Managing Zone Editing Permissions in cPanel

As of cPanel & WHM version 60, the cPanel interface had four different places that allowed you to edit your zone files in different ways. The Simple DNS Editor (cPanel >> Domains >> Simple DNS Editor) allowed the user to setup A records, and CNAMEs records. The Advanced DNS Editor (cPanel >> Domains >> Advanced DNS Editor) provided the ability to setup, edit, and delete records such as TXT records, SRV records, and AAAA records. The MX Entry interface provided the ability to set MX records.

Needless to say, this has always been very complicated for the end-user to understand, and it is complicated for our development team to track the different places a user could change DNS settings. We wanted to condense this all down into a single interface so that users could have one-stop-shopping experience for solving their DNS needs. This new interface would provide users the ability to change a multitude of DNS settings in one place, through a clean and updated interface.

Managing permissions in the The Zone Editor

In cPanel & WHM version 62 our Development Team introduced the new Zone Editor Interface (cPanel >> Domains >> Zone Editor) into cPanel & WHM. This interface combined the Simple and Advanced Zone editors, and provided a significantly improved user experience over both of them.

The benefits were immediately seen, and our users loved the simplified interface. The feedback we have gotten from them has been great to hear!

However, many Hosting Providers still wanted to limit and control the specific editing permissions that a cPanel user can perform. For that reason, we wanted to provide the functionality that these hosts have had for many years in the new Zone Editor interface.

In order to provide that functionality, we have left the ‘Simple’, ‘Advanced’, and ‘MX Entry’ feature permissions in the WHM feature manager interface. Historically these features would define whether or not the interfaces were viewable in cPanel. This also ensures that all existing accounts retain their settings, and require no action from webhosts.

Here’s a breakdown of how those feature permissions work with the new Zone Editor:

If you have only the Simple DNS Editor permission set for your account, you will only be able to setup A records, CNAMEs, and DNSSEC settings through the new Zone Editor Interface.
If you have the Advanced DNS Editor permission set for your account, you will be able to edit A records, CNAMEs, DNSSEC settings, TXT records, SRV records, and AAAA Records through the new Zone Editor Interface.
If you have the MX Entry feature set for your account, you will be able to set the MX records for your account through the new Zone Editor Interface.

What’s next?

For more information about the new Zone Editor, you can check out our Zone Editor documentation. There are a few feature requests related to the Zone Editor interface that you might be interested in adding your voice to as well. If you have questions, you can ask them below or find me on twitter!