Cowebmasters

Selective site content access: doomby V4

On 03/03/2011

In New and updated features

People choose to make a website for all kinds of reasons, so website content comes in all shapes and forms. But not everything you publish on your website is destined for viewing by just anyone; that online photo album, for example, might contain some images that you’d really rather not put on public display. And if you’re looking to make a company website, you might prefer not to share details of your next business meeting with people outside the office.

As doombyPLUS users already know, it’s simple to restrict access to site pages or add-ons, like the Diary, Photo album, Blog or Forum, ensuring only site members can access them, or visitors who have the right password. Selective content access is one of our most-used doombyPLUS features, so we’ve spent time ensuring it’s even better in our next version.

Introducing Groups

 

As successful webmasters already know, securing site content access sometimes requires a deft hand and a selective approach. There are times when it’s practical to give all your authenticated site members open access to selected content, and then there are times when’s it’s necessary to be selective about which members get access to which content.

 

For example, you might only want to communicate details of the latest products in your free online store to a handful of favorite customers. Or maybe you’d like to ensure your friends can view your holiday photo album, but would prefer it if your parents didn’t.

Creating Groups

Create a user group

The next version of doomby will allow you to manage members using groups. Groups let you to choose just which of your site members should get to do what on your website. Creating a group in the new site manager is easy – just give it a name, and save.




 

Adding site members to Groups

 

To add a member to a group, simply edit the member’s details – check the appropriate groups, and save.

Controlling access to content with Groups

Once a group has been created, it can be used to control access to site content. Simply open the content with its editor (whether it be a web page, blog post, album, forum category, store product or diary event), select the group to which you want to give access from the page options.

By applying an access group to an element of your site content, regular site visitors will not longer be able to access the page unless they’re registered as members of your site, and belong to the content access group.

 

Securing site content access in the new version of doomby’s great free website builder tools really is that easy. Groups are simple to set up, and using them to control access to site content takes just a few seconds. And you can start using them to fine-tune access to your site content once the new version of doomby’s free website maker is up and online, in just a few short months from now. We'll be presenting another Group feature - access controls for content editing - in a future post: stay tuned for more to come.