How the Global Portal Access Settings and User Roles works

In case you dont know how the Global Portal Access Setting works here is some basic explanation.

Portal Access Settings

In the left sidebar menu: Manage > Settings > General - Portal Access Settings you can configure the way fCommunity (domain.com/portal url) will be accessible for users and/or external visitors:

• Everyone option will make your fCommunity domain.com/portal content visible to all users (not only to those who have account created in your WP instance). If you want your external visitors to be able to see your fCommunity content you need to select this option.

  Note: other two options below will limit the portal access only to your users and your visitors (not logged-in users) won't be able to see any content from the fCommunity.

  Note: access to the content inside your fCommunity is managed separatelly by assigining one of three Privacy Policies for Spaces or Courses: Private, Public, Hidden.

  The Global Portal Access Settings is on a top of those internal Community Privacy Policies.

  Example:

  if you select this option (Everyone) in the Portal Access Settings your external users/visitors will be able to see the Activity Feed and some other items from the top header menu (Members, Leaderboard etc). However messages in Spaces and in the Activity Feed will be visible if you assign Spaces/Courses Privacy to Public.

  If you limit the Public Access for your fCommunity to the second option below then external visitors/not logged-in users won't be able to access /portal.

• Only Logged-In Users option will limit the fCommunity (domain.com/portal) to your WP Community users only (it doesnt means that all your WP-Admin > Users can automatically access your fCommunity domain.com/portal content - because you will need to grant the user access/accept the user to the fCommunity - it is a separate process).

  In this case your website visitors (including not logged-in users) will see only the login form to the fCommunity but cannot see any content inside at all. If the visitor is your WP-Admin user then the user can log-in but it also require Subscriber role to access the fCommunity and the fCommunity Admin approval.

  Note: if your WP-Admin > User will have elevated access: Admin or can edit in WP then the user will be a Super-Admin in the fCommunity and can access it and you cannot limit the access for that users in the fCommunity at all since this is a Super Admin. More details you can find in the unofficial Starter Guide how this works.

• Only Selected User Roles option will limit WP-Admin users to those with that WP-Admin role however if the Role can Edit in WP then this is similar case as described above with the Super Admin power.

I hope this is clear now when it comes to the Global Portal Access Settings.

User Roles

When it comes to user roles inside the Space/Course you can use predefined Roles only (currently there is no granular/custom level for users - there is no view only user role either):

• General users role is a default role to all fCommunity users - you dont assign this role to your users.

  Note: your Regular Users needs to have/will have the WP-Admin: Subscriber role.

  General Users can submit/edit/delete their posts/comments in Spaces and directly in the Feed (unless you limit the Feed to admin posts only).

  Note: You cannot have more granular control on Space level so you cannot limit your users to View only role.

• Community Admin - let's focus on this role and the below other three roles you need to explore - you are a Beta tester not a manual reader haha.

  The Community Admin role can be assigned by the Super Admin to any regular user in the fCommunity.

  Note: Super Admin aka WP-Admin user with Edit permission don't need to have this role assigned. If the user can Edit in your WP the user will get super power in fCommunity and can do everything as Admin.

  If you will have your users with Subscriber role in the WP-Admin you can provide the elevated access in the fCommunity area only to a selected user. Super Admin and Community Admin can do everything what is described into the unofficial starter guide.

• Community Manager - you can figure this out what are the access limits and differences for this role.

• Course Admin - you can figure this out what are the access limits and differences for this role.

• Course Creator - you can figure this out what are the access limits and differences for this role.

Inviting external user and Paid Membership

• If you will have any external visitor to your website (not your already existing user in WP or current user) you can invite the external user to your fCommunity only. The external visitor will be also be able to register via the custom fCommunity login form (soon) and when the user will sign-in the user will be a regular user in the fCommunity.

  You can make the user as Community Admin (if needed) but in majority cases you wont need any additional Admins/Managers (if you do then you need are a bit more advanced user and you will figure it out how to manage this etc).

• You will be also able to sell a Membership to your fCommunity via FluentCRM but this is upcoming feature and there is no point to focus on some advanced topic here.

Bonus

If you would like to create your temporary (30 min) playground and install the fCommunity plugin to test it out you can use https://zipwp.com service with a WP instance for free.

I hope you it was helpful. If yes then go for a walk around your room and smile.