Managing restricted channels and writing restricted stories

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This content applies to all versions since version 4.3.0

 

Managing restricted channels

Restricted channel creation

In Stories settings > Channels > Category > Create channel, after clicking on the type selector will appear the CHOOSE AD GROUPS TO ALLOW ACCESS, and the CHOOSE EDITORS areas.

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After selecting any number of Groups(none, 1 or more) from AD groups to restrict access, and
at least one Editor from the Editorial module, and Save, the restricted channel will be created.

We can create a restricted channel without an AD group because it’s possible to start creating them and later finish this configuration.

 

The writers(from the Editorial module) and audiences fields are optional.

 

The thing that determines that you can see the restricted content is the AD group or the belonging to Editors or Writers, not the audience. The audience for restricted just forces the user to follow the channel. And just that.

 

The title of the channel can not be duplicated by any other channel, and it has a limit of 70 characters, as before.

Make sure that the channel title that you use is adequate because it could be found by the Hero admins and Site owners in order to configure those places.

After creating it, a channel can not be converted from public to restricted and vice versa.

 

“Create another” checkbox won’t change its behavior. This action will maintain the selected type of channel(public/restricted) and it will scroll to the top of the modal after clicking on Save. The checkbox will maintain the checked state.

Restricted channel edition

If the channel is restricted a message will appear at the top of the modal: “Restricted channel: Only certain people have access to its content.” Note: A channel cannot be converted from public to restricted and vice versa.

 
After the edition, the restricted channel must have at least one Editor from the Editorial module.
“Delete channel” won’t change its behavior. A channel can be deleted only when there are no articles in that channel. Since the 4.4.0 version, the Delete option has been removed from the Channels’ tree. But the Delete option is still in the Edit channel modal.

Channels visibility in Stories Settings

Administrators and Editors will see all public channels and only restricted channels where they are associated with, in Stories Settings > Channels.
As before, Writers won’t see the Channels section. In All articles, the channels picker will show only public channels and restricted channels where they are associated with.
An Admin or an Editor that creates a channel but them are not set as Editors, so let’s say that they’re creating the channel for someone else, will see temporally the channel in the Channels section, but after refreshing the browser, that channel will disappear to them.

Restricted Stories visibility in Stories Settings

Only the editors or the writers that are related to a restricted channel will see restricted stories related to that restricted channel in Stories Settings > All articles. In other words, editors and writers won’t see everything in All articles, JUST the restricted articles that are related to them.

Writing restricted stories

Story creation

After pressing the New article button will appear a new modal. This modal will be visible ONLY for Editors and Writers that are assigned to a restricted channel. This also means that users that are not related at all with any restricted channel won’t see this modal.
Restricted will be the selected type by default. The Select a channel dropdown will show ONLY the first 100 restricted channels alphabetically where the user is assigned.
Once a restricted channel is selected the Create button will be enabled and after clicking it the user will start to create the article in the editor with the selected channel automatically selected in the channel picker.
Local entities enabled scenario
Stories created in a Local Entity with a restricted channel cannot be seen by the other Local Entities users that are not in the restricted channel.

Writing a restricted story

In draft mode, once you have selected that the story will be a restricted story, you cannot modify the restricted channel selected, the search field in the channels picker is disabled and the rest of the channels are automatically hidden. And a tooltip will appear when hovering over the restricted channel.

 

Once you have set a restricted channel to a story, and the story is published, or unpublished, you cannot remove it or add any other channel. A tooltip over the channel will appear warning about this. In other words, a Story can only either: belong to N public channels OR belong to 1 restricted channel.

Regarding guest authors, we will limit the election in the People picker to the editors, writers, and AD group users related to the channel where the story is going to be published.

Story approval

In this case, the request approval should limit the election of approvers to the editors/writers/users in AD groups related to the channel where the story is going to be published.