User Pages Module

Version History

This module fills a specific need for teachers and other site administrators that need to easily create multiple users each with a private content page. Without this module, an administrator must create a user, a group, a policy and a page for each user. This module performs all of these steps for multiple users at once.

Specifically, it collects a login name, email address and password for multiple users in a single form. Here is a screen shot of the Create User Pages form:

Once submitted, it performs the following for each user:

1. Creates a registered user account.
2. Creates a Group containing the new user.
3. Creates a Policy giving the user's Group edit permission.
4. Creates a new page named after the user and based on a template named UserPageTemplate (a starting point for this page is installed by the module).
5. Sets the title of the new page to the user's login name.
6. Sets the security of the new page to the user's Policy.

Using Sticky Page Security with User Pages

If you set your site's default Creating Pages security setting to Sticky Page Security, any page created from a user's private page will inherit the security setting to limit viewing to the individual user and administrators. A user can create a new page from their user page in one of two ways:

1. Link to a page within the content of their user page that doesn't exist. When they save and click the link, they'll be able to create the new page.
2. Click the "New Page" link in the tools menu while viewing their user page. This method will not provide a link to the new page from their user page.

To enable Sticky Page Security for your site, go to the Site Settings -> Security -> Site Security screen and select Sticky Page Security under the Creating Pages heading.

Linking to User Pages

You will likely want to provide a link somewhere on your site to direct users to their private content page. This module includes a scripted page named PrivateUserPageLink that dynamically links to the current user's private page. This page can be included in any page by pasting the following text into the editor:

[[include:PrivateUserPageLink]]

You can optionally customize the link text by appending text as follows:

[[include:PrivateUserPageLink Click here to access your private page]]

Pasting this into your site's Menu page will display the link on every page. NOTE that this link will not display for a user that does not have a private page, so if you are logged in as an administrator account that was not created by this module, you won't see the link.

NOTE: Use the Paste as Plain Text button on your editor's toolbar when pasting these links into the editor.

User Pages Cleanup

This module also contains a feature to clean up users and their user pages. This is useful if a site has been used for a class or group that is finished with the site. Selecting users created with the tool and cleaning up will mark all user pages as Deleted and delete the Policies, Groups and Users for each of them. The Recycle Bin screen in Site Settings should be used to completely delete the user pages after using the cleanup tool.