New subject: [xwiki-users] How do I get a user to add himself to a group?

15 Jun 2009

...

 Small typo:
 The check is made on whether the page that holds the groovy script was  saved
...
  *BY* *AN USER* *WHO HAS* programming rights.

 Guillaume

The page that contains the Groovy script was create by me, (admin), and it 
executes without a problem. It returns the expected results. It is not the 
issue.

...
  On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 8:35 PM, Guillaume Lerouge 
&lt;guillaume(a)xwiki.com&gt;wrote;wrote:
...

 Hi Dean,

 On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 7:49 PM, Dean G Weber 
&lt;Dean.G.Weber(a)raytheon.com&gt;wrote;wrote:
...

> I've been struggling for a while with the dilemma of getting a user  into
a
...
 > group. Let me supply some background on what 
we've been trying to do  with
...
 > Xwiki.
>
> We're trying to use Xwiki for an internal collaborative site.  Management
...
 > has decided that users of the wiki must complete
proper training.  Without
...
 > the training, the user cannot add to the wiki
pages.
>
> For authentication, we've connected the wiki to our LDAP server via the
> xwik.cfg file. Authenticated users are automatically placed into the
> XWikiAllGroup by default.  In order to accommodate management
> requirements, I created a new user group... let's call it
> "TrainedUsersGroup".
>
> Once authenticated, users are placed into the Webhome page of the wiki.
> I've placed Velocity script on the Webhome page to check if the user is 
in
...
 > the TrainedUsersGroup. If the user is not in the
group, the user is
> redirected to the NoAccess.WebHome page.
>
> On the NoAccess.Webhome page another check is made to determine if the
> user is in the TrainedUsersGroup. If the user is not in the group,  a  call
...
 > is made to a Groovy class (on another page in the
Groovy namespace).  The
...
 > groovy code executes a system call to grep on the
Linux system running  the
...
 > Xwiki against a CSV file pulled from an intranet
web report. The passed
> user's login (which is the same as the LDAP user id) is checked against
> this file. If the returned grep output shows that the training has been
> completed, the NoAccess.WebHome page will attempt to add the user to  the
...
 > TrainedUsersGroup. If the user is added to the
TrainedUsersGroup as
> determined after another check, the user is redirected back to the
> originating WebHome page.
>
> This mechanism works great if the user accessing the pages is an admin.
> However, if the user is a regular user everything except the addition  to
...
 > the group works. Instead, the code to place the
user in the group  displays
...
 > on the page. It does not run and put the user into
the  TrainedUsersGroup.
...
 > This is no good for our needs in which we must
restrict Xwiki access  for
...
   non-trained
users.

 "Instead, the code to place the user in the group displays
 on the page."

 *-> question:* does the wiki receive the grep output in all cases? Can  you
...
  get the output printed on the screen even if the
context user isn't an
 admin? If not, the problem arises earlier and you'd need to identify  exactly
...
  where it comes from.

The grep output is received as expected. The Groovy code returns a result 
that is correct. The Groovy script is working fine and is not the problem. 
The variable $completed_training is set to the strings "true" or
"false" 
output from the Groovy code in the proper manner. I've displayed these in 
debugging code to the screen.

...
  *-> observation:* this issue is typical of lacking
programming rights.
 Programming rights are different from other rights in that the check is  not
...
  made on whether the current user has programming
rights. The check is  made
...
  on whether the page that holds the groovy script was
saved with someone
 holding programming rights. This is why the check you're doing against  the
...
  visiting user doesn't work.

 Programming rights work this way in order to prevent a non-authorized
 person to create and execute a privileged script. Therefore what matters  is
...
  the state of the page holding your script at the point
when it is being
 called. What is somehow happening is that the system thinks the page  holding
...
  the script has been saved by the current user at some
point and thus
 displays its literal content instead of running the code.

I don't understand this. I am admin and I have edited the page. The users 
have been restricted and not granted edit rights to the page. It is not 
possible for system to think the page has been saved by the current user. 
A search on the page shows the last modified was me.

...
  Thus you may want to check whether your application
makes XWiki think  that
...
  the context user is the one who saved the groovy page.
You need to make  sure
...
  that XWiki doesn't think that the NoAccess.WebHome
page holding your  second
...
  script has been saved by the current user. Check for
occurences of
 $doc.save() (velocity) or doc.save() (groovy) in your code and make sure
 that XWiki thinks the user performing the action is an user with  programming
...
  rights.

The Groovy page is not the problem. The NoAccess.WebHome page has been 
shown to be saved by the admin, me. I have even set programming rights for 
all users to eliminate the potential or problems.

...
  I'm not a developer so I can't do much more
for you here, hope it makes
 things a bit clearer though. Good luck!

 (My original goal was to connect to our Oracle database and based upon  the
...
 > user id determine directly if the user has
completed the training. I've
> had luck with a simple Groovy script  running on my desktop and on the
> Linux server. However, from within the Xwiki Groovy console or on a  page,
...
 > I get no output. Therefore, I have abandoned the
Oracle query check via
> Groovy.)
>
> I've been researching the Xwiki user list for weeks. I've poured over
> xwiki documentation. I've peeked at wiki page source. I've done all 
this
...
 > in an attempt to figure out how to get a user to
place himself into a
> group. I've found a lot of confusing and contradicting information.
> Programming rights are mentioned. The only place I found the ability to
> set this right was in the xwiki administration. I can't determine if  the
...
 > problem is even related to programming rights.
I've put a debug  statement
...
 > on the NoAccess.WebHome page to print whether the
user visiting the  page
...
 > has programming rights. In all cases it display
that they do. Yet, only
> admins can add themselves to the TrainedUsersGroup. This doesn't work  for
...
 > me. I need to automatically add the visiting user
to the  TrainedUsersGroup
...
   once the
training has been validated. 

 Btw, I'm really sorry about you experiencing this frustrating  experience.
...
  Hope this email will help a bit.

 *-> shameless plug:* XWiki SAS (www.xwiki.com) offers development  support
...
  services to help you when faced with such hurdles.
I'm aware you might  not
...
  be in a position where you can consider this offer,
but you'd have the
 guarantee of getting an appropriate answer in a short timeframe (vs
 community support, although it's usually pretty fast on these lists)  plus
...
  it's a great way to help the development of the
XWiki project if you  like
...
  the product + well, it would have saved you days and
effort thus making  save
...
  money in the end ;-)

Unfortunately, I am just a developer and not able to direct the funding. 
Since this is for an internal project for a govt. contractor, the time it 
would take to resolve the paperwork to put in a request for the funding 
for external support would be longer than me to just write the entire wiki 
myself.

...

> What is the problem? Why won't the user go into the group? Is there a
> better way of doing this? Any help, code snippets or suggestions would  be
...
   appreciated.

 Thanks.
  Dean Weber  

 How exactly are you adding the user to that group? If you create an 
 XWikiGroups object, add it to the group document, then save it, you 
 should use saveWithProgrammingRights() instead of save().

 -- 
 Sergiu Dumitriu
 http://purl.org/net/sergiu/

THis is from the NoAccess.WebHome page.

Here is the velocity code segment I am using to try and add a user to the 
TrainedUsersGroup group.

01 #if($completed_training == "true" or $xwiki.hasAdminRights())
02   ## 
03   ## Add the current user to the TrainedUsersGroup group
04   ## 
05   #set($MyGroupDoc = $xwiki.getDocument("XWiki.TrainedUsersGroup")) 
06   #if(!$MyGroupDoc.getObject("XWiki.XWikiGroups", "member",
$fullName)) 

07     #set($GroupObj = $MyGroupDoc.newObject("XWiki.XWikiGroups"))
08     #set($AddingUser = 1)
09     $GroupObj.set("member", $fullName)
10     $MyGroupDoc.save()
11   #end 
12 #end

I have tested the Groovy code that is responsible for setting the 
$completed_training variable depending on the user's status. That portion 
is correct. The Groovy code did its part and is not the problem. All lines 
execute correctly except for lines # 09 and 10. In the case where the 
current user is not an admin, those lines display on the page instead of 
being executed. In the case where the user is an admin, No code is 
display. It is executed. The admin is added to the TrainedUsersGroup 
without a problem. I've even changed line #10 to use 
saveWithProgrammingRights but it behaves the same and just displays on the 
screen in the case of a regular user.

Why can't the user execute the code that adds himself to a group when the 
page was written and saved by the admin?

There must be some way for me to automatically place users into a group 
based upon their training status.

Thanks
Dean Weber 
Sr Software Engineer II
Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC

Re: [xwiki-users] How do I get a user to add himself to a group?