general user access

[tejjy1]

I installed Serendipity for a hobby website I run for a club - I thought anyone in the club (actually anyone at all!) at all would be able to access it, but I notice that whenever I access it it asks for a password... Well, that's OK, I'm the administrator & I have one, but I really don't want to have to set up a userid/password for all our members. 1stly I'd have to communicate it to all of them & 2ndly it sounds like an admin nightmare. I may have missed something, but I assumed this would work like say, Blogger, where I run it & anyone can access it.

Can sb help...a link to the relevant page I missed will be fine

[onli]

Two options:

1. Create a member account (so only one) that the club members share.
2. There is a plugin for user self registration, https://spartacus.s9y.org/index.php?mod ... nt_adduser. With it users can create an account and then have the access you configure.

[tejjy1]

so there is no configuration option for universal read access? Someone who finds the blog via google or rss can't just click through to read it, they need an account?

[onli]

No, everyone can read everything by default.

Ah! You wrote

but I notice that whenever I access it it asks for a password...

I assumed you meant the user account, the backend. If every article is asking for a password that's different. In the editor page and there below the textarea, there is among other options an input field for a password, to optionally protect individual entries with a password. It's likely your browser is automatically inserting a password there. That's a browser bug and not reasonably fixable on our side - I think -, so you'd have to remove the inserted password there / configure your browser to not insert a password there

[tejjy1]

OK, I have some more input on this...I (and others) can read the first 6 posts without a password, but the most recent three posts require a userid & password for access. Now, I don't remember either upgrading or changing the configuration since I installed it, but that's not so plausible - things don't just happen. But where should I be looking?

(We can ignore this now )

[tejjy1]

I assumed you meant the user account, the backend. If every article is asking for a password that's different.

sorry, i wasn't clear...

In the editor page and there below the textarea, there is among other options an input field for a password, to optionally protect individual entries with a password. It's likely your browser is automatically inserting a password there. That's a browser bug and not reasonably fixable on our side - I think -, so you'd have to remove the inserted password there / configure your browser to not insert a password there

That's useful! Thanks for that. What I have noticed is that in that area below the textarea, the browser *is* inserting my name into the "subtitle" field. I shall investigate further. That's consistent with the symptoms, as the three entries that are inaccessible have my name in the subtitle.

Nearly there, I think

[onli]

Those are the fields, in the editor further below:

Screenshot 2025-11-06 at 23-44-06 Entries John Doe's personal blog Serendipity Administration Suite.png (39.42 KiB) Viewed 6100 times

Note the last two blocks, those are your problem. If articles are really asking for login & password it's the "Entries can be read by" setting, if it's just a password the "Password" block.

[tejjy1]

I think I have it...

In the Advanced Options dropdown, something about the "subtitle" field is attracting the attention of both Chrome & Firefox's password manager, prompting them to autofill it with a userid (and if you click in the field, you get the PM's dropdown of 'plausible' userids).

If this isn't cleared, the PM takes it as permission to autofill the PW field - eh voila! I went back & deleted the password in all the offending entries & all is now as expected.

I do wonder if you might not be able to tweak something about that subtitle field, but now I know about it, it's not a problem if you can't/don't. I'm not in the habit of complaining about free software , especially when it comes with such prompt assistance! Thanks

[onli]

I'm happy we figured it out :)

To work on the markup of the field is a sound suggestion, it's just from experience that there aren't great solution there, browser are very eager to fill data into such fields.

[tejjy1]

I guess you have "autofill = user" on the subtitle field, but, I absolutely understand there's diminishing returns in trying to control browser behaviour...