Enabling user's registration approval by admins
From Joomla! Documentation
A new feature added to the user registration process in and newer is the New User's Approval by Administrators, where a user will only be able to login after an administrator approves and activates the account.
To enable it set User Activation to "Admin".
This new feature required a slight change to the parameters set in the Users Manager. The User Activation parameter now has 3 options (as opposed to 2 options in Joomla! 1.5.x) and the options can be chosen from a select list box instead of the previous radio buttons.
The options are:
- None - No activation is needed. The user may login right after finishing the registration.
- Self - The user will receive an e-mail message containing a link with a token to activate their account.
- Admin - It is necessary that an administrator approves the account. Here is how the process goes:
- After registering the new user receives an e-mail message containing a link with a token to verify their e-mail address;
- After the user's e-mail address has been verified, all users with the Receive System Messages option enabled will receive an e-mail message notifying them that a user has verified their e-mail address and requests that their account be activated. That email message will contain a link with a token to activate the account;
- Once an administrator has activated the account, the user will receive an e-mail message notifying them that they may now login. Note: the email is only sent to the users if the site Administrator activates the account from the front-end of the site not from the Joomla Administrator
This feature was a product of many suggestions made by users in the Administration Forum [1].