15 Minute Guide to Access Levels in ACL

If you’ve heard anything about Joomla 1.6, chances are you’ve heard about two exciting new features more than others: nested categories, and something called ACL.

ACL stands for access control levels. It refers to who has permission to do what on the website, including read, create, edit, delete, or log in, among other permissions.

Many think of ACL as relating to the front end of a website only. For example, when I log into the website, what articles do I have available to me? And if someone else logs into the site, do they see the same articles, or do they see different ones?

However, ACL also relates to who has rights to create, edit, and delete content; who can publish and unpublish content; who can log into the front end or back end of the website; and who can make changes to which components and modules.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should! ACL is complex, and it takes some time to understand exactly how it works. For many sites, perhaps even most sites, you might not need anything beyond the default Joomla configuration. However, if you're building a larger site, it could come in handy.