Contrib.social

Update the outdated user_help text for user.admin_permissions and the description of the select box on the role settings page

Open on Drupal.org →
Created on 1 July 2022, over 2 years ago
Updated 2 April 2023, over 1 year ago

Problem/Motivation

In Drupal 9.3.0 the administration role setting got moved to the new role settings form (see #987978: Move "administrator role" setting to new Role Settings form → ). Problem is on the permissions page (admin/people/permissions) the user_help text still points to the old location, the Account settings page.

At the same time the description of the select box on the role settings page is incorrect and is creating a false expectation.

This role will be automatically assigned new permissions whenever a module is enabled. Changing this setting will not affect existing permissions.
The statement that changing this setting will not affect existing permissions applies to every role except the administrator role. Problem with the administrator role in the standard profile - on install it is set as the administration role and every checkbox is selected. If you change now the administrator role on the Role settings page the permissions of the administrator role get reset to its defaults. If you take a look at the default permissions assigned in the standard profile: https://git.drupalcode.org/project/drupal/-/blob/9.5.x/core/profiles/sta... it is clear why after changing the administrator role on the role settings page all checkboxes are unchecked. Since the administrator role is the role that is assigned initially for the standard profile install and changed later on it is a potential source of confusion and problems.

Steps to reproduce

1. Go to /admin/people/permissions and read the user_help text
2. Go to /admin/people/role-settings and read the description

I've checked in Drupal 9.4.1 and Drupal 10.0.x-dev. The problem applies to both versions.

Proposed resolution

1) Change the link from admin/config/people/accounts to admin/people/role-settings. And the least invasive update to user_help text could be:

From the Account settings page, you can make any role into an Administrator role for the site, meaning that role will be granted all new permissions automatically.

changed to:
On the Role settings page, you can make any role into an Administrator role for the site, meaning that role will be granted all permissions.

2) Based on the discussions in #3306259: Drupal Usability Meeting 2022-09-02 → the consensus was to extend the scope of this issue and change the string on /admin/people/role-settings from

This role will be automatically assigned new permissions whenever a module is enabled. Changing this setting will not affect existing permissions.
to
This role will be automatically granted all permissions.

That way it is in line with the user help text. The second sentence gets removed as well as the word new and the verb gets adjusted from assigned to granted which is in line with the user help text.

Addendum:The issue here and the one I will link later on was discovered and discussed during the Drupal Dojo in Austin over the course of two or three consecutive weeks. It would be good if someone could provide @cutehair and @rocketeerbkw an issue credit since both helped discovering and understanding this and the other issue.

🐛 Bug report
Status

Fixed

Version

9.5

Component
User module  →

Last updated about 13 hours ago

Created by

🇩🇪Germany rkoller Nürnberg, Germany

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