MediaWiki extensions manual

CategoryLockdown Release status: stable
Implementation	User rights
Description	Restrict permissions by category and group
Author(s)	Sophivorustalk
Latest version	3.1 (2021-12-13)
MediaWiki	>= 1.29.0
Database changes	No
License	GNU General Public License 3.0 or later
Download	Download extension Git [?]: Download Git master browse repository (GitHub) commit history repository contributors (GitHub) code review
Example
Parameters $wgCategoryLockdown
Hooks used getUserPermissionsErrors
Quarterly downloads	26 (Ranked 144th)
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The CategoryLockdown extension allows admins to restrict permissions by category and group.

Installation

• Download and place the file(s) in a directory called CategoryLockdown in your extensions/ folder.
• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:

  wfLoadExtension( 'CategoryLockdown' );
  

•  Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Usage

To restrict the 'read' permission of the Category:Maintenance and its pages to the 'sysop' group only (admins), add the following to your LocalSettings.php:

$wgCategoryLockdown['Maintenance']['read'] = 'sysop';

Similarly, to restrict the 'edit' permission of the Category:Sales and its pages to the 'vendor' group:

$wgCategoryLockdown['Sales']['edit'] = 'vendor';

To restrict editing to users in the 'vendor' OR 'manager' groups:

$wgCategoryLockdown['Sales']['edit'] = [ 'vendor', 'manager' ];

Note that pages in subcategories are not affected. If Category:Clients is a subcategory of Category:Sales, then pages within it won't be protected by the above setting. You'd need to add:

$wgCategoryLockdown['Clients']['edit'] = [ 'vendor', 'manager' ];

Also note that if a page is in the Category:Sales and the Category:Clients, then the following will restrict editing to users in the 'vendor' OR 'manager' groups:

$wgCategoryLockdown['Sales']['edit'] = 'vendor',
$wgCategoryLockdown['Clients']['edit'] = 'manager';

Finally, note that:

• Rules don't apply to admins.
• You can use this syntax to restrict any permission (not just 'read' and 'edit'). However, if users are allowed to read and edit a page, then they can avoid other restrictions by re-categorizing the page.
• This extension only removes permissions, it doesn't grant them. If the general config of your wiki forbids editing to all users, then adding a rule that restricts editing to a certain group won't work. Instead, allow editing to all users and then use this extension to restrict editing to the desired group.

See also

• Extension:Lockdown - More sophisticated but cannot restrict access by category and group
• Extension:Restrict access by category and group - Similar idea but more complicated and unmaintained