June 8

Meeting EmCeed by Scott Wolpow. Prebilt.com
Minutes taken by: Mark Simko, digifix.us
Sponsored by: joomlatraining.com

Topics Covered:

• ACL in Joomla! 1.6
• Overview on using sh404SEF

Topic 1: ACL in Joomla! 1.6

Presenter: Elin Waring
Organization: Open Source Matters

ACL is an acronym for Access Control List. Means complexity for site developers. A long awaited feature that requires a different way of thinking about site security.
ACL controls:

• who can see what
• who can do what

In Joomla! 1.6 we can allow people to see things but restrict them from doing things. This was not possible in 1.5

Basics:

• Groups - control what you can do
• Level - controls what you can see
• Inheritance - for groups and levels
• The most restrictive rule always applies
• Users may be in multiple groups and levels - the above rule applies
• Content can only exist in one level
• Action controls apply to categories and not individual items (except for articles)
• You must always have a public group
• You must always have at least one group that can log in

The KISS rule applies (Keep It Simple Stupid). For most sites the !.5 type ACL is fine, and for others it is actually too complex. Plan out an ACL before implementing it.

Groups - This group structure is good for most sites

• Public
• Publisher
• Superadmin

Levels - This level structure is good for most sites

• Public
• Registered

The new ACL is complicated so:

• Plan carefully
• Don't overcomplicate
• Most restrictive policies always win

More new features of Joomla 1.6

• Language Overrides
• Update manager - finds new things in the file system and can install them
• Article permissions are treated like parameters

Topic 2: Overview on using sh404SEF

Presenter: Fred Sullivan
Website: avdrive.com

This is a complicated extension so use with caution. There are other less complicated SEF extensions, including the basic SEF feature of Joomla 1.5, but sometimes greater control is required. sh404SEF gives a lot of control, but with that comes complexity.

sh404SEF is available with support from dev-anything-digital.com. There are also options for support of other extensions such as jom_social and virtuemart.