Learn how to restrist or allow users to content based on access levels and user roles.

1. Basic Security with Access
Levels and Roles

2. Overview
Objective
Learn how to use access levels and user levels to restrict
or allow access of content to a user..
Requirements
 Installed version of ProdigyView with database
 Understanding of how to create a user
 Understanding of how to create user roles
Estimated Time
12 Minutes
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3. Follow Along With Code
Example
1. Download a copy of the example code at
www.prodigyview.com/source.
2. Install the system in an environment you feel
comfortable testing in.
3. Proceed to examples/security/Roles_Access.php

4. Roles and Access Levels
ProdigyView implements a dual verification for checking if a user
has the required security clearance to access an area.
Access Level
Access levels is the least complicated way of verifying if a user has
the required permission. Access levels are numbers and if a user is
below a certain number, access is denied.
Roles
Roles are a little more complicated but create a more robust
verification. A user can have multiple roles and anyone of those
roles can allow access to an area.
Also remember access level and roles can be combined.
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5. Creating A Role
One major difference between access levels and roles is
access level do not have to be created but only assigned to
a user. Roles on the other hand have to be created. Let’s
take a moment to create a role or two.
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6. Users with Permissions
Ok great, we have our user roles. Now let’s create a user
with an access level and a role. They are both easily
defines in the arguments that are used to create a user.
Lets gives them an access level of 2 and the role of
‘Administrator’.
1. Assign the user an access level 2. Assign the user a role
3. Create the user

7. Checking Access Level
So in our example we created a user with the access level of 2.
Access level is numeric verification where the number assigned
to the user must be greater an or equal too the number we are
checking against. Let’s put that to the test.
1. The id of the user 2. The numeric level to check against
3. Check with method checkUserAccessLevel
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8. And the results are...
And looks like the results hold true. I want to take a moment to explain
something for viewers who might not know the ? : syntax we will be
using. Whenever you come across an expression like:
$value = (exp1) ? exp2 : exp3;
This actually means if the value from expression 1 is true, the display
contents from expression 2. If value from expression 1 is false, then
display expression 3. We will use this a lot.

9. User Role Checks
Now we are going to the roles by using the
PVSecurity::checkUserRole() method. The roles passed can
either be the id of the role or the actual name of the role. And
when roles are passed through the method they can either be
as a single value or in an array. Let’s take a look.
1. Id of the user 2. Name of the role
3. Add the roles in an array to check

10. Role Check Results
The role check results should look like the above.
According to the role we added in our
example, ‘Administrator’ those results are correct.
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11. Adding a role and checking
For a final test, let’s add a role to the user and then check.
With the code below, the user will now have access too
super administrator roles.
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12. Challenge!
This optional challenge is designed to help you better
understand ProdigyView.
Now that you have an understanding of Access Levels
and User Roles, write a script that will block a user unless
both the access level and user role requirements are met.
Also find a way to update the user’s access level.
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13. Summary
1. Check the user’s access level by using the method:
PVSecurity::checkUserAccessLevel()
2. Check the user’s role by using the method:
PVSecurity::checkUserRole()
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14. API Reference
For a better understanding of access levels and role access
in ProdigyView, visit the api by clicking on the link below.
PVSecurity
More Tutorials
For more tutorials, please visit:
http://www.prodigyview.com/tutorials
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