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Access Permission and User Management

2000 September 17

{tab=The ACL}Joomla's Access Control List (ACL) offers fixed roles-based permissions for 7 user types or levels: Registered Users, Authors, Editors, Publishers, Managers,Administrators, and Super Administrators. These levelsare described in detailhere. The first three have frontend access only. The last three have access to the administrative backend but only Super Administrators have access to everything on the backend. Only Administrators and Super Administrators have access to user account management functions.

Content articles, menu items, modules, and plugins can all be designated as visible and accessible to anyone (public), only to registered users (anyone with an account), or only to "special" users, i.e. those with backend access. More complex and granular ACL functions require additional extensions.{tab=User Management}Joomla'sUser Manager(Site->User Manager) should not be used by administrators on this website because its functions are redundant and superseded by theCommunity Builder (CB)component, which integrates with and expands the Joomla user manager. Use CB's User Management feature instead underComponents->Community Builder->User Management.

Primary user management tasks include: creating new user accounts, approving and rejecting newly registered user accounts, deleting or blocking user accounts, or editing their account information. In the various extensions that allow user-submitted content, there are also administrative options to approve, deny, edit or block user-contributed content. TheEventListcalendar component has its own extensive user management functions on the backend to handle events, venues and other material submitted by users; it also allows the creation of special groups of users that have special privileges with regard to the calendar's functions.

Special Frontend Access for Registered Users or Higher:

  • When users with Manager level access or above are logged in on the frontend, the Community Builder (CB) workflow module is set to appear below the CB login/logout module on the right side of the screen on the staff page and all CB pages. Notice will be given here of any new user registrations needing approval or rejection, and other basic CB housekeeping issues. The number of people viewing the site and a list of those who are logged in will also be shown.
  • When any registered user is logged in on the frontend, the "Your Account" menu item will become visible along with the submenu items under it. (Clicking "Your Account" leads to you personal account profile page.) The submenu items are:
    • Member Directory - a listing of all registered users. (CB allows the creation of many different kinds of user lists with different search and filtering options.)
    • Your Commentsand Favorites - a listing of the latest comments you have made, comments you are subscribed to, and articles you have designated as favorites. (There is also a tab on your CB profile page listing your recent comments.)
  • When any user with author, editor, publisher, or higher privileges is logged in on the front end, icons will appear for editing and creating new content as the user's access level allows.
  • When any user with manager or administrator access is logged in on the frontend, the "Your Account" menu's child items will also include:
    • Staff Page - Documentation.
    • Submit an Article - Form to submit content from the frontend.
    • Submit a Link - Form to submit a weblink to the link directory from the frontend.
    • Administrative Backend - Link to the backed login screen.
    • Latitude/Longitude Finder - This is discussed in the Geocoding documentation.
  • {tab=Authors, Photographers and Contacts}Regular authors of articles should have user accounts, even if they never use them, since this is necessary for them to be available in the list of possible authors for articles and for the iJoomla Search and Archive to be able to search and index articles by author. (User accounts can serve as additional contact pages for authors and photographers, and they also list and link to their most recent contributions. Author user accounts can be kept locked down and invisible if necessary.) Photographers should also have their own entries in the Contacts component. (Make sure their contact entries are associated with their user account.) Aside from the contacts category for photographers, there is also one for the magazine staff/departments.{/tabs}