[#32717] Front End Module Editing #2521

Buddhima · 2013-11-15T11:27:45Z

Hi All,
With latest Joomla! release, super users can access module settings(back end) directly from front end.
But that can be done as front-end com_config does.

Along with this PR, I've created a system which can do almost all the essential settings for a module without switching to back end. Because of that, super user can see the changes easily.

Feature Tracker: http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/tracker/?action=TrackerItemEdit&tracker_item_id=32717&start=0

Thank You !

This reverts commit 0c1136d.

message and redirect added to save controller

Bakual · 2013-11-18T20:20:57Z

components/com_config/view/modules/tmpl/default.php

+JHtml::_('behavior.combobox');
+JHtml::_('formbehavior.chosen', 'select');
+
+$hasContent = empty($this->item['module']) || $this->item['module'] == 'custom' || $this->item['module'] == 'mod_custom';


Why a check against a specific module? How would that work with similar 3rd party modules?

Hi, This check is to add 'content' field (text editor). Not every module needs that. This is a similar implementation to B/E view. 3rd party modules can contain 'content' fields and they'll be shown in respective sections.

zero-24 · 2014-03-10T14:49:59Z

@test again:
only a smal thing that i would change is:

I think we should use here a green message as all is ok :)
You may blame the J!Tracker Application for transmitting this comment.

zero-24 · 2014-03-10T15:14:48Z

Please ignore my last post. The implementation here is correct see here:
https://github.com/Buddhima/joomla-cms/blob/config_modules/components/com_config/controller/modules/save.php#L90
and here:
http://docs.joomla.org/Display_error_messages_and_notices
so:
'message' (or empty) should green
but it don't work. So it is a issue with the alert implementation in the frontend not with this PR :)
Sorry :)
You may blame the J!Tracker Application for transmitting this comment.

EDIT: I will send a new Tracker for this.

Bakual · 2014-03-10T15:25:10Z

So it is a issue with the alert implementation in the frontend not with this PR

Just a note: It's actually the Isis template which has some funny overrides for the messages. Protostar does not have any overrides here. This is why coloring is different in front- and backend.

zero-24 · 2014-03-10T15:34:20Z

Issue message for the alert issue can be finde here:

http://issues.joomla.org/tracker/joomla-cms/3273
You may blame the J!Tracker Application for transmitting this comment.

phproberto · 2014-03-12T02:32:16Z

I have some questions:

Why are you using com_config instead of com_modules?
Why are you sending calls directly to backend?

If this is frontend editing I think frontend has to contain the required code to be able to customise each behavior correctly for frontend /backend

About using com_config I think each component has to contain its own stuff. Otherwise we will face the chaos when we want to create the lite core.

Also it seems that we have some trailing whitespaces/codestyle errors. This is what I get when applying the PR as patch:

<stdin>:247: trailing whitespace.
<?php 
<stdin>:376: trailing whitespace.
<!DOCTYPE html><title></title>
<stdin>:891: trailing whitespace.
<!DOCTYPE html><title></title>
<stdin>:1057: trailing whitespace.

<stdin>:1150: trailing whitespace.
                echo $field->input; 
warning: 5 lines add whitespace errors.

Buddhima · 2014-03-12T16:13:29Z

Hi Roberto,
With this concept frontend administration, I tried to make backend as a service provider for this, rather than creating a huge amount of duplicated code.
com_config, is actually a general container for frontend administration.
Through this way I tried to build a simple way to flexibly hold what people want.
I'll look at errors you mentioned.
Thank You!

phproberto · 2014-03-14T11:28:14Z

Sorry but I don't agree. For the same reason we could merge all the components into a single one.

You are doing 2 things here:

Mixing frontend & backend (which I can accept but requires to be strongly discussed before putting it into the core)
Mixing different components (which I think is definitely wrong)

brianteeman · 2014-03-14T12:14:56Z

2 questions

Where is the ACL configuration for this feature
Why dont I get full module editing. EG no menu assignment an limited module positions

Buddhima · 2014-03-14T18:42:59Z

Hi Brian,
Thanks for testing this PR.
Answers for 2 questions are;

Should be done through backend. Still there's no way to configure ACL through frontend and should be implemented in a way that can be adopted by upcoming frontend components. If a user has both "Access Administration Interface" & "Edit" levels allowed for Modules Component, that user has been granted the permission for Frontend module configuration. Special thing about here is "Access Administration Interface" is seeing as an access to frontend administration. This combination has never been used so far in any other case, so we can introduce that without making existing ACL more complex. Discussions on this has been taken in place at joomlacode-tracker.
Module positions are shown according to current frontend template, logic can be find here:
https://github.com/Buddhima/joomla-cms/blob/config_modules/components/com_config/model/modules.php#L127
Similar to Permissions, Module assignments also need a way that can be used with other components that will come. It also has been discussed in the joomlacode-tracker.

Again, thank you very much for having experience with this.

brianteeman · 2014-03-14T19:01:29Z

So to give someone front end module edit I have to give them admin access as well? Doesnt sound right to me at all. This should have its own ACL settings and not "borrow" them from something else
What about menu assigment?

Sorry but for me at least this isnt ready yet as its incomplete

parthlawate · 2014-03-19T17:40:07Z

tested working as Described by the dev.

Buddhima · 2014-03-19T18:24:19Z

Thank you @parthlawate for testing this.

@brianteeman , I think still you didn't get the idea about what I was explaining.

No, I mean "Access Administration Interface" & "Edit" ACL allows particular user group to login from frontend (even can't login to backend) and modify modules.
Actually, I was talking about Menu Assignment , accidentally , I've put "Module Assignment". That should be corrected as "Menu Assignment". Regret for the inconvenience caused you.

Thank You!

brianteeman · 2014-03-19T18:30:09Z

It just seems wrong to me to use a generic ACL as you have described for a specific function.

sovainfo · 2014-03-20T03:21:57Z

Agree with @brianteeman on frontend editting should not be connected to 'Access Administration interface'. Adding something like 'Access Frontend Administration' is not complicating ACL, abusing it is!
ACL does work in frontend provided it is implemented properly. Unfortunately the way it is currently implemented it needs code. I am not sure the frontend administration components should be the same as backend.

sanderpotjer · 2014-04-04T19:42:05Z

I have been looking into this pull request, and in general it looks good. But the ACL implementation is indeed missing.

I expect the ACL for the frontend module editing is working similar to the Joomla Articles frontend editing. So in line with the articles concept I did the following test which works for the Joomla articles, but then for this module feature:

Article Manager Test

Create a new user group, with "Public" as parent
Go to the global configuration permissions tab and allow only the "Site Login"
Go to the Article Manager, open the Options, tab permissions and set "Edit" to allowed
Try to edit an article in the frontend

Result: able to see the edit icon, edit the article and save it

Module Manager Test (A)

Create a new user group, with "Public" as parent
Go to the global configuration permissions tab and allow only the "Site Login"
Go to the Module Manager, open the Options, tab permissions and set "Edit" to allowed
Try to edit a module in the frontend

Result: edit buttons are not visible, can't edit modules

I also tested the Module Manager by allowing the "Access Administration Interface" action, in that case the test is as follow:

Module Manager Test (B)

Create a new user group, with "Public" as parent
Go to the global configuration permissions tab and allow only the "Site Login"
Go to the Module Manager, open the Options, tab permissions and set "Edit" and "Access Administration Interface" to allowed
Try to edit a module in the frontend

Result: able to see the edit icon, edit the module but saving results in "You are not authorized to view this resource." error.

General ACL suggestions

I strongly recommend to follow the frontend ACL concept of the article manager for now, or have at least the same behavior for the frontend articles and module editing around ACL settings.

This means that a group with the "Site Login" and "Edit" action allowed should be able to edit the modules on the frontend. If a site owner doesn't want the modules editable on the frontend they shouldn't allow the edit action for the module manager or for the specific module(s).

I'm not sure there is a big need for difference in what a user can edit based on the ACL settings between te frontend and backend. So if you allow modules to be editable and a group has backend and frontend access they can edit it on both places. I can only think of situations where people would allow people to edit articles/modules in the backend, but not in the frontend. A general "Disable frontend editing" option would be enough for that. But that would be another pull request.

Anyway, thanks for your work on the frontend module editing, if the module ACL is following the article manager concept it looks good to me around ACL.

infograf768 · 2014-04-05T09:35:34Z

"This means that a group with the "Site Login" and "Edit" action allowed should be able to edit the modules on the frontend. If a site owner doesn't want the modules editable on the frontend they shouldn't allow the edit action for the module manager or for the specific module(s). "

The issue here is that we would not be B/C: A default "Editor" or "Publisher" (used only as of today for articles) would be able to edit modules in the frontend. A big surprise for a site admin...

Bakual · 2014-04-05T09:54:33Z

The issue here is that we would not be B/C: A default "Editor" or "Publisher" (used only as of today for articles) would be able to edit modules in the frontend. A big surprise for a site admin...

That's indeed true. However Sander is right in how the ACL should be used. The fact that we use stupid default rules here doesn't change that.

A general "Disable frontend editing" option would be enough for that. But that would be another pull request.

In my own extension I have such a parameter to enable frontend editing (disabled by default). I think that would be a good parameter to add to com_modules. Then it doesn't matter anymore that we have messed up default ACL rules.
One could even add a postinstall message to tell the admins to enable that feature if they want to use it.
For new installations we could also fix the ACL and have it enabled by defautl.

Buddhima · 2014-04-05T16:31:36Z

Hi Sander,
There was a mistake in Save controller and I fixed it. Now "Module Manager Test (B)" should be okay.
Thank you for testing.

bayareajenn · 2014-04-22T01:48:46Z

tested fine on bluehost (i figure enough people are testing on rochen), PHP 5.4.27.

Bakual · 2014-07-14T13:45:31Z

Changed ACL works for me. Thanks for that!

dbhurley · 2014-09-03T15:29:36Z

Merged to 3.4-dev, thanks!

kira99 · 2014-11-14T07:59:35Z

Joomla tooltip says: The template has to support this feature. Beez3 obviously does not support this. How can I implement this in a template?

Buddhima added 29 commits November 4, 2013 12:25

Initial back-end setup in com_modules

4c0c785

CS issues fixed in back-end

765cdcc

Initial setup for front-end com_config/modules

6cd34e3

Edit front-end module layout

033c3e6

CS fixes in front-end

08bb3f4

Merge arrays in backend while saving

21637c0

Show content field in mod_custom only

c2a66d1

front_end view $item added back

1a27e24

Array_replaced_recursive used to replace edited values at save (B/E)

6cc43fc

Accordions added to options

4dfba9d

Added publish field & CS modifications

d8872fe

Added relavent entries for language

0c1136d

Redirect to frontend if logout, while working in form

0809752

Revert "Added relavent entries for language"

90725e1

This reverts commit 0c1136d.

Added calling for Backend Language files

5ea3ae7

Code cleanup

c77308d

Add position field to form

654086f

Merge branch 'master' into config_modules

5c6f86f

Add JSave button, Display module name & type, Change sucessfully saved

bfdf54c

message and redirect added to save controller

Fixed issue with displaying accordions in IE, Thanks Thomas Hunziker

72235c9

Make Language field readonly when MultiLanguage plugin enabled.Thanks JM

7c612ae

Language loading modified, Thanks JM

82f67ce

Change backend save method

faee224

Finish Publishing field added

e51fc2c

Merge branch 'master' into config_modules

17c672e

Advanced Settings in back end com_modules added

3e76f55

Start publishing field added

80d8953

Merge branch 'master' into config_modules

ea31236

Fixed issue caused with edit menu item links

9a38dae

Bakual reviewed Nov 18, 2013
View reviewed changes

Fixed some CS issues

b84aa53

Fixed FE module saving issue

0e76f3b

Change ACL to use module.edit.frontend

08d5891

brianteeman added the New Feature label Aug 8, 2014

nicksavov removed the Has JoomlaCode Tracker Item label Aug 21, 2014

dbhurley pushed a commit that referenced this pull request Sep 3, 2014

Front End Module Editing Fixes #2521

212c947

dbhurley closed this Sep 3, 2014

wilsonge added this to the Joomla! 3.4.0 milestone Feb 2, 2015

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[#32717] Front End Module Editing #2521

[#32717] Front End Module Editing #2521

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Buddhima commented Nov 15, 2013

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Bakual Nov 18, 2013

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Buddhima Nov 19, 2013

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zero-24 commented Mar 10, 2014

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Bakual commented Mar 10, 2014

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zero-24 commented Mar 10, 2014

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phproberto commented Mar 12, 2014

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Buddhima commented Mar 12, 2014

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phproberto commented Mar 14, 2014

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brianteeman commented Mar 14, 2014

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Buddhima commented Mar 14, 2014

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brianteeman commented Mar 14, 2014

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parthlawate commented Mar 19, 2014

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Buddhima commented Mar 19, 2014

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brianteeman commented Mar 19, 2014

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sovainfo commented Mar 20, 2014

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sanderpotjer commented Apr 4, 2014

Article Manager Test

Module Manager Test (A)

Module Manager Test (B)

General ACL suggestions

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infograf768 commented Apr 5, 2014

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Bakual commented Apr 5, 2014

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Buddhima commented Apr 5, 2014

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bayareajenn commented Apr 22, 2014

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Bakual commented Jul 14, 2014

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dbhurley commented Sep 3, 2014

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kira99 commented Nov 14, 2014

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