My personal impression is that the Web Client has gained such a popularity that for many users it has become one of the main used clients for playback.
IMO one of the biggest advantage is simply that it allows to access media without the need of installing any additional client software and is quite independent from the OS.
For example: guests visiting your home can access media on their computers right away without the need of installing additional software.
The only problem with this is that the use of the Web client implies also access to several management features like adding/removing libraries, editing media information and changing the server configuration.
A workaround would be to use an additional Plex account and share content. This requires internet access and is not a real alternative if you want to give quickly a one time only access to your media over the local network.
I'm wondering if it would be possible to add to the Plex environment an "alternative" Web Client where the management features are removed and can be used only as a player
or as an alternative
add a button requiring additional authentication to enable/disable the management features.
Something like this:
I think this could be an interesting addition. Any other user interested in this?
Second, If having two clients/privilege levels might it make sense to have the 'default' web player/client be the 'unprivileged' client?
If the management-privilege is part of the URL (e.g :32400/manage vs :32400/web) does this merge well with what we all now know and use?
I'm thinking about the setting "allow clients to delete media" which enables this feature on the clients side.
I believe it should be doable, just don't know how complicated implementing this would possibly be.
Just one thought:
This would not give a high security level but what about simply combining the management elements with a hidden attribute when the management feature is not needed so that they just don't show up?
Yes, it's not high security by any means. It's simply keeping users from trying to play with things they know nothing of nor have any reason looking at.
I feel by putting more emphasis back on the '/manage' url, which is still in the software, it would also make administration a lot easier for those learning Plex as it gives a greater sense of 'administrator' vs 'user'.
I didn't check all the tabs but i did see that the server and devices tabs were accessible. Someone could delete one of these.
Did you switch to a different user? It looks to me like in this case only the devises used by this user are visible and no server tab shows up anymore.
Hmm. I could have sworn I saw more stuff yesterday when I tried it. My WebApp has updated to 2.3.1, so I do not know if that has anything to do with it. Ok. Solved then.
