How to secure blog content

November 8, 2007 10:03 AM

Blogging platform that can secure/restrict content based on user role? Any suggestions?

I want to start a blog for my family but I want to be able to restrict content based upon who is viewing the blog. Some content I would like available to everyone while other content I would like to restrict to family, friends, etc. I would like to have the ability to create roles for users so I can choose which roles should be allowed to view certain content.

I like WordPress quite a bit, however the content restriction plugins I have found are not fully compatible with the latest WordPress version (v2.3). If anyone knows of restriction plugins that do work with v2.3 please let me know.

I have also looked at Drupal, which I use for other CMS tasks, however it's blogging capabilities are limited in my opinion. It's an option but I would like to look at others.

I would prefer an open source solution that makes use of the Apache/MySQL/PHP stack. Thanks a bunch!

posted by DerekTheGeek to computers & internet (11 comments total)

I believe that either Joomla or Wordpress MU (multi-user version) can handle this.
posted by mkb at 10:09 AM on November 8, 2007

I have used WordPress Mu for an application with similar requirements. It's a great platform, and I'd highly recommend it.
posted by thejoshu at 10:23 AM on November 8, 2007

I use Expression Engine with extensive content control based on roles. Admins, authors, editors, visitors, members, logged-in, logged-out all can see or not-see information, additional links (for editing) appear for various roles, etc.
posted by cairnish at 10:34 AM on November 8, 2007

joomla does this quite well, but it might be more cookie than you're wanting to chew.
posted by TomMelee at 11:07 AM on November 8, 2007

For a small personal or family site Vox does exactly what you want, and you get one up and running in minutes. I believe it was even set up for the kind of use you are describing. I guess the only drawback possibly is that there is only one 'main user' per blog, but everyone who has blogging privileges could use that account. Or you could set up individual Vox blogs for each person, and add each other as family, friends, and so on.

Drupal actually is a very good blogging platform if set up accordingly, and it's possible to do a lot of user-privilege based things, but is way more powerful and complicated than you probably want.
posted by derMax at 11:13 AM on November 8, 2007

I second Expression Engine. Its access restrictions based on user roles can be defined very easily and granularly.
posted by bradlands at 11:25 AM on November 8, 2007

Could you please clarify your query.

Do you mean multiple classes of readers? Say for example, you'd like to have your sister only able to read posts addressed to her and not posts intended for your brother?
posted by dan21 at 12:56 PM on November 8, 2007

Original Poster here responding to some posts ...

Joomla: I did look at Joomla but one of it's short comings seems to be it's lack of granular permissions/roles

WordPress MU: This looks to me to be a solution where you want multiple blogs, one blog per user. I am not looking to allow users to have their own blog. Rather I want people to log in so they can view the content that they should be allowed to see. For example, I don't want friends to be able to see blog posts that are intended for family members.

Expression Engine: Looks like a nice solution. However, it looks like I would have to pony up$100 to get all the features. Still $99 is not too much to pay if it works well. I will look into it further.

Vox: I should have mentioned in the original post that I wanted to be able to host the solution myself. This way if a site shuts down I am not left in the cold.

Drupal: I know it can handle the task and if I can't find anything else I may go with it. It's like using a Jackhammer to open a walnut.

Clarification: As dan21 mentioned, I should perhaps clarify what I am looking for. I want to host a blog, where an individual must log in with a username/password in order to view the blog content. Blog content will only be created by my wife and I so users will not have any ability to add posts or content (other than perhaps comments to posts). I would like the ability to assign permissions to each post via roles. For example, lets say I create a post that describes information on the upcoming family reunion. I would want to allow users in the role "family" to view this post, while users in the role "friends" would not be able to view the post.

Thank you to everyone who posted suggestions. I appreciate the time and effort! Please keep them coming.
posted by DerekTheGeek at 1:39 PM on November 8, 2007

I was posting from my mobile earlier, I'll clarify:
The new joomla will add granular user classes, or so they say. Beyond that, and I don't know if you've considered it, are the ability to hide pages---that is make them and not publish them. Close registration and allow a login, at which point the logged in users can see the information. You can add users at your whim, or delete them, or give them their own pages, or whatever. I'm a joomla fanboi though, and I've used wordpress and drupal and lots of other semi-similar packages before. I like the unsane ability to add-on stuff to joomla too, components and bots and etc.
posted by TomMelee at 1:50 PM on November 8, 2007

ExpressionEngine is a good match for what you're looking for, and the money would be work the time you'd spend trying to get something else to do the same thing.
posted by kirkaracha at 2:00 PM on November 8, 2007

but for the self-hosting requirement, isn't this kinda what social networks are for?
posted by Mr. Gunn at 8:36 PM on November 14, 2007