What modules are used in the "Backdrop Forum"?

I think the containers are taxonomy so perhaps a taxonomy access module might help. I'm not sure if one was ported but should be simple to do so.

Here are the modules being used on the forum:  https://github.com/backdrop-ops/forum.backdropcms.org/tree/master/www/mo...

I am trying to restrict access to specific forum containers too. And it'd be great to do this using taxonomy, but I can't find anything that specifically says you can control view access for individual taxonomy entries, which is what I think herb's comment implies.

This page https://backdropcms.org/project/acl suggests that using the ACL module is a good approach, and it also shows that there's a Drupal module called Forum Access which says "You can control what user roles can view, edit, delete, and post to each forum."

I can't see Forum Access available for Backdrop - does anyone know if this has been ported or if there's another existing way to do this? I'm happy to work on this, I'm just very new to Backdrop/Drupal so am not sure if I'm just missing some configuration option that's already there.

I think this would be a valuable thing to figure out. I don't know of an existing way for it to happen. My reading is that the https://backdropcms.org/project/acl module would be helpful if someone ported the forum access module from Drupal, but no one has. 

The Groups module would be useful for controlling access to forums and there has been work done on a Backdrop port, but it's not stabile as far as I can tell.

I just found these modules, which MIGHT be useful.

• Simple Access - https://backdropcms.org/project/simple_access, if you can get this to work let us know. 
• Content Access - https://github.com/backdrop-contrib/content_access, this one does not have an official release, so it may not be stabile, but you could try it. Or check the issue queue. 

You could help port one of these Drupal modules or make a port request, which is sometimes successful. I've done it a few times with positive results. You can post a request in the Drupal.org issue queue or post a port request here in the Backdrop Contrib Issue Queue.

• Forum Access - https://www.drupal.org/project/forum_access
• Taxonomy Access - https://www.drupal.org/project/taxonomy_access

Another relevant discussion:

• Suitable content access module? https://github.com/backdrop-ops/contrib/issues/105

I'm anxious to hear what folks figure out. 

A while ago I authored the contrib module Simple Access Grants (for Backdrop) in order to control access to specified content (node) types from specified user roles. It can be used to do this for all nodes of a specified type or on an individual instance of a node type.

I think this module could be extended to include the taxonomy setting for a node so that access is permitted only for specific taxonomy values. I would be willing to look into this possibility if it would help. It would enable an admin to set an access condition that users with role X can access nodes of type Y provided that node has taxonomy type Z. Is that what is required?

I haven't tried Simple Access but looking at the code it does seem to do quite a bit. Maybe it's not as simple as advertised. I would recommend using a module focused just on restricting access based on taxonomy. There's been an initial port of https://github.com/backdrop-contrib/tac_lite which might work. There's no official release yet so use at your own risk.

I'm trying to understand exactly what a "node" is... and I think part of the issue is that a Forum Container or Forum is not a node, instead a Forum Topic is a node.

With Simple Access enabled I can give a group View Access to a particular Forum Topic, but I can't do this at the Forum or Container level.

I tried installing tac_lite but I don't think it's 100% compatible - am not seeing any useful interface. I'm also curious about this line in the docs:

Associate the vocabulary with node types, as you would normally do.

Continuing to play around.

@graham-72 Yes that does, I think, sound like exactly what I would want to be able to do.

Or, might it be easier to port Forum Access?https://www.drupal.org/project/forum_access

I'm wondering if a taxonomy-based approach will require additional work-arounds (e.g. to hide unauthorized index pages or menu options) as opposed to something very specific like Forum Access. Looking at the source code of Forum Access, it seems to have lots of very specific functionality. I can't judge whether the taxonomy approach would do all the same things. (Except that Forum Access seems to support having moderators which would be handy.)

Forum Access seems straightforward, although it relies on Chain Menu Access API which would also have to be ported. (I tried running both through Coder Upgrade and Chain Menu Access API seemed to install - but I have no idea if it's working - and attempting to enable Forum Access results in the modules page not loading - can't find an error message yet.)

I have some time this weekend if I can help anybody work on this. I'm an experienced python/web dev and I can read PHP pretty well, and am new to Drupal/Backdrop but generally a quick study.

Should be easy to port https://www.drupal.org/project/chain_menu_access

OK, https://www.drupal.org/project/chain_menu_access has been ported by needs testing before it get's released. 

I've done a little more work on https://github.com/backdrop-contrib/forum_access and I think we may get this working soon. 

This is fantastic, thank you all so much! :) I will try to set up a local dev environment tonight/tomorrow and pitch in where I can.