What are home folders used for?

[MarkF]

Hi,

just having my first look at WB - looks good!
I realise that there isn't much documentation at this stage, but I can't find a definitive statement on what home folders are used for.

Could someone please tell me what functionality they provide?

Do you have to create them manually before creating a user and where do you put them in the folder structure?

Is the idea that you can give lots of people the ability to create their own 'micro-site' off of a main site?

Thanks
Mark  

[Stefan]

Home folders can only be accessed by their "owner". And yes, you have to create them (in media section) before you assign them.
I guess the idea is rather that you give people the opportunity to have their own page... For a full site there some functionality (especially the personalized menu) is still a bit awkward.

[Ryan]

Well, if you know exactly how things work, you could use this in combination with the advanced permissions system for groups to give users the ability to have their own WB site - but it is an exteremely complex process best explained by me just doing it for someone, and not explaining it (they would have to figure it out once it is done).

[icouto]

I need to create a site where all members should be able to access a page with information about themselves, and to update that information as needed. Obviously, this means that everyone should be able to SEE/BROWSE the information, but only the owner should be able to CHANGE/MODIFY it. Is this something that 'home folders' can provide?

I must admit, I'm also a bit confused about the functionality of 'home folders', and have been unable to find much information in the forums, or in the documentation. The postings in this thread are quite old, and I am not sure whether they still apply to the current version of WB. So, would someone be able to tell me:

1) in the current version of WB (2.6.5) is it still necessary for us to create the folders manually for every user, or are they automatically created? If we have to create them manually, WHERE do they have to be created, what naming convention should they use, and what permissions should they have?

2) are the contents of that folder accessible only to that one single user? If so, is there a way to change the system somehow, so that everyone can SEE a page, but only the owner/user can CHANGE it?

Any and all help much appreciated!

[ruebenwurzel]

Hello,

I need to create a site where all members should be able to access a page with information about themselves, and to update that information as needed. Obviously, this means that everyone should be able to SEE/BROWSE the information, but only the owner should be able to CHANGE/MODIFY it. Is this something that 'home folders' can provide?

For what you want you don't need the home folders. You can do it with simple group/usermanagement. Add for every user a group and set the permissions what this group is allowd to do. Add then users (or simply one user) to this group. Go then to the pages and add the groups wich are allowed to edit. Now everyone is able to SEE/BROWSE this pages and the Users can CHANGE/MODIFY only the pages they are allowed after they have logged in.

Matthias

[icouto]

Dear Matthias,

Thank you for the reply! - yes, I knew that this could be done 'manually', as you described, but I was wondering whether the 'home folders' option would provide us with that functionality 'for free'. That would have been awesome, as in my situation, the client expects to have between 200-300 members/users, so doing this 'by hand', one by one, is out of the question...

Still, then, the original question remains: what *are* these home folders for? In what kind of setup are they used?

Many thanks in advance.

[ruebenwurzel]

Hello,

never worked with home folders, so I'm sorry that i could give you no help for this 

Matthias

[icouto]

Matthias, thank you for the information you provided, anyway. 

What gave me the idea that home folders might be useful for what I had in mind was the above posting from 'Stefan':

I guess the idea is rather that you give people the opportunity to have their own page...

Unfortunately, I do not have the time to play around with this feature at the moment, to find out exactly what it is supposed to be used for. I do have that nagging feeling, that this could indeed be very useful, and could be saving some of us a lot of work.

I very much hoped that someone 'in-the-know' would give us a quick run-down...

[AzAkers]

Hey Matthias - Nice work-around for an issue I was working on!

I wanted to to have 'client pages' where clients could interact with me privately in their own section - a place where I could leave mock-ups, proposals quotes etc where only they could access it, and where they could leave comments & approvals, update their contact information etc

I played with it a bit, it works perfectly - thanks!!

Here's what I did
- added a Group 'Client A'
- set permissions for 'Client A' group (I turned off all permissions)
- added a User 'Client A User 1' to group 'Client A'
- created client pages with view set to 'private' and checked 'Client A' to allow that group to see their pages
- I used a modified Guestbook module to add commenting to regular pages & Galleries


I'll try out a few things to see if I can add more interaction, but this is working great - thanks!