Admin Profiles (for v1.3.x only!) Support Thread

[kobra]

The module I downloaded was called "admin_users_restrict_product_categories"

Sorry, I had not seen that Module!!

But the Author has not created a Support thread??
Admin Users - Restrict Product Categories
Author: Archelay
Support Thread none

Admin Profiles
Author: Kuroi
Support Thread at http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35911

Maybe, Kuroi will answer for it???

[jupitergardens]

Sorry, I had not seen that Module!!

But the Author has not created a Support thread??
Admin Users - Restrict Product Categories
Author: Archelay
Support Thread none

Admin Profiles
Author: Kuroi
Support Thread at http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35911

Maybe, Kuroi will answer for it???

Yeah, I was startled, to say the least, when the support thread led here. Perhaps the author just left in the admin profiles info, because the admin profiles wiki was also given.

[kuroi]

I just installed admin users restrict product categories. When I go to permissions, I see, categories at the bottom, but none of my two test categories are listed. How do I restrict by categories?

As Kobra says, this is not the support thread for that mod. I don't believe that there is one. Nor do I recommend use of the mod.

The background is that the author of the "admin users restrict product categories" conceived of it as an extension to Admin Profiles and submitted it as a new version of AP (this is why you find references to AP in its documentation). Normally this would be fine and his enterprise was certainly appreciated. Unfortunately, the approach was deeply flawed. It does what it claims to do in a very limited way only, leaving open a number of ways to circumvent the restrictions.

This caused concern to me and this forum's administrators, since Admin Profiles is a key security tool for many site, so to for the "latest" version to be inherently insecure would be a major issue for many Zen Cart users. The decision taken was to "fork" the mod so that the existing Admin Profiles would continue to be available for those wanting a well-proven and secure solution and the new functionality would be available separately for those prepared to take a chance or to help develop it into something more secure.

I explained privately to the new mod's author the weaknesses in the approach and the work that would be needed to plug them, and to maintain the mod. Sadly he appears to have decided that this is too big a commitment. However, I understand as it involves a large number of changes across multiple parts of the Admin, would be virtually unmaintainable and would likely be overwhelming in terms of the support that would be needed for users.

Not an answer to your question I'm afraid. More a recommendation not to use that mod.

[kuroi]

I'd like to report a bug with Admin Profiles.

I've installed the latest version for a client and some of the checkboxes cannot be saved as checked. There is something in common with each of the names of the checkboxes, they all have a "." in the name:

- m1 fua.admin
- m1 performance.admin
- m1 performance.admin

Other M1 modules work fine:

- m1 brokerbin

Any ideas?

Not sure that I would categorize this as a bug. M1 macros are written for various carts and then hacked (in different ways each time it seems) to work with Zen Cart. As a result they do various things that are at variance with Zen Cart standards including using a variety of file different naming conventions. I think that I may already have dealt with this one in my Pro version of AP. If so I'll whip the code out and make it a patch for the free version. Hopefully, will be able to get to that later today.

[jupitergardens]

Not an answer to your question I'm afraid. More a recommendation not to use that mod.

Actually, Kuroi, that is an answer to my question, so THANK YOU. Alas, it probably means that Zen Cart isn't for me, but that does answer my question. So thanks!

[numinix]

Not sure that I would categorize this as a bug. M1 macros are written for various carts and then hacked (in different ways each time it seems) to work with Zen Cart. As a result they do various things that are at variance with Zen Cart standards including using a variety of file different naming conventions. I think that I may already have dealt with this one in my Pro version of AP. If so I'll whip the code out and make it a patch for the free version. Hopefully, will be able to get to that later today.

Sounds great Kuroi, thank you for looking into this.

[signs]

If this is not a support thread for the Admin Profiles - Restricted Categories mod, and it is not recommended to use that mod due to serious "flaws" in the code, then just what are we to do once we have that mod installed and it malfunctions?

Why is the mod available for download if it's not recommended?? Now I have a customer who has come to me looking to fix the issues she is having with this mod (which was installed for her by someone else).

It would alleviate a LOT of hassle for zen-cart owners to not be offered junk mods that are KNOWN to be flawed. Why, when it was found to be flawed and known to not be supported, was it left for us to download? Just curious.

So, I have just now downloaded this mod to try and figure out how I might help my customer fix her issue (the changes made to the settings no longer "take") and in my investigative journey I have been led here.

Anyone know how/why changes to settings would no longer take? Barring being able to fix it for lack of a support thread, does anyone know how she might uninstall it?

Thanks for any help. Sorry to post for help here, but there is no other link in the documentation specified.

[kelin]

I have the latest update on zen but all of sudden we are no longer allowed to change the permissions OR add permissions to admin profile.

I know I'm most likely not explaining this well but if you go into zen then tools then admin settings choose an admins name and click on edit permissions we have always been able to turn on and off parts of our zen cart to our designers now it will not allow us to change any permission or add any permissions. You can add a new admin's name but it will not allow any permissions to be saved.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.



***I am sorry I posted I did not realize that signs had post... they are the great folks helping me with this please disregard this post.

[kuroi]

If this is not a support thread for the Admin Profiles - Restricted Categories mod, and it is not recommended to use that mod due to serious "flaws" in the code, then just what are we to do once we have that mod installed and it malfunctions?

*I* recommend that people not use it, as it doesn't achieve what it sets out to achieve and can wrongly cause site owners to think that they are more secure than they are. That's not an official Zen Cart position. The Zen Cart team don't normally take positions on the quality of add-ons. There are over a thousand and there's no way that they could thoroughly vet all of them. I do recommend doing a search on any add-on before installing it.

Why is the mod available for download if it's not recommended?? Now I have a customer who has come to me looking to fix the issues she is having with this mod (which was installed for her by someone else).

Mods, good, bad and indifferent that are contributed by the Zen Cart community are made available. Even if they're bad, the approach may be of use to somebody else who then sorts out the problems. Some of the best mods available today have evolved this way.

It would alleviate a LOT of hassle for zen-cart owners to not be offered junk mods that are KNOWN to be flawed. Why, when it was found to be flawed and known to not be supported, was it left for us to download? Just curious.

I wouldn't actually characterize it as junk, just flawed. The Zen Cart team would not normally know if a mod is supported or not. In this case that's just my personal observation that nobody other than me seems to be answering questions about it at the moment.

So, I have just now downloaded this mod to try and figure out how I might help my customer fix her issue (the changes made to the settings no longer "take") and in my investigative journey I have been led here. Anyone know how/why changes to settings would no longer take? Barring being able to fix it for lack of a support thread, does anyone know how she might uninstall it?

Kelin's post just after yours suggests that the mod was working. I rather wonder whether it suffered the same incompatibility with the Zen cart Cart security patch as did Admin Profiles. The change to make AP work was to use the official Zen Cart form building function. Uninstallation is probably similar to that for Admin Profiles, which is described in post #745 above.

[kobra]

signs,

All things in your post

At the very entrance to the downloads section is this warning:

Community contributed additions for your shop. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK - No warranty expressed nor implied.

All of these are 3rd Party - and you can also locate on the www probably a 1,000+ more.
The ZenCart team has allowed the space and the bandwidth to host these in one locale and if an author desires to support it also a central community for issues
The RULE as it is in most thing is

******************** CAVEAT EMPTOR ********************

Or as Kurio more eloquently states it - do your reasearch