permissions for this blog. There is actually no guideline about the rights of the originator of an object. But in every other object in ILIAS, the originator and owner has the permissions to view, read, add and delete the "content/posts/..." in general. At the moment as a originator and owner of a blog I have just the permission to "Deactivate Blog Postings" and to "Delete" posts from other authors. An originator can delete a post, but cannot edit this post.
Using "page history" in posts to identify changes from other authors/editors/owners (page history is already implemented; it should collect changes from others like in wikis).
Every person who has written something in a post, is listed as author of this post.
- On the starting page of a blog, all authors of this blog are listed in a box "Authors" (implemented already).
- All user names of all authors of the post "XY" appear in the header of the post too (implemented already for the originator of this post).

1.1 New permission setting

permission	options on my post	options on others post
contribute	add new post, publish, rename, edit keywords, edit date, delete // "needs approval" is visible	read, see all drafts
edit settings	edit settings, edit contributors, export of a blog, deactivate posts, delete // "needs approval is visible", approve	edit settings, edit contributors, export of a blog, deactivate posts, delete // "needs approval is visible", approve
edit	same as contribute	publish, deactivate posts, rename, edit keywords, edit date, delete // "needs approval" is visible

blue = new permission

1.2 Default permissions

Role "originator"/"owner"

Role "editor"

permission	default
visible	√
read	√
contribute	√
edit	√
copy	√
edit settings	√
delete	√
change permission	√

permission	default
visible	√
read	√
contribute	√
edit	√
copy
edit settings	√
delete
change permission

2 Additional Information

Idea / concept: Yvonne Seiler, yvonne.seiler[ät]ilub.unibe.ch, Universität Bern
Funding: Universität Bern
Maintainer: Jörg Lützenkirchen
Implementation of the feature is done by Leifos
Testcases by: (name, e-mail)

3 Discussion

Matthias Kunkel, October 24, 2014: I know the problem you addressed in this feature request from projects where we use collaborative blogs. I would suggest to call the permission "Redact" and not "Edit". We have already "Edit Settings" and I fear "Edit" causes confusion. "Redact" fits good to "Contribute" - one user is contributing, another is redacting this contribution.

This permission does not need to be given to roles automatically (disabled in role templates). If it is not given, a user with this role is not able to modify / edit the posting of another user.

Creating a new role "Editor" automatically is too much overhead in my opinion. Facing big installations with several thousand of course and group roles, I recommend to be careful in creating roles automatically. If you need a local role to handle users with this permission it is easy to create a new one.

JF 27 Oct 2014: We appreciate the feature and schedule it for 5.1.

A new permission "Redact" should be introduced.
A standard local role "Editor" should be introduced (incl. role template "Blog Editor" in the administration)
The "contributor" tab should allow to add users to all local defined roles.

23.06.2015, YS: Language File:

Tab "Contributor" should be renamed in german: "Blog-Mitwirkende" instead of "Blog-Autoren"
Blog-Author (engl.) = Blog-Autor (german) <=> contribute (engl.) = mitarbeiten (germ.)
Blog-Editor (engl.) = Blog-Editor (german) <=> redact (engl.) = redigieren?? (germ.)