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[request] very simple admin interface for freelance writers
I am looking for a modified admin interface for my freelance writers, one that would have only the basics.
Requirements: If a user is “freelance” and go to admin, I want them to see only the Write interface with no options or excerpt. Textile help should be visible. There should be a list of recent articles… but only their own articles. Having the date and status beside each would help a lot. Saving can happen to either “draft” or “pending”, and they can edit any article in their history so long as it is in one of these two statuses.
And the Publish button should say “Save” :-)
Further to this, the ability to assign articles to other freelancers would help in collaboration. It looks like ajw_admin_workflow does this.
I have tried ied_hide_in_admin and this only kind of works. It seems to not work for certain items and perhaps has not been updated for version 4.0.5.
Does anyone have a clean way of hacking the admin code? A standalone php file that is launched under the condition role = freelancer would be the simplest option. Then all the messing about is restricted to a single file, with the exception of the branching logic.
I am thinking about doing this myself but am a PHP newbie and have been with textpattern a short time.
robin
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Re: [request] very simple admin interface for freelance writers
Forgot… they’d also need some access to uploading images for display inside the article. Come to think of it, I’m not too sure how this works anyway.
robin
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Re: [request] very simple admin interface for freelance writers
Yes, this is possible but requires modifications to the source.
You can get part way by modifying the roles and permissions. See these two articles in the textbook:
Modifying User Account Roles and Privileges
User Roles and Permissions
You can use these to switch off tabs that freelancers should not see. Remember though, the admin tab is needed so that they can change their own password. Freelancers are already unable to publish directly (user type 5 = freelancer is not listed under permission: articles.publish) and also unable to edit other author’s work (though they can see the other author’s files).
As there is no ‘list.own’ permission, you can only achieve listing an author’s own articles with a hack. Likewise, if you want authors to be able to upload images but only see their own, a hack is required (otherwise it is still possible for authors to delete or change other author’s images). Likewise if you want them to be able to upload files, there is no concept of author-ownership of files in the standard setup. This too needs to be added as a modification. All these are achievable and have been detailed in the following two threads but are not entirely up-to-date with 4.05 AFAIK.
I don’t think there’s a “clean way” of hacking this as the txp files are not per-page but per associated functions. Also you will want the admin to be able to see, edit and authorise the other author’s work.
ied_hide_in_admin helps to declutter the write tab. I’ve not checked against 4.05 but it may only need minor modifications to work. ied_hide_in_admin locates the relevant item via the DOM-structure of the page (basically it counts the position, sort of like third block down, 2nd street). If the position has shifted in 4.05 the best way to debug this, is to find the item you wish to hide using a DOM-navigator (IE toolbar or firefox toolbars available) and count the nodes and path. Then edit in the plug-in accordingly.
Half-way-house variants:
If you’re not too worried that authors can see each other’s work in the list tab, but would simply like to make it easier to see their own, you might want to try asy_dashboard. This provides a “welcome screen” upon logging in which you can tailor to your needs. For instance, by adapting the list articles function in that plugin to list, you can list only the logged in author’s own documents on their welcome screen, and provide links direct to the write an article and image tabs.
You could also try stm_image_uploader to enable authors to upload images from the write tab. Whilst not very flexible, you ‘might’ then be able to dispense with access to the image tab. I’ve not tried this, so not sure how it works in the workflow and inserting the image.
TXP Builders – finely-crafted code, design and txp
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Re: [request] very simple admin interface for freelance writers
Thanks lamda! I have been away from this issue (trying to get the rest of the site built) but I actually did try all the things you suggest before posting. It is gratifying (in a sense) that I could at least figure out which plugins might be most appropriate.
The DOM tracing left me with a headache and the dashboard plug was so minimal as to leave me scratching that same aching head. I have installed the image upload plugin so I can likely turn off access to images. This would be no worse than the sort of access Blogger provides: you can upload but not see what you have previously stored.
At least in textpattern the editor could help out the writer in the case of needing to rename/delete an image.
I will come back to this thread when I’ve got more done.
robin
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Re: [request] very simple admin interface for freelance writers
Would this help? I just found this great plugin. Requires editing in the plugin code, but it’s pretty simple and makes it possible to customize user roles without hacking the core.
- Ben
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Re: [request] very simple admin interface for freelance writers
As you say, that plugin only does what editing the core PHP files already does. So that doesn’t help me go further.
robin
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