Who's Online Feature

[Grammy]

I'm just dense, I guess.  I'm not getting the whole "Who's Online" feature. 

I do want my regular members to be able to see if another member is online, but I don't want them to necessarily be able to see what the other member is doing.  If I enable "Who's Online" in Features and Options, then log in as a regular member, I can see what the other members are doing (even if "VIew Who's Online" is denied in Regular Members' permissions.)  If I disable "Who's Online" in Features and Options, then I've just shot myself in the foot because, as the Admin, if I try to access action=who, I get an error message that I can't view who's online because "that feature is disabled".

Should that be happening?   

What's the correct combination of settings if I want to always be able to see what a member is doing, but I don't want other members to, although I'd like them to be able to see if another member is logged in?

(I can't believe I'm still grappling with basic settings.)

[Illori]

try reading the help for the permission

View Who's Online - A summary of who's on an SMF forum, and it can be found in the Info Center

that permission has nothing to do with that page. i dont believe there is a permission for that page, either you can enable it and view it or you cant as it is disabled.

[Grammy]

that permission has nothing to do with that page. i dont believe there is a permission for that page, either you can enable it and view it or you cant as it is disabled.

Basically, then, if I can see what others are doing, any member can, because that feature is enabled?  And if I disable it, then I can't see what a member is doing, even if I'm the admin?  (I'm just asking while I'm here, but I'm clicking over to read, as you suggest.)

[Kindred]

yes... without a code change, I don't think the action=who can be restricted by permissions.

What's wrong with letting users see where other users are in the forum, though?

[Grammy]

yes... without a code change, I don't think the action=who can be restricted by permissions.

What's wrong with letting users see where other users are in the forum, though?

It's a new forum, and after clicking around and seeing what does what, a few of them were feeling a bit vulnerable.  I guess the whole "Big Brother" thing gets to people, after a while.  They don't necessarily want others to know if they're in the arcade, etc.   

I do want to know member actions, but I thought if there was a way to show the online status without showing what they were up to, to anyone who wanted to know, they'd feel better about it. 

[Grammy]

I'm going to mark this Solved because you guys answered my question and it is what it is.  I'm going to mull over asking for a mod or soliciting Paid help to attach permissions to that function.  I want to make my posters happy but since I can't please everyone, I'll just keep track of whether the complaints about this increase.

Thanks!   

[Arantor]

Actually...

Who's Online is permissions restricted internally. If user A visits topic 123, anyone who can see topic 123 will see that user A is visiting it (as long as they also have access to Who's Online) If user B comes along and can't see topic 123, it will tell them that user A is visiting something that user B can't see.

If you as an admin are visiting the admin centre, user A and user B won't see that - they'll just see a different message (I think this is the Nothing or nothing you can see message) unless they also have access to the admin panel themselves.

Actions like the arcade may not fully implement this, however. Mods rarely implemented this themselves, sadly.

[Grammy]

It's surprising, the number of users who express opposition (albeit mildly) to having their actions viewed by others.  On the one hand, it seems silly.  I'm not running a porn forum!    

Still, I'm a bit of a private person, myself, so I guess I can understand it.  The downside for me is that if I disable "Who's Online" in Features and Options, I disable it for myself and I'm the one who should be able to view such things.

It would be useful to me, as an admin, if I could turn off the function in Features and Options but still be able to bypass being restricted as well. 

[Kindred]

It's a silly statement from people who don't actually understand how tracking works or what is tracked...   Seriously,megerything you do is tracked a dozen ways from Sunday...  Having your actions on a forum visible to others on that same forum...  Well, that's just called awareness.

But, whatever... 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

If you just want to prevent members from seeing user's action in Who's Online, you can edit the template like this -

Who.template.php

Code Select Expand



<td nowrap="nowrap">', $member['time'], '</td>';

if ($context['allow_admin'])
echo '
<td>', $member['action'], '</td>';
echo '
</tr>';



Members can see User and Time, but Action is blank except for admins.  You can pretty it up if this is basically what you want.


Like this -

Code Select Expand



if ($context['allow_admin'])
echo '
<th scope="col" class="lefttext last_th" width="50%">', $txt['who_action'], '</th>';

echo '
</tr>



Displays User left, Time right, Action column is gone except for admins.

[Grammy]

Sir Osis, thanks so much for your help!

I thought the code edit hadn't worked at first, but I'd forgotten to deny "View Who's Online" in member permissions.  This works great, now! 

I sure appreciate it!