Groups

A group is a simple data structure that maps a group name to a set of group member names. It can be used e.g. within ACL definitions to specify groups of users.

The group name usually is something like EditorGroup (some word ending with Group). This default pattern can be changed (e.g. for non-english languages etc.), see page_group_regex on HelpOnConfiguration.

The group members are just arbitrary names (unicode strings). Note that groups are not limited to user names, you can also define a group of your favourite wiki pages (but you would need some code that uses that group in a somehow useful way).

1. Wiki Groups

1.1. Defining

You can create a group definition for a group named EditorGroup by creating a page called EditorGroup with this content:

#format wiki
These are people that are trusted to edit pages on this wiki:
 * JaneDoe
  * this is ignored
 * JoeDoe
 * [[John Smith]]

Important:

• Group members have to be on an unordered first-level list.
• If link markup is used, the link target will be added as member. Please only use rather simple link markup.
• Everything else (other text, second-level items, etc.) is ignored.

• You have to explicitly use the group (there are no hardcoded group names in moin), see below.

1.2. Usage

Use groups to define permissions for those users on your wiki (see HelpOnAccessControlLists).

For example, you could have this in your wiki config:

    acl_rights_default = u'EditorGroup:read,write,delete,revert All:read'

Of course you can also use the group in on-page ACLs:

#acl EditorGroup:read,write,delete,revert All:read'

1.3. Protecting them

If your default ACL allows writing for everyone, it is a good idea to protect critical group definition pages with some more restrictive ACL.

E.g. on a group definition page AdminGroup:

#acl AdminGroup:read,write,revert All:read
#format wiki
Members of this group will get admin rights. If you think you should be in this group, contact one of its members to add you.
 * SomeAdmin
 * AnotherAdmin

As you see: only members of this group may write to the group definition page (and of course everyone who gets write rights from acl_rights_before in the wiki config).

1.4. Using groups within groups

You can also add names of other groups as group members, that is the same as including all their members directly.

2. Other ways to define groups / access group definitions

MoinMoin can also use group definitions from other sources, but this needs to be configured in your wiki config. See groups on HelpOnConfiguration.