Thread

I’ve got a list of files that are available for download to site members. I want only site admins to be able to upload these files but I want all site members (there are two other non-admin groups) to be able to download them from the page template. The files themselves are uploaded to a channel dedicated to this task, which includes fields for a description of the file and the file itself. The file field is called downloads_file. My template code for the list of files is as follows:

<ul>
 {exp:channel:entries channel="documents_for_download" disable="categories|member_data|pagination" sort="asc"}
  <li><a href="http://{downloads_file}{url}{/downloads_file}">{title} ({downloads_file}{extension}{/downloads_file})></a></li>
 {/exp:channel:entries}
</ul>

And it works fine except that only members with upload privileges can see the content of the {downloads_file} tag pairs. And that’s my problem, because unless the user is logged into the site as a site admin the file extension and – more importantly – the URL do not get passed into the template. I tried removing the member_data part from my channel:entries tag’s disable parameter, but it made no difference.

Is this a ‘feature’ or is it a bug?  Or am I just doing something wrong? How do I let members who do NOT have upload privileges download the files (and see the file type)?

Thanks as always;
Rick

Shouldn’t be an issue.

Any template-level access rights being set?

Can they view other content from the channel?

Hi Mike.

The non-admin member groups both have viewing rights for the template in question (as shown under Template Manager > Access). All channel posting privileges are set to No (in Members > Members Groups >Edit member group) since they have no CP access anyway and my understanding is that those prefs relate to CP-level posting, not front-end stuff. Their Channel Assignment (same prefs) are also set to No for the channel in question. Were you thinking of some other set of prefs? They are rather scattered about the CP, so I’m not 100% sure I’ve covered everything 😉

However, in answer to your 2nd question, yes they are able to see other content from the channel okay; you’ll notice in the code above I use the channel entry’s {title} tag as the link text for the file, and that shows up fine. But the document extension and the file’s URL are missing unless I am signed in as a user who has upload privileges, as per: File manager > File upload preferences > Member group (Can upload files: Y/N)

Stumped.

Oh dear. Boyink is stumped. This does not bode well…

FWIW I’m getting the same thing with images uploaded as part of a channel entry. If the person viewing a ‘News’ entry has permission to upload images to the ‘news_images’ file directory, then they can see the images in the single-entry page. If they cannot upload then they can’t see the images either. This doesn’t make much sense. If anyone from EL can let me know whether this is a bug or whether I’m just being a doofus with my CP settings and/or template code that would be most helpful.

One workaround I guess would be to open up the directory uploads to all member groups but prevent the undesirable groups from uploading some other way. But that feels kludgy.

Anybody have any wisdom to offer up here?

Hey Rick,

I would like to get in and see what you are seeing. Will be quicker than trying to reproduce and go back and forth.

Be on the lookout for an email from EllisLab.

Thank you,

Thanks Shane. Your email received and responded to.

Just posting a note here to let onlookers know that we’re working with Rick privately on this for the time being. I’ll post an update back here once we have something to share!

Update: Problem solved.

It appears that I had encountered this bug. Applying the code patch given on that page seems to have solved the problem and I’ve not come across any knock-on glitches.

Thanks, as always, to Kevin and the team for their help in resolving this matter. It’s much appreciated.

Glad to help, Rick! Have a good one.