J3.3 Assigning An Article Multiple Access Levels

Question

I need to set articles to multiple access levels, but currently all I've been finding is the drop-down selector for article access levels.

I have four user groups:

Solutions

Authorized

Retail

Distributors

The problem is each group or a mixture of groups needs to have access to certain pages. Do you have a recommended approach for this that's not unwieldy? I'm hoping the answer isn't to create an access level for every combination of groups.

Examples (if needed):

• The article "Business Program" needs to be accessible by Solutions and Distributor groups.
• The article "Marketing Logos" needs to be accessible by Authorized, Retail, and Distributors groups.

After looking at my article access level map, there will always be a combination of groups needing access.

Please any insight would be great. Thank you.

Edit: I will be adjusting MENU access levels not article access levels. Basically the same process and I think is the correct way to do this.

Answer 1

The right way of handling ACL is to create user groups, in tyo

Solutions, Authorized, Retail, Distributors

And after that create access level for each combination you need. For example you create access level called vip for 2 groups authorized and distributors. Let's say you have articles category that you want to be visible just for that group, then you create a menu item of articles category type and specify access level just to that vip group.

This is really flexible. I have a website with 7 user groups and 10 access levels and things aren't messy at all.

Answer 2

Well after brainstorming I've answered my own question.

I'm going to create an access level to match the menu item and assign the combination of user groups that need access. It's pretty easy to manage and seems future-proofed (if I need to add another level of usergroup).

Since the database for access is an integer, I can't really make it a csv. A lot of customization would be needed that is, to be honest, out of my realm.

But still, if you have something better, let's here it. I scoured Google but didn't really come up with results for this type of question. Also, feel free to let me know if I just brain-farted and this was a stupid question.

Thanks Everyone.