GRUF - GroupUserFolder
› A groups management tool for Zope ‹
What's GRUF ?
|
How does it work ?
|
Is it compatible with...
|
Download
|
Screenshots
|
FAQ
|
Links
|
Contact
What's GRUF ?
GRUF is a convenient tool to manage groups of users within Zope.
It works as a frontend between a Zope application relying on a UserFolder and
a set of two regular UserFolders : one will store the users and the other one
will store the groups.
It has a whole bunch of cool features, especially :
- It doesn't patch anything in Zope ;
- It integrates smoothly without the need of any additional form (some are
provided but it's only for convenience) ;
- It doesn't store users by itself but delegates that job to another User
Folder. So, it works with virtually ANY Zope UserFolder in there ! (especially
standard acl_users but also LDAPUserFolder, SimpleUserFolder, ...) ;
- It supports groups nesting (ie. groups can belong to other groups and 'inherit' their roles
- It allows groups and users to be stored in a separated backend (eg. groups in ZODB and users in LDAP, ...);
- It supports (since 2.0 version) multiple user sources, ie. you can have a bunch of users in LDAP plus
some users in a standard User Folder, and they all will be integrated to GRUF;
- It provides clean management screens (including user and groups editing interfaces) ;
- It provides security auditing tools ;
- It's compatible with regular Zope UserFolder API ;
- Groups are seen as regular Zope users in applications that doesn't include
groups support. Thus, you don't have to rewrite anything to gain benefit from
GRUF's groups !
GRUF has been designed by the Ingeniweb team.
And, of course, it's Open-Source (GPL licence for versions < 2.0, ZPL licence otherwise).
How does-it work ?
GroupUserFolder is a kind of user folder that provides a special kind of
user management.
Some users are "flagged" as GROUP and then normal users will be
able to belong to one or
serveral groups.
Group and "normal" User management is distinct. Here's a typical
GroupUserFolder hierarchy::
- acl_users (GroupUserFolder)
|
|-- Users (GroupUserFolder-related class)
| |
| |-- acl_users (UserFolder or derived class)
|
|-- Groups (GroupUserFolder-related class)
| |
| |-- acl_users (UserFolder or derived class)
. .
. .
. .
So, INSIDE the GroupUserFolder (or GRUF), there are 2 acl_users :
- The one in the 'Users' object manages real users
- The one in the 'Groups' object manages groups
The two acl_users are completely independants. They can even be of different
kinds.
For example, a Zope UserFolder for Groups management and an LDAPUserFolder
for Users management.
Inside the "Users" acl_users, groups are seen as ROLES (that's
what we call "groles") so that
roles can be assigned to users using the same storage as regular users. Groups
are prefixed
by "group_" so that they could be easily recognized within roles.
Then, on the top GroupUserFolder, groups and roles both are seen as users,
and users have their
normal behaviour (ie. "groles" are not shown), except that users
affected to one or several groups
have their roles extended with the roles affected to the groups they belong
to.
Just for information : one user can belong to zero, one or more groups.
One group can have zero, one or more users affected.
Is it compatible with...
- CMF ? Yes.
- Plone ? Yes. There are even additional forms and tools for Zope to gain full benefit of group information.
But these are completely optional and Plone can work without. GRUF will be integrated to Plone 1.1
- Zope standalone ? Yes (Zope >= 2.5) and it's a major requirement for us. GRUF will always work
with existing Zope 2.x (> 2.5), without the need to add, patch, modify or do anything to make it work.
- My existing Zope application ? Yes, provided you do not use non-official security functions.
GRUF is completely transparent.
- LDAPUserFolder ? Yes, with groups beeing stored in LDAP database or not. Users adding is not
supported now because LDAPUF doesn't comply with standard Zope security API for this part. It is, however, possible
to come around this, but it needs a little coding (some volounteers ? :-))
- ExUserFolder ? Yes, except for GRUF 1.3 version. GRUF 1.31 is reported to work again with XUF.
- SimpleUserFolder ? Yes.
- My coffee machine ? Not yet, but we're actively working on it !
Download
GRUF is shipped as a tarball for Zope. See The Collective Project for more information.
And don't forget that even if GRUF is hosted by a Plone-related project, GRUF independent from Plone !
Upward / Backward compatibility
All GRUF versions are backward compatible, and then doesn't require you to do anything to upgrade.
All GRUF versions within the same major number are upward compatible, that is to say that you can replace your version
by a previous one without loosing your user data. This is false for versions having a different major number (O.x and 1.x for example).
So, if you notice a bug in the newest version, you can always decide to get back in time ! :-)
Official releases
Releases are now hosted by SourceForge. The latest release can always be found here.
- 2.0Beta2 (2003-12-22): GroupSpaces support, Plone2 support, cosmetic ZMI improvements, minor bugfixes
- 2.0Beta1 (2003-10-23): Supports multiple user sources, cosmetic ZMI improvements
- 1.32 (2003-09): Non-official utility release (Plone-related tools improvements)
- 1.31 (2003-07-29): Major speed improvements, cosmetic ZMI improvements
- 1.3 (2003-07-23): Implemented nested groups feature, major ZMI improvements
- 1.21 (2003-07-10): Fix in LDAPUserFolder attributes retreiving and cosmetic fixes on ZMI
- 1.2 (2003-07-10): Major ZMI enhancing and GRUF API improvements
- 1.1 (2003-07-02): Includes major security fixes, an useful audit tab, and two "groupship" tools for Plone
- 1.0RC1 (2003-05-14): Code cleaning, better documentation and UI (and Plone skins) improves
- 0.2 (2003-03-31): Fixed user acquisition trick (no more hotfixing), minor API update to comply with LDAPUF and SimpleUF
- 0.1 (2002-11-26): First attempt to show that this product can work !
CVS
You can checkout the CVS anonymously with the following commands:
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/collective login
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/collective co GroupUserFolder
You can browse CVS at Sourceforge.
Screenshots
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Can I nest some GRUFs ?
Maybe... but what for ?
-
Does GRUF support nested groups ?
Nested groups in group-whithin-a-group feature.
And, yes, GRUF supports it since 1.3 version.
-
Does GRUF support multiple user sources ?
Multiple user sources is a feature that would allow you to store users in several userfolders.
For example, you could have your regular admin users in a standard User Folder, your intranet
users in an LDAPUserFolder and your extranet users in an SQL-based user folder
GRUF supports this from version 2.0Beta1.
-
Can I use GRUF outside Plone ?
Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. This is a major design consideration for us.
-
Is GRUF stable ?
It's used in a production environment for several major websites. Furthermore, it's qualified to be included
in Plone 1.1. It's considered reliable enough - except for "Beta" versions, of course.
-
Is GRUF maintained ?
Yes, it is, actively. Features (especially regarding useablility) are often
added to GRUF. Official releases are considered very stable.
-
Can I help ?
Yes, for sure !
GRUF is an Open-Source project and we, at Ingeniweb, are always happy to help people getting involved
with our products. Just contact us to submit your ideas, patches or insults ! :-)
In any case, if you want to work on GRUF's CVS, please work in a branch, never on the HEAD!
I want this to ensure the latest CVS HEAD is always very stable.
Links
Here are some links of interest regarding GRUF or other assorted tools.
Contact
There are some ways to have contact/support on GRUF.
Last modified: Mon Dec 22 17:13:11 2003
|