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Subsections


12. Shared documents

Shared documents are documents that various users can manipulate on-line via the web interface of Sympa, whether they're authorized to. A shared space belongs to a list, and the users of this list can upload, download, delete... documents in the shared space.

WWSympa shared web features are basic. The goal is not to provide one more sophisticated tool for web publishing, as web dav or such product like Rearsite provide. Anyhow, it is very useful to be able to define privilege on web documents in relation with list attributes, like subscribers, list owners, or list editors.

In order to have a better control on the documents of the shared space, each document is linked with specific information : its access rights. The safety is thus ensured.

Shared documents of a list are stored in the directory ~sympa/expl/mylist/shared.

This chapter describe how the shared documents are managed, especially considering access rights control. In the following, we will see :


12.1 The three kind of operations on a document

Concerning shared documents, we can distinguish three kind of operations which have the same constraints relating to access control :


12.2 The description file

The information (title, owner, access rights...) relative to each document must be stocked. That's why each shared document is linked with a special file called a description file. These files have the prefix .desc.

The description file of a directory having the path mydirectory/mysubdirectory has the path mydirectory/mysubdirectory/.desc . The description file of a file having the path mydirectory/mysubdirectory/myfile.myextension has the path mydirectory/mysubdirectory/.desc.myfile.myextension .

12.2.1 Structure of description files

Here is the structure of a decription file of a document : file or directory. You should never have to edit those files.

title
  <description of the file in several words>

creation
  email        <email of the owner of the document> 
  date_epoch   <date_epoch of the creation of the document>

access
 read <access rights for read>
 edit <access rights for edit>

This example is for a document that subscribers can read and only the owner of the document and the owner of the list can edit.

title
  module C++ which uses the class List

creation
  email Bill.Gates@Cplusplus.com
  date_epoch 998698638

access
 read  private
 edit  owner


12.3 The predifined scenarii

12.3.1 The scenario public

The scenario public is the most permissive scenario. It enables anyone (including unknown users) to perform the action.

12.3.2 The scenario private

The scenario private is the basic scenario of a shared space. Every subscriber of the list is authorized to perform the action. The scenario private is the default read scenario of the shared when the shared space is created. The default scenario is used only in the list configuration. You can modify it editing the list configuration file.

12.3.3 The scenario owner

The scenario owner is the more restrictive scenario of a shared space. Only the listmaster, the owners of the list, and the owner of the document or those of one of the parent documents are allowed to perform the action. The default scenario for editing is the scenario owner in the list configuration.


12.4 The access control

The access control is an important operation, which is performed before every access to a document of the shared space.

The access control on a document of the hierarchy is an iterative operation on all its parent directories. Here are the regulars adopted for the access control.

12.4.1 The listmaster and privileged owner case

Listmaster and privileged list owner are particular users in the shared web. They are allowed to perform every action on every document of the shared space. This precaution permits to keep the control on the shared space. Listmaster and privileged owner can't be excluded from any document of the shared space.


12.4.2 The directory shared special case

In order to allow to have a root directory more restrictive than the subdirectories, the directory shared (root directory) has a special treatment concerning the access control. The access rights for read and edit are those of the list configuration file. The control on the root directory is specific. The users allowed to change access rights on directory shared are those allowed to edit the configuration of the list.

12.4.3 General case

Let's take a document with a relative path in the shared space mydirectory/mysubdirectory/myfile. This is not a document of the root directory. Let's suppose that a user X wants to perform one of the three operations (read, edit, control) on this document. The access control will use the following process :

12.5 The shared documents actions behaviour

The shared web feature has called for some new actions.

12.6 The template files

The following template files have been created for shared web:

12.6.1 d_read.tpl

The default page for reading a document. If it's a file, display it if it's viewable and download it. If it's a directory, shows the listing of all the subdocuments that can be read, and for each one, proposes the buttons to perform actions that are allowed. If the directory can be edited, proposes the buttons to describe it, upload a file inside, create a new subdirectory. If it can be edit, propose a button to edit the access to it.

12.6.2 d_editfile.tpl

The page used to edit a file. If it's a text file, permits to edit it on-line. The description of the file can be edited in this page. The file can be replaced by another using this page.

12.6.3 d_control.tpl

The page to edit the access rights and the owner of a document.


next up previous contents index
Next: 13. Bounces management Up: Sympa Mailing Lists Management Software Previous: 11. List configuration parameters   Contents   Index
root 2000-12-14