Joomla 3.X User Manager

Transcription

1 Joomla 3.X User Manager Introduction Most Joomla websites have three levels of content available: 1. Content that can be accessed totally free by every one that visits the website 2. Content that requires a site visitor to register first before being able to access such content 3. Content access that requires registration and payment i.e. Premium content of one kind or another. Site visitors normally register with a Joomla website via a Registration link normally available on all website pages, i.e. user registration is done via the front end of the Joomla website. Once site visitors register with Joomla, the information they entered at registration time can be Edited /Deleted via the Joomla User interface accessible only to Joomla Administrators. Joomla s User interface permits the Joomla administrator to Block or Edit or Delete users and on occasion Add new users manually. To access Joomla s User interface login to Joomla as its Administrator. Locate Users in its Top Menu. Click Users. From the drop down menu select User Manager as shown in diagram 1. Diagram 1 On Click of User Manager Joomla s User Manager s, User interface, will be displayed in the Browser as shown in diagram 2. Diagram 2 1

2 The User Manager interface has a Top Menu, and three sections. Two sections on the Left and one section on the right as shown in diagram 2.s The top left section is marked Users: ( As shown in diagram 3 ) There are four links under the heading Users. They are: User Groups Viewing Access Levels User Notes Note Categories Diagram 3 On Click of User Groups, the User Groups, User interface, is displayed in the Browser as shown in diagram 4. Diagram 4 On Click of New in the top left hand corner a new user group can be added to the user groups already in existence as shown in diagram 4. The User Manager also permits the maintenance of existing user groups. These can be Edited, Deleted and/or various Options set / re-set for any specific group as shown in diagram 5. 2

3 Diagram 5 Editing A Group Title: Click on a check box adjacent to a Group Title and Click Edit as shown in diagram 6. The edit group title user interface will be displayed in the Browser as shown in diagram 7. Diagram 6 Diagram 7 Edit the Group Title as required. Click Save & Close as shown in diagram 7 when done. To Abort simply Click Close as shown in diagram 7. 3

4 To set /re-set various Options for a specific Group, Click on a check box adjacent to the Group Title and then Click Options as shown in diagram 8. Diagram 8 The Options User interface will be displayed in the Browser as shown in diagram 9. Diagram 9 The User Configuration Options has three tabs. They are Component, Mass mail and Permissions. 4

5 The Component Tab Allow User Registration: This is a switch, if set to Yes, new users will be allowed to register. If set to No, new users will not be able to register. New User Registration Group: This is a drop down list box via which the website owner can decide which group new registrants from the front end will be assigned to. The Joomla default choices are - Registered, Author, Editor, Publisher and Super Users. Guest User Group: This is a drop down list box via which the website owner can decide which Joomla group will be assigned to site visitors who are not logged in to the website. The Joomla default choices are Guest, Public. Send Password: This is a switch, via which the website owner can instruct Joomla to send the initial password set when a site visitor registers on the website via or not. If this is set to Yes the password will be sent to the registrant if set to No the password will not be sent. New User Account Activation: This is a drop down list box via which the website owner can instruct Joomla how to handle new user account activation. The choices are None, Self, Admin. None: If set to None as soon as a site visitor registers, they are free to login and access restricted material on the Joomla website. No activation is needed. Self If set to Self the new registrant has to Self Activate their account before being allowed to log into the Joomla website and access restricted material. Joomla users a double opt in registration system. This helps ensure that a site visitor really wishes to be registered with the website. This helps prevent any site visitor registering on behalf of another person perhaps just to annoy them. After registering, Joomla dispatches and to the ID used during the time of registering. The dispatched by Joomla contains a link. Only when this link is clicked is the new registration Activated on the Joomla website. Only then is the new registrant allowed to log in and access restricted material. This is Joomla s recommended double opt-in activation system for new registrants. Admin If set to Admin, whenever a site visitor registers with the Joomla website, the Joomla Admin has to Manually Activate the new user s account before the registrant can log in and access restricted material. Notification To Administrator: This is a switch. If set to Yes, an is dispatched to Joomla Admin s ID every time someone registers with the website. If set to No, no such is dispatched. 5

6 Captcha: This is a drop down list box via which the website owner informs Joomla whether or not to use Captcha with the registration form. Captcha is a technique used to prevent SPAM bots from registering hundreds of fake / useless accounts on Joomla websites. These are the type of accounts that Hackers love to create and exploit to take over Joomla websites for their own nefarious purposes. The choices are Use Default, None Selected, Captcha Re-Captcha. Use Default: The Joomla built in default for Captcha is used with the registration form. None Selected: This instructs Joomla not to use any Captcha with the registration from. No recommended. Captcha Re-Captcha This instructs Joomla to use Google s Re-Captcha with the registration form. Front End User Parameters: This is a switch via which a website owner can instruct Joomla to permit logged in users to make specific choices for themselves. If set to Show anyone logged into the Joomla website can choose the Language, Editor and Joomla Help site parameters themselves in their Details Screen. This If set to Hide this functionality is not delivered by Joomla to a logged in user. Front End Language: This is a switch via which a website owner can instruct Joomla to permit a site visitor at registration time to choose their front end language. This is useful if the Joomla site is multilingual. NOTE: This requires that the Front End User Parameters is set to Show. Change Login Name: This is a switch via which the Joomla website owner can instruct Joomla to permit a registered / activated user to change their login name when editing their profile. The default setting a Joomla installation time is No. Maximum Reset Count: This is a drop down list box via which the Joomla website owner can instruct Joomla on how many times a registered / activated and logged in use can change their password in a pre-specified time interval. The range is from 1 to 20. The default setting at Joomla installation time is 10. NOTE: If the value 0 is selected it means that the there is no limit on the number of time a registered / activated and logged in user can change their password within a pre-specified time interval. Time In Hours: The Joomla website owner can enter any numeric value in the text box adjacent to this prompt. This numeric value is what Joomla will use as the pre-defined time limit, in hours, associated with Maximum Reset Count. The default value set at Joomla installation time is 1 hour. 6

7 The Mass Mail Tab On Click of the link Mass Mail the Mass Mail, User interface, will be displayed in the Browser as shown in diagram 10. Diagram 10 Subject Prefix: The Joomla website owner can add any value in the text box adjacent ot this prompt. Whatever value is entered in this text box will be added as a Suffix to the Subject (i.e. in front of the subject ) of the by Joomla when it is dispatching a mass to website registrants. Mailbody Suffix: The Joomla website owner can add any value in the text area adjacent to this prompt. Whatever value is entered in this text area will be added as a Suffix to the Mail body (i.e. at the very end of the content ) of the by Joomla when it is dispatching a mass to website registrants. Often the website owner enters an signature in this text area. 7

8 The Permissions Tab On Click of the link Permissions the Permissions User interface will be displayed in the Browser as shown in diagram 11. It s best if no change was made in this user interface. Whatever settings have been made at installation time are generally more than adequate for all Joomla websites. Diagram 11 It is best if no change was made by the website owner via this user interface. Whatever settings have been made at installation time are generally more than adequate for 99% of the websites that are driven by Joomla. If any change is settings is considered necessary by the website owner this is best left to a Joomla tech professional. When all the changes required have been done by the website owner do not forget to Click Save & Close to save all the changes to the Joomla database tables thus making the changes permanent as shown in diagram 12. Diagram 12 8

9 User Groups On Click of the link User Groups, the User Groups, User interface, is displayed in the Browser as shown in diagram 13. Diagram 13 The User Groups User interface permits the Joomla website owner to Add a new group, Edit an existing group, Delete an existing group, or Set / re-set various group Options as shown in diagram 13. These control buttons are in the top left hand side of this User interface. The Group ID for each of the User Groups registered with Joomla in its database tables is displayed in the right hand side of the User Groups, User Interface. On Click of New the user interface via which a new user group attributes are defined to Joomla is displayed in the Browser as shown in diagram 14. Diagram 14 9

10 Group Title: The website owner enters the Group Title in the text box adjacent to this prompt. Group Parent: is a drop down list box via which the website owner can select a parent group for the group being newly created and stored in Joomla s database tables. The parent group choices are Public, Guest, Manager, Administrator, Registered, Author, Editor, Publisher and Super User. After entering the name of the new User Group and selecting a Parent Group for it, do not forget to Click Save & Close to save these changes to the Joomla database tables making these changes permanent. Save & New: The Save & New button permits the website owner to Save the current User Group and Group Parent to the Joomla database tables and return to this User interface to create another new User Group. Cancel: The Cancel button aborts the currently active new User Group creation process. NOTE: New User Groups created and saved to the Joomla database before the Cancel button was clicked will continue to exist. 10

11 Viewing Access Levels Access levels: Is what a Joomla website owner uses to control which site visitors can view/access which objects on their website. Objects include menu items, modules, categories, and component items, articles, contacts, and so on. Each such object in the website is assigned to one access level. User groups are also assigned to each access level. If a user is a member of a group that in turn has permission for an access level, then that user can view all objects assigned to that access level. It is important to understand that user groups can be arranged in a parent-child hierarchy. Hence, a child group has access to all access levels that the parent group has. So a child group need not be assigned access to levels that its parent group already has. The Viewing Access Levels, User interface, is as shown in diagram 15. Diagram 15 User Notes User notes are pieces of information created by the Joomla system Admin which can be assigned to registered users of the Joomla website. These notes can contain for example comments about Offending or Difficult users or identify really Helpful users and so on. Click User Notes to access the User Notes, User interface, which is then displayed in the Browser as shown in diagram

12 User Notes - User Interface Diagram 16 If there exists any User Notes created and saved to Joomla they will be displayed in the right hand side of this user interface as shown in diagram 16. If required one can also Search for a User Note or User ID which will then display any User Note attached to that User ID. Click New, located in the top left hand corner to create a New User Note. The User interface as shown in diagram 17 will be displayed in the Browser. Diagram 17 After creating the User Note do not forget to Click Save & Close to save the note to Joomla s database tables. 12

13 Mass Mail Users The Mass Mail User interface allows anyone from the Joomla Super Administrator User group to messages to registered users of the Joomla website. Users to whom s have to be dispatched can be selected based on the groups they belong to. To access the Mass Mail user interface locate Users in the Top Menu of the Joomla Admin interface. Click Users. From the drop down menu select Mass Mail Users as shown in diagram 18. Diagram 18 On Click to Mass Mail Users the Mass Mail, User interface, will be displayed in the Browser as shown in diagram 19. Diagram 19 13