Permissions in Phorum 5
--------------------------

First and foremost, your code should use the function called
phorum_user_access_allowed() to check for a give users permissions
in the current forum.  However, if you find yourself needing to check
the permisssion directly, here is some information.

Permissions are stored as a bit field.  To check for a permission,
simply use the bitwise & operator.

For example, if we want to check if a user has permissions to read
a particular forum, we would use the following if statement.

    if($PHORUM["user"]["permissions"] & PHORUM_USER_ALLOW_READ){
		// the user can read this forum
	} else {
		// the user can NOT read this forum
	}

If you need to modify the permissions, use the bitwise OR (|) to add
a permission or the bitwise XOR (^) to remove a permission.  After you
make the change, save the user.

	// add new topic permissions
	$PHORUM["user"]["permissions"] = 
			$PHORUM["user"]["permissions"] | PHORUM_USER_ALLOW_NEW_TOPIC;
	phorum_user_save($PHORUM["user"]);

	// remove new topic permissions
	$PHORUM["user"]["permissions"] = 
			$PHORUM["user"]["permissions"] ^ PHORUM_USER_ALLOW_NEW_TOPIC;
	phorum_user_save($PHORUM["user"]);



	
That should be all you need to know for Phorum.  Here is some stuff that 
helped explain this to the other developers:

> select (256 | 16);  
> That OR's the two numbers together.
> you get 272
> then:
> select 16 & 272;
> That returns 16.
> So, in our data, the 272 represents what is in the database.
> The 16 would be one of the permission constancts
> Our constants would like like this:
>     define("PHORUM_USER_ALLOW_READ", 1);  
>     define("PHORUM_USER_ALLOW_REPLY", 2); 
>     define("PHORUM_USER_ALLOW_EDIT", 4); 
>     define("PHORUM_USER_ALLOW_NEW_TOPIC", 8); 
>     define("PHORUM_USER_ALLOW_UPLOAD", 16); 
>     define("PHORUM_USER_ALLOW_ATTACH", 32); 
>     define("PHORUM_USER_ALLOW_MODERATE_MESSAGES", 64); 
>     define("PHORUM_USER_ALLOW_MODERATE_USERS", 128); 
>     define("PHORUM_USER_ALLOW_FORUM_PROPERTIES", 256); 
> To give someone read and reply, we would set their perm to 1 | 2
> Then, to check it, we would $user_perm_value & $perm == $perm
> or in sql
> where permission & $perm = $perm

Another example to show that the = $perm can be left out:

> select 1 | 2
> read, reply
> = 3
> select 3 & 16
> =0