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Note: This example has been derived from a new Tutorial for Joomla! 1.6 ACL. The concepts demonstrated by that article are complex and have been removed from this page. What has been kept is the overall structure which appears to have general application. Please discuss the structure and suggest changes.

Definition

Topic Defined

Topic is an essential element of Joomla! 1.6

Target Audience

This topic is intended for you if you are Getting Started / an Experienced User / an Expert User / Implementing Extensions / Developing Extensions /

Links to equivalent material for other user types.

Overview

Short General Statement of Topic

This Topic describes how to make some part of Joomla! 1.6 work.

Comparison 1.6 vs 1.5

Users, Groups, and Access Levels

With the definition in mind, let's look at how we set up the Topic for our site in version 1.6. The table below summarizes the major changes from version 1.5.

We see that in every case the ACL has been made much more flexible, with unlimited Groups and Access Levels, and the ability to assign one User to multiple Groups and any Groups to any Access Level.

How Topic Works

Topic creates a page in Joomla! 1.6 and allows Contributors to add content to it.

How To Use Topic

From the BackEnd the Topic is accessed (using the provided example) from Site → Global Configuration → Permissions. This screen allows you set the top-level permission for each group for each action, as shown in the screenshot below.

The options for each value are Not Set (shown as "..."), Allow, or Deny.

Default Topic Setup

When Joomla! 1.6 is installed, these are set to their initial default settings. We will discuss these initial settings as a way to understand how the Topic works.

Default Elements

When you install version 1.6, it includes a set of default elements, as shown below.

The arrows indicate the child-parent relationships.

Global Configuration

Joomla! 1.6 will install with these elements of Topic.

Front End Management

The Topic elements may also be set for the Front End.

Summary

To sum up this is what Topic does.

Topic Examples

Here is an example / are some examples of how you might set up the Topic for some specific situations.

Back-end Article Administrator

Problem:

We want to create a group called "Article Administrator" with back-end permissions only for articles and not for any other back-end menu options. Members of this group should be able to use all of the features of the article manager, including setting article permissions.

Solution:

1. Create a new child called Article Administrator, as shown below.
   
   Set the Group Parent to Registered. That way, we don't have to change any permissions in Global Configuration. The new group inherits the Login permission from Registered and has implicit deny permission for all other actions.
2. In Users → Access Levels, edit the Special Access level to add the new group. That way they can get access to the back end screens.
   
3. In Article Manager → Options → Permissions, change permissions to Allow for this group, as shown below.
   

That's all you need to do. Members of this group can login to the back end and do everything in Article Manager but can't do anything else in the back end.