Protected Sections in Wiki Pages

1 Initial Problem

Sometimes you want to define some page content of a wiki as read-only to prevent that these content elements are changed by normal wiki contributors. A similar feature already exists for entire pages. Having this option also for parts of a wiki page would be highly appreciated.

2 Conceptual Summary

This feature request asks for introducing an easy way to set one or more selected elements on a page to read-only. This should be done in sections which are already permission and settings sensitive. All content elements within a read-only section can only be edited with "Edit Settings" permission for the wiki (like known for read-only pages). If a user has only "Contribute" permission, such a section would be untouchable (like a protected page already now).

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

ILIAS Page Editor » Section

3.2 User Interface Details

Learner's View

Users with permission 'Edit Content' but without permission 'Edit Setttings' will see such a page with protected content like follows:

The section that cannot be edited is greyed out and gets a dotted border and a textual hint "Protected Content". No dropdown is offered when clicking somewhere in this section.

Author's View

Users with permission 'Edit Settings' are able to edit this section and the embedded content as well as move, cut, copy or delete it. Making a section a protected content needs only to activate the related checkbox in the section settings.

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

None

3.4 Accessibility Implications

No accessibility implications.

4 Technical Information

Killing, Alexander [alex], 16 May 2019. Policy enforcement in subobjects of repository objects is an interesting topic. Page Object do not have rbac permissions, since they do not define a node in the repo tree. Currently Page Objects can only enable/disable editing (of the whole page). Repository objects using the Page Component need to pass this configuration (and map their RBAC permission to this configuration). If we introduce protected areas the Page Component would add another configuration for enabling/disabling the editing of these areas and repository objects would need to map another RBAC permission to the configuration. Since this is repo object type specific, the feature will now only be activated for Wikis as specified on this page.

5 Privacy Information

No privacy implications.

6 Security Implications

No security issues.

7 Contact

• Author of the Request: Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel]
• Maintainer: Killing, Alexander [alex]
• Implementation of the feature is done by: Killing, Alexander [alex]

8 Funding

If you are interest in funding this feature, please add your name and institution to this list.

• ILIAS-Verein

9 Discussion

Killing, Alexander [alex] 16 May 2019: I support this idea.

Klees, Richard [rklees], 20 MAY 2019: I think there is some error here: "Users with permission 'Edit Content' but without permission 'Edit Content' [...]"

Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel], 20 MAY 2019 : Thanks for pointing me on this error. Sentence is now corrected: "Users with permission 'Edit Content' but without permission 'Edit Settings"..."

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 20 MAY 2019:  We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule it for 6.0.

Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel], 15 APR 2021: There is a similar request for portfolios for ILIAS 8, see Protected Sections in Portfolios from Portfolio Templates. There it is called "locked", here "protected". But the general idea behind is the same. Selected sections of a page cannot be modified or deleted by users that are allowed to add content. You need a higher permission to edit these "protected" sections.

Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel], 28 APR 2022 : In coordination with the maintainer, I re-scheduled the feature for ILIAS 8. It is the same implementation that was also implemented for Portfolio Templates. Therefore, the title was also adapted accordingly.

10 Implementation

Implementation is the same as for ILIAS 8 feature "Protected Sections in Portfolios from Portfolio Templates". Checkbox for protecting a section is offered in slate. If activated, only users with "Edit Settings" permission are able to edit the section and all included content.

Test Cases

Test cases completed at 2022-04-28 by Tödt, Alexandra [atoedt]

• 49903 : Block einfügen und schützen

Approval

Approved at 28 APR 2022 by Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel].