[buddypress-trac] [BuddyPress Trac] #7662: Hidden groups shouldn't 404 if you do not have access

[buddypress-trac]

#7662: Hidden groups shouldn't 404 if you do not have access
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 Reporter:  r-a-y        |      Owner:
     Type:  defect       |     Status:  new
  (bug)                  |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
 Priority:  normal       |    Version:  1.6
Component:  Groups       |   Keywords:  dev-feedback has-patch 2nd-opinion
 Severity:  normal       |  ux-feedback
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 After looking at #7659, I decided to look into why we throw a 404 when
 we're on a hidden group instead of letting the user see a message of some
 kind.

 Came across #3462 with the following explanation:

 ----


 For Hidden groups, I think we should change the behaviour so that if you
 don't have access, (all of) the link(s) 404. At the minute, you can see a
 "this is a hidden group and only invited members can join" message, but
 you can view the group title, description, and see the admin/moderator
 avatars.
 This would be the same behaviour as if you try to access the group admin
 page URL without authorisation (it 404s), and I think it would be more
 consistent, as well as having the benefit of keeping the hidden group's
 title and description hidden.

 The latter could be achieved by updating the templates but that means
 putting core logic into the default theme(!).

 ----

 The current behavior is poor UX in my opinion.

 It seems the main points for throwing a 404 is to hide group data such as
 the title, description and avatars from being shown.

 If that is the case, couldn't we just use `wp_die()` to output a message?

 Attached patch does this and also displays a login form if the user isn't
 logged in.

 Screenshot:

 [[Image(https://s9.postimg.org/8qnxpqpfj/2018-01-18_112932.png)]]

 Patch is a working example, but we'd probably want to style the login form
 for a final iteration.  `wp_die()` doesn't have a hook where we can inject
 CSS so we'd either have to override `wp_die()` via the `'wp_die_handler'`
 filter or use inline CSS...

 Let me know what you think.

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Ticket URL: <https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/7662>
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