Firstly, apologies if this is something I have misunderstood, but I'm fairly sure this wasn't an issue before the UI upgrade. I know the below is written in prose, but it felt like the only way to clearly explain the issue.
The issue I am experiencing is with regards to world subscribers not being able to view articles. Here is some context: I have a world set as Private. This world is being used for a D&D (5e) campaign, and has the campaign elements integrated with it. The Campaign has an associated subscriber group, with which my players are members. The world has many articles. Some are set to private. Others have been private, but as my players unlock the information/discover new places, I toggle the article(s) to Public.
Recently, I added a new article and set it as Public, but my players were complaining that they weren't able to access it - despite it being visible under the relevant section on the world's contents page. If they follow that link through the world homepage, they end up on the Multipass? screen.
Now, It is possible that I have misunderstood the permissions system (in which case my apologies again for wasting your time!) however it seems odd that a Public article would not be accessible by anyone who can already view the world... Additionally, having to manually add a subscriber group to every article in addition to making it Public so it appears in the contents list seems inefficient...
Moreover, when an article is set to Public, this hides the part of the UI that both displays and lets you alter the list of subscriber groups for the article. This leads my to the next part of my issue.
If the above behaviour I have described is in fact intended, it then would suggest that the hiding of subscriber groups when setting an article to Public is in fact a bug in and of itself. I was able to test though two of my players (each using a different phone OS - iOS and Android) that an article that remains private but has the campaign subscriber group attached allows them to view the article. Flipping the toggle to Public hides this subscriber group edit option, but my players remain able to see the article. Returning the article to Private brings back the subscriber groups option, and demonstrates the campaign subscriber group is still attached to the article. Removing the subscriber group blocks their access again.
So to my mind, either there is a bug with article permissions, the UI isn't display the full set of permissions (i.e. Public + subscriber groups that are also in effect) or the permissions system just feels unintuitive (to me!!).
An additional comment:
I am unable to really test everything I have described above! As my account is the owner of the world, everything is visible to me. I will probably submit the following as a feature request, but I thought it bore mentioning here as it is contextually relevant!
It would be nice to be able to toggle the permissions level with which I view my own world. The only way I think it is possible to do this (that I can find) is to create a totally separate 'dummy' World Anvil account and attach it to my world. I could then use this to test what I can and can't see. However this would take up one of the precious few subscriber slots on my world. As I have a good number of players (not all are yet set up on World Anvil - I'm desperately trying to persuade them) this doesn't really work for me - I expect I could max out the 10 subscriber slots (for my Master tier subscription) with players. I appreciate that there are more pressing matters given the list of bugs concerning the new UI update, but this has been a thorn in my side for a while now and this isn't the first time that I didn't know my players didn't have access to articles until weeks later! I really like World Anvil and I've been trying to persuade more of my players to make use of it, but its hard to convince them when they can't access the content.
Once again, if this turns out to be my misunderstanding then my deepest apologies! I'm extremely busy with session prep and I'm submitting this report very late in the day, so its possible this isn't the clearest explanation - sorry!
See above (sorry its a bit long winded, but it requires a minimum of 2 accounts).
Hi! When a world is private, all of its content is private, even if an article is set to public. Similarly, in a private world, if you add a subscriber group to it, the subscribers won't have access to the articles within the world unless they're also added as subscriber in the individual articles. Your options are to either make the world public, or to be more granular with the permission system. If you expect you'll create a lot of articles you want your players to see, you can set a subscriber group as a default group, which will be added to all new articles you create, although this doesn't apply retroactively. Finally, as of yesterday's UI upgrade, it is possible to view your world as a subscriber! On the left panel, at the top, click on "Tree". Then, select "View as" and select the username of one of your subscribers. All articles they don't have access to will now be greyed out.
Ah, that's amazing! Thanks so much for the assistance. Just to clarify, what does it mean for an article to be Public in the context of a Private world? Is it just to add it to the contents list?
Also, thankyou for adding that feature! That's a massive help!
Also, if that is the case, is hiding the subscriber list on the article when setting it to public intended behaviour? Surely if setting an article as Public doesn't make it available to everyone attached to the world the subscriber list would need to remain visible?
Ok, an update. I checked out the 'View As' option with the subscriber group created for a single user's user account. Articles that are listed as Public (again, on a Private world) are not greyed out (aka. they should be visible to that user). These do not have any directly associated subscriber groups. These are the same articles that my players claim they are unable to view...