Joomla 1.6 access control (ACL) – the power of permissions

There are some amazing new and improved features in Joomla 1.6 and the new permission system (ACL) might just be the most popular of them all.

Access…control…permission…what?

Let’s just say, again, this is probably the most wanted and discussed feature among Joomla fans (you can even buy a “Let there be ACL!” tshirt on joomla.org)!

Sure, in Joomla 1.5 you can control the user group access on a basic level (think: Registered/Admin/Author etc), but Joomla 1.6 ACL takes this to a whole new level. Imagine being able to really fine-tune who can see and do what on your site. CommunityACL and other Joomla extensions have definitely filled the gap, but having this functionality in the core will be a very welcome addition for many Joomla website admins. If you are new to the whole concept of user group permissions, it might take some effort to wrap your head around. That said, it’s definitely worth learning more about it to understand how you can use it on your sites.

In short, ACL is all about

1. you being able to allow/deny users access to specific parts of your website, i.e. who can see what (menus, articles etc), and
2. you deciding what action they are allowed to take (view, edit, submit etc).

You can set permissions for the normal Joomla User Groups as well as add your own additional user groups and set permissions for them.

4 levels – permission hierarchy

This is a concept that you must understand: there are 4 layers of permissions and the permissions are inherited.

1. Global Configuration – here is where you set the default allow/deny access and actions (permissions).
2. Component – setting permissions for a component (menu, articles etc) overrides the global/default permissions
3. Category – setting permissions for a category overrides the global and component permissions, and the same permissions can be inherited by the sub-categories.
4. Article – setting permissions for an article overrides all of the above.

For screenshots and information, see “ACL Tutorial for Joomla 1.6“. Also check out this thread on the joomla.org forum for some down-to-earth explanations of how the permission inheritance works. Imporant: This is something you should not go too wild on implementing on a detailed level, because you will be looking at an admin nightmare if you set permissions on all your articles. Rather structure your content properly and set permissions on as high level as possible.

Learn more about Joomla 1.6 ACL

There’s much more detailed information about everything ACL in the resources below, so check them out:

• Introducing the new permissions in Joomla 1.6
• Joomla 1.6 Quick Look: Content Access Levels
• ACL Tutorial for Joomla 1.6
• Joomla 1.6 Access Controls info on docs.joomla.org

Kudos goes out to Jen Kramer, Andrew Eddie, Mark Dexter and everybody else writing, publishing and contributing with the useful information about Joomla 1.6 (ACL)! If you notice we’ve missed a resource about ACL, please let us know in the comments below.

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Tags: joomla 1.6