Joomla 1.6 Latest News

With the eminent release of Joomla 1.6 Web Design Studio have been testing out the new version. We have to say we are really looking forward to using the new version of Joomla for our clients.

Some of the features we have been trialing is the ACL (account control list) and the category section which will now enable you to to create unlimited categories and sub categories within those categories.

The ACL feature is a massive step forward for Joomla users and developers. The ACL will allow you to create new groups, new access levels and restrict what a particular user group or individual member can and can not view on your site.

So lets say for example we have a user/member called Peter and we wanted Peter to have access to the site, but one specific menu link that is only meant for him. This menu link will only appear to Peter when he logs on.

So what have we done to get Peter a menu link and a section/article/page/category all of his own?

1. Create a user group called Peter
2. Create a user access level called Peter
3. Create a Category called Peter
4. Add articles etc to Peters category
5. Now assign the Group Peter to the access level of Peter
6. Assign the Category Peter to the Group Peter.
7. Assign Peter to the access group Peter
8. Create a menu link called peter to Peter Category

Now when Peter logs in he becomes part of Peters Group and can view anything assigned to Peters group.

This is one way of doing it, and it works flawlessly. Over the coming weeks we will be working on Joomla 1.6 and getting to grips with all the new features.

We will not be using Joomla 1.6 for development until we have thoroughly tested it out and are confident that the clients site will function 100%, this will be around August to September 2010.

Our Joomla training cources will also switch from 1.5 to 1.6 at around the same time.