Closed Access Conference

[gchicoisne]

Has anyone here had experience with OCS2 and closed access conference?

We are currently working on such a site, in which articles and supporting material access has to be limited to registered (as in "having payed") users. The only result we had so far (through "2.4 Access to Conference Presentations") in our closed access experiments was to direct anybody but the Directors/Managers to a 404 error.

What would be the correct way of doing so?

Also, is there a "complete" demo/real site (i.e., including presentations, autors, etc.) based on OCS2 somewhere? I'm aware of http://www.teap.de and the demo site, but none of them have already accepted talks.

Thanks for your help!


Guillaume

[asmecher]

Hi Guillaume,

There's a test drive installation at http://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs/demo; I'll PM you the access information in a moment.

Closed access should be supported. Could you describe the problem you're having with 404s?

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[gchicoisne]

Hi Alec, thanks for answering.

I knew about the demo site, but it looked like a real conference, hence, I didn't dare changing anything in it! Anyway, I have created an author and a director/track director, submitted/accepted a paper/presentation, and my first result is that if not logged, or logged as an author only, I can not access the documents, while if logged with higher privileges, I can. Conference Site Management/2.4 Access to Conference Presentations is set at "Provide open access to all visitors to the website".

If you go to the site right now and browse by title, you will see (or not) the presentation, depending of your login type. Same if you follow the "Presentations" link on the right panel: http://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs/demo/index.php/sp ... sentations (you will either see the list or see "You do not yet have access to this conference's presentations")

So why is it access right seems to be enforced while it seems it is set to "open access"?

Thanks for helping me understanding this

Guillaume

[asmecher]

Hi Guillaume,

Paper access is still controlled by the Conference Timeline; make sure the website is live according to the dates there.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[gchicoisne]

Thanks Alec.

I have changed the timeline (Website Posting/Accepted papers) and gave access to public (Website Management/Additional Website Content/2.4 Access to Conference Presentations), and it works fine.

Then:

- if I change the access rights to "Require visitors to sign up with the website.", the link to the pdf is still visible, and, if logged (as a regular user), I can access the doc (which is the expected behaviour). However, it leads to a 404 if not logged, instead of a message like "you should be logged to access this document".

- if I change access rights to "Require registration to attend the conference." (which is the behaviour I am looking for, as far as I understand), even an unregistered user (i.e., not appearing on Conference Site Management > Registration) can access to the pdf

Am I still missing something there?

Guillaume

[asmecher]

Hi Guillaume,

That sounds like a bug. I suspect there are inconsistent access checks and you're passing the first (which checks before displaying the "PDF" link) but failing the second (which is called before giving you access to a PDF). This results in a redirect, which it sounds to me is invalid (resulting in a 404). Would it be possible for you to make a database dump available so that I can test further?

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[gchicoisne]

Hi Alec,

I don'y want to sound lazy, but since it is on your demo site (http://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs/demo/) under the PKP SPC 2008, I think it would be better for you to go there and grab the info you need, as you'll exactly know what to loook for... I'd be happy to fill in a bug report as well, but you know the system better than I do, and you'll probably be more accurate than I could.

That being said, I don't mind doing a DB dump.


Guillaume

[asmecher]

Hi Guillaume,

Do you mean that you've been able to cause a 404 to happen on that demo site as well? If so, what is the URL to the "PDF" link that you need to click to cause it to happen, and what user account are you logged into at the time?

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[gchicoisne]

Hi Alec, sorry to grab so much of your time on that matter...

Starting from here: http://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs/demo/index.php/sp ... presenters there is a sigle presenter (me!), click on it, and then on the PDF link -> 404. Link to the abstract works perfecty, with the following remark: "An account with this site is required in order to view papers."

The actual link to the pdf is is http://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs/demo/index.php/sp ... /view/21/5

I am not logged to trigger that behaviour: my goal was to check the closed access functionalities. If logged as an author, I succeed in getting the document. Changing "2.4 Access to Conference Presentations" from "Require visitors to sign up with the website." to "Require registration to attend the conference." doesn't change this behaviour, despite the account I am logged to not being registered (registration not open).


Guillaume

[gchicoisne]

Any thing new on that matter? Hints, patch, workarounds, ... ?


Guillaume

[asmecher]

Hi Guillaume,

If I understand the problem correctly, it's not a bug. Here's what I think you're saying:

- When logged in, the PDF link is displayed on the Abstract page. The PDF link works.
- When not logged in, the PDF link is not displayed. Entering the PDF link manually results in a 404.

That's the expected behavior -- if access to the full-text is not allowed, the PDF link should not be displayed, and the direct link is invalid.

The Abstract page is a "safe" landing point for users regardless of whether or not they're able to view the full-text. This page will also be picked up by search engines like Google.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[gchicoisne]

Hi Alec,

If I understand the problem correctly, it's not a bug.

There are 2 different things:
1/ The functionality is indeed correct. Not logged in = no access to the paper. However, 404 is an error, and I have troubles with a perfectly functioning website displayin an error as its regular operation. I'd rather have a page displaying a message like "You need to be logged in to access this page" (as it is the case for the abstract) or whatever that would not let the user believe the website is broken.
2/ I haven't been able to get different access behaviour for people with an account and people having payed for the conference. Everybody shall be able to create an account (at least to submit papers), but only people who actually payed for the conference shall be able to access the documents. What am I doing wrong not to get that behaviour?

Thanks again for you support,


Guillaume

[asmecher]

Hi Guillaume,

The appropriateness of a 404 aside, I think a "you must be logged in to visit this" message would be more helpful, e.g. if a user has bookmarked the page. I've created a bugzilla entry for this; see http://pkp.sfu.ca/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3170.

As for #2 -- are you testing unsubscribed access using an account that has an site admin, conference manager, director, or track director role? Those users are assumed to have paper access regardless of subscription status.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team