The membership of each Private Members' Areas is controlled independently, so for example you could create one for all members, and one for a subset of members, such as a committee.
A Private Members' Area is a "subsite" within your main site, with its own Content Management System and set of Applications. For example enabling the Discussions application in the Private Members' Area will result in a new blank copy with no posts, which only members of the Private Members' Area can access.
Note that you can control access to applications in your main site without having to create a Private Members' Area. If you just want to have a single application or a few pages that are restricted to Members. This can be done with the Permissions settings for those applications and pages.
Creating a Private Members' Area
To create a Private Members' Area, go to your site admin pages and click the Content Management tab and select the Applications subtab. Next click the Add Private Members' Area button and supply a name and URL stub for the private area.
Once you have created the Private Members' Area it will be added to the list of applications.
Clicking the Manage This Application link will display the administration interface for the Members' Area, with it's own Content tree and Applications settings.
Managing Membership
Initially only site admins will be able to see the Members' Area. To grant access to other users you need to add them.
- Go to the Admin pages of your main website (not of the Private Members' Area)
- Go to Users & Permissions tab and Members subtab
- Click the checkbox next to each user who you wish to add to the Private Members' Area
- Click the Add to group button beneath the user list
- Select the name of your Private Members' Area as the group to add the users, and click OK.
Granting Access to All Members
If you don't want to explicitly control the membership of the Private Members' Area, you can use the Permissions settings to grant access to all your site members (or indeed, to all visitors of your site even if they aren't members!)
- Go to the Admin pages of your main website (not of the Private Members' Area)
- Go to Content Management tab and Applications subtab
- Click the Permissions button next to the Private Members' Area
- Tick the appropriate boxes for the users who you wish to have access, and click Confirm