Drupal® 7 Bible

Chapter 24. Controlling User Access

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Introducing Drupal's access controls

• Adding a new role

• Assigning users to roles

• Setting permissions

Drupal gives the administrator the ability to grant or restrict access to content and functionality. User privileges are controlled through the creation of roles and the assignment of permissions. The default system includes three access roles, but you can create as many as you like and customize them to suit your needs. Proper use of roles and permissions is one of the keys to site security and the creation of work flow.

In this chapter, I review the default roles and permissions and explain how to create new roles, assign users to roles, and tailor permissions to the various roles. I also cover alternatives for achieving more granular access control at the blocks level.

Introducing Drupal's Access Controls

In the default configuration, access to the contents and functionality in your Drupal site is controlled through a combination of the roles functionality and the permissions functionality. Roles and permissions are key concepts in Drupal:

• Roles: Roles allow you to define a group of permissions. Users can then be assigned privileges by assigning them to roles via the Permissions Manager. The default system comes with three roles defined:

  • Anonymous User: This group contains users who don't have an account. For most public Web sites, this group consists of general public visitors. This is typically the largest user group.

    Note

    If a user is ...